The Association of American Publishers released data from participating StatShot publishers, reporting trade sales of $687 million in July, a 21.5 percent increase from 2023. That’s close to the best July ever, recorded in 2021, when sales were $705 million. And the strong AAP reports show publisher dollars running well ahead of unit sales, which were nearly flat for the first six months of the year as measured by Circana Bookscan, down 0.5%. Adult books sold $505 million, up 24 percent, led by paperbacks, which sold $177 million (compared to $150 million last year) and made up 35 percent of […]
Industry Statistics
Adult Fiction Gained 8 Percent in June
The AAP released StatShot data from participating publishers for June 2024, reporting trade sales of $617.9 million, up 2.7 percent from 2023. Adult books sold $464.6 million, up 3.8 percent, comprising $266 million in fiction (an 8.2 percent gain) and $198.7 million in nonfiction (down 1.5 percent). Paperbacks were the top selling format, comprising 36.8 percent of the total (up 3 percent to $168.1 million), with hardcovers making up 31.4 percent or just below flat at $127.2 million. Digital formats continued their growth: ebooks were up 8.5 percent to $73.2 million (12.5 percent of total) and audio rose 9.3 percent […]
AAP Annual Stats Show Trade Unit Sales Falling 8.1 Percent in 2023, Balanced By Price Increases
The AAP released their StatShot Annual Report for 2023, now compiled by the same firm that took over the organization’s monthly statistical reports for 2024. In line with that change, the annual data comes from a smaller pool of reporting publishers — 1,275 companies — that looks to align closely with the entities that report monthly data. (Previously, the pool of companies reporting annually was close to 2,300 publishers. The AAP indicates that distributors reported on behalf of fewer distribution clients this year.) As a result of the change in data compiler, the new report carries refreshed data for the past […]
Adult and Children’s Fiction Grows in May
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reported StatShot numbers for May, with trade sales of $716.8 million in adult and children’s books, up 16 percent over 2023. Adult sales grew 18 percent to $526.0 million, with $297.2 million in fiction (up 25 percent) and $228.8 in nonfiction (up 9 percent). Hardcovers were up 22 percent to $178.4 million (making up 34 percent of total sales in the category), paperbacks were up 20 percent to $184.3 million (35 percent of sales), ebooks sold $71.9 million (14 percent of sales), and digital audio sold $69.2 million (13 percent of sales). Children’s sales […]
Here’s A First: Some Actual Amazon Book Sales Data
Business Insider obtained a rare document: A 25 page confidential report, “used for a weekly business review at Amazon,” that provides data about their book retailing business for the first 10 months of 2022. It’s not the complete data of our dreams, and the reporter has not posted the full document so there are many nuances and gray areas that still leave us with more questions than definitive conclusions. (Per their historical policy of not providing data like this on an official basis, the company declined to provide any clarity on the data, or validate the article in any way.) […]
Adult Book Sales Grew 25% In April
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) released StatShot sales data for April, reporting $657 million in adult and children’s sales for the month, an increase of 19 percent over last year, when sales reached only $551.5 million — and still strong compared to $629 million in 2022. The strong AAP data comes as Circana Bookscan continues to show renewed strength among consumers, with five consecutive weeks of print sales running ahead of the same period a year ago. For weekly sales ending June 8, Bookscan showed print sales up 3 percent over the same week in 2023. Adult books sold […]