The AAP released sales statistics for December and full-year 2016 (and yes, they are almost two months behind last year’s reporting schedule). The year finished with a decline in December, with low trade sales as well as higher revised sales data for December 2015. Sales registered $546 million — compared to a revised total of $602 million for December 2015 (which was originally reported a year ago at $585.5 million or just below flat compared to 2014). That put the final month of the year down 9.3 percent. Adult books saw declines in trade paperbacks, mass market, and ebooks; as […]
Industry Statistics
Real eBook Sales Data Available
Since 2010 PublishersMarketplace.com has provided a premium service to literary agents, scouts, authors and other qualified independent publishing professionals for accessing Bookscan‘s comprehensive database of actual, weekly print book sales data from around the country — built right in to the familiar, easy-to-use PM website and interface. Now we are pleased to add an upgrade option to the Bookscan PM service, adding real ebook sales data on a monthly basis from the PubTrack Digital Service, at a very reasonable additional fee — and once again, with the simple look-and-feel of PM. PubTrack Digital presents actual, complete US ebook unit sales, as […]
November Hardcover Shipments Made Up for Part of October’s Decline
The AAP released their monthly StatShot statistics for November 2016, which provide solid evidence of the disconnect between topline AAP data and actual marketplace results that we have been talking about for a while now. Looked at in isolation the headline news sounds positive: Net trade sales as measured by the AAP rose 8.6 percent in November, up $63.3 million, to $732.1 million for the month. Yet we know from Bookscan (and Barnes & Noble) that actual consumer sales of books fell sharply in the first couple of weeks around the election, and for the four sales weeks ending November 27, […]
Adult Hardcover Shipments Fell In October Ahead of the Election
After rebounding to nearly flat at the end of the third quarter, trade sales as measured by the reporting AAP publishers fell $67.5 million in October, a decline of a 8.8 percent, at $701 million. The primary difference was significantly lower adult hardcover shipments — reflecting a new release schedule that pushed big fall books away from the election. Gross shipments to accounts of adult hardcovers were $71 million lower than a year ago, at $243 million. As we had predicted in the past, however, ebook sales finally look to have found their new level, following the completion of the […]
Major Fiction Deals Rebound In Otherwise Modest Pre-Fair Activity
In line with our early assessment of dealmaking heading into this year’s London Book Fair, now officially underway, even with a busy few days of final reports this year’s activity stands at moderate. The biggest (or “major”) deals came in just ahead of last year and still well below the most recent high-water mark in 2014, with fiction having its second-strongest showing in the last 8 years (and in turn nonfiction at its weakest point in that period — except for the Obamas’ record-setting deal). Overall six-figure deals were more balanced across the breakouts: Looking just at the closely-watched fiction […]
Moderate Dealmaking Ahead of the London Book Fair
It’s an unusual dealmaking climate leading into this year’s London Book Fair, which officially begins next Tuesday, for a variety of reasons. Shifting the gathering back a month to mid-March for the first time in years has various effects. The submissions process appears to have made a late adjustment to the early show and, as we have already noted, with big publishers just coming out of sales conference, new announcements for big fall titles (in the last week alone including Mandela, Allende, Gordon Brown, Dan Rather, the Bush sisters, Jennifer Egan, Tina Brown, and John Le Carre) are getting as much […]