In a set of very fast-moving overview slides, Nielsen Book global managing director Jonathan Stolper said the company is estimating that ebook unit sales for 2016 for the twenty plus companies that provide their data will show a decline of 16 percent, with unit sales of 177 million. (So far PubTrack Digital has compiled and published data only through September 2016.) That estimate for 2016 compares to 210 million units in 2015, 234 million units in 2014, 242 million units in 2013, closer to the 165 million units recorded in 2012. eBook volumes have fallen enough that hardcovers regained their place as […]
Industry Statistics
Print Sales Were Up Again In 2016
Nielsen Bookscan issued final sales data for 2016, counting print book (and physical audio) sales of 674 million units through the outlets they track — compared to approximately 653 million units sold in 2015. But that comparison comes with an asterisk, since the service added tracking for Family Christian’s 259 stores at the beginning of 2016, without backfilling any historical data. On a gross level, the unit sales count was higher by 20.5 million, or 3.1 percent, but that includes the unspecified millions of units added by Family Christian. As noted last week, what is clear is that all of the increases and […]
Holiday Print Sales Finish Reasonably Well
A good final holiday week of print book sales as measured by Nielsen Bookscan lifted the cumulative total for the five-week period into positive territory (though all of this year’s comparison numbers come with asterisks since 2015 was an unusual 53-week year in Nielsen’s tracking). For the five weeks starting with Thanksgiving, print unit sales totaled 119.6 million units, up 1.7 million units from a year ago, or a 1.5 percent gain. About half of those sales happen in the final two weeks of the holiday period, with print sales adding 2.2 million units in that window this time around, up 3.8 percent, at […]
In July, AAP Trade Dollars Shifted from Adult Hardcovers to New Potter
Still running behind, the AAP issued their monthly StatShot statistics for July 2016 — aka the month when Harry Potter and the Cursed Child shipped into stores and went on sale (on July 31). We’ve known since three months ago from Scholastic’s public reporting that the new Potter release helped lift the company’s US trade division sales by just under $70 million, and indeed the July AAP stats show children’s hardcover sales for the month rising by $52.9 million compared to a year ago. But the AAP breakdowns also show that the Potter gain was more of a movement of inventory dollars […]
More Than Ever, Trade Looks for Last-Minute Holiday Boost
The print book trade still has not shaken off the post-election drag on sales, even with holiday sales well underway, Nielsen Bookscan statistics show. As we noted a month ago, much of the year’s performance will depend on how the final holiday book sales push fares. Despite Barnes & Noble’s quite public complaints, overall the lead up to the election did not appear to dampen book sales, though quarter by quarter 2016’s gains on 2015 have been ebbing throughout the year. The real “election effect” came the week of the presidential election itself and the following week, and print sales […]
Riggio Signals Another Poor Quarter, But What Comes After the Election is Critical
Barnes & Noble executive chairman Len Riggio appears to have indicated that the bookseller’s fiscal second quarter results through the end of October, due to be announced on November 22, will disappoint investors again: He tells Crain’s, “The preoccupation with the election was hurting sales,” adding, “we expect a bounce-back.” Riggio advises, “You won’t turn a switch and see the whole retail business coming back, but it hit a bottom and it’s starting to turn up.” Bear in mind that the bar for the chain for the second quarter is already set pretty low, since a year ago BN reported disappointing sales […]