We’ve already had complete views on the first six months of 2016 from the publishers and retailers that report publicly, and now, almost six months after the fact, the AAP has issued their publisher-reported data for the month of March and the first quarter of the year. Per our detailed analysis in July, we are focusing on the quarterly reports over the monthly installments, and providing a lens that looks to hold up over time as useful. Gross print sales were up very slightly, at $1.4085 billion (just $2 million higher than the first quarter of 2015), as Nielsen Bookscan separately […]
Industry Statistics
People, Awards, Etc.
Katie Grinch has been promoted to associate director of publicity at Putnam. Morgan Amer will join Chronicle as trade sales coordinator on September 13. She was an assistant manager at Ryland Peters & Small. Author of the Llama Llama children’s books Anna Dewdney, 50, died on Saturday of brain cancer. Forthcoming Scribner will issue a collection of what they call “the last remaining unpublished and uncollected short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald” in April 2017, edited by Anne Margaret Daniel, titled I’D DIE FOR YOU. The promo copy notes that “some of these stories were submitted to major magazines and accepted for publication during Fitzgerald’s lifetime but […]
AAP February Report Shows Consistent Digital Drop, Higher Returns
The AAP reported their monthly StatShot statistics for February. Per our long look at the reliability of these monthly tabulations, our monthly focus will be on the digital data. Adult ebook sales of $88 million were down $16.3 million compared to a year ago; children’s ebook sales were $8.1 million, down from $13 million a year ago; and digital audio was $21.5 million, growing $6.6 million from 2015. Total digital sales registered $117.6 million — compared to $147.1 million a year ago. (That’s comparable to January, when total digital sales were $116.1 million — compared to $143.9 million in 2015.) As for the […]
Briefs: Johnson’s Book on Shakespeare Delayed or Cancelled, and More
Newly appointed UK foreign secretary and Brexit campaign leader Boris Johnson‘s forthcoming book on Shakespeare, scheduled for release on November 15 from Hodder & Stoughton and Riverhead, will not be published this year, and may not be published at all according to the Daily Mail. They report Johnson “is believed to be having to pay back a £500,000 advance” to Hodder & Stoughton having “conceded he doesn’t have the time” to write the book. A spokesperson for Riverhead put it differently, writing: “In light of his new responsibilities in the UK, Boris Johnson will be unable to complete his book […]
A Magical Mystical Journey Statistical: Do AAP Monthlies Tell Us Anything Useful?
When reporting on the recent AAP trade publishing statistics for January, we raised the question of why AAP data was so out of alignment with Nielsen Bookscan data for the same month. The AAP report looked like terrible news. Even leaving aside declining ebook sales and looking at “print only” AAP data, they showed “net” trade sales (in dollars) as down 14.9 percent for the month. New print book shipments on their own, on a “gross” basis without counting returns, declined 9.4 percent. Meanwhile, Nielsen Bookscan painted a very different picture of January in the consumer marketplace, showing print sell-through […]
It Was A Poor January for AAP Publishers
The AAP released a belated StatShot report with sales statistics from their roughly 1,200 reporting publishers for the month of January 2016. (Yes, the AAP is about two months behind their normal schedule for these monthly reports.) Their data shows a weak start to 2016 for the reporting group, with overall trade sales of $450.6 million down almost $79 million, or 14.9 percent, from $529.5 million a year ago. Adult sales were down more in dollars, at $338.9 million, down 50.3 million, while children’s and young adult sales were down more in percentage terms, at $111.7 million down 13.6 percent […]