The AAP released a second set of annual statistics for 2014, this time a new version of the modeled “guesstimates” that they had produced jointly with the BISG (Book Industry Study Group) for a few years under the name BookStats. Now they are calling it StatShot Annual — not be confused with the monthly AAP StatShot reports, which are actual data only, and were presented in compilation form for 2014 in early March. Most interesting to us in the new statistics is a small project tracking revenues from digital subscription services, for both ebooks and digital audiobooks. Approximately 20 publishers […]
Industry Statistics
Both Adult and Children’s Sales Fell In February
After a positive report for January driven by lower holiday returns, AAP-reported trade sales for February fell over 14 percent, down to $392 million — a $65 million decline compared to February 2014. Adult sales of $305 million were down 8.3 percent (from $329 million) and children’s/YA sales fell further, down 22.5 percent to $87 million (a drop of $40 million). Adult trade paperback sales actually rose by $12 million (and they were the biggest gainer in January as well), but hardcover sales were off by $18.5 million. eBook sales fell again, down by over $21 million (or more than […]
New Insights on eBook Unit Sales from Nielsen
At Book Expo America last week, Nielsen svp global managing director Jonathan Stolper presented some data from across Nielsen’s tracking services, including — for the first time — ebook data from PubTrack Digital. Because of misunderstandings about how various industry data views are compiled, you may have encountered some confused or incorrect accounts of this new data elsewhere. PubTrack Digital reports actual unit ebook sales, in the same way that Bookscan reports actual unit print book sales. While Bookscan reports weekly — getting sales data direct from retailers — PubTrack Digital reports monthly, and gets sales on a delayed basis […]
AAP Reissues Corrected January Stats, As Adult Sales Drove 5 Percent Increase
After we flagged a significant restatement of historical ebook data in the AAP’s January StatShot report on Wednesday, the organization identified a significant data error in the trade reporting and on Monday they issued a new report reflecting very different results. (So erase those previous impressions from your radar.) Most significantly, overall trade of sales of $533 million for January 2015 were up 5 percent compared to a year ago (rather than flat), rising $25 million. In contrast to 2014, the gains all came from adult sales — due to lighter holiday returns, frankly, more than big increases in publisher […]
Trade Sales Stable In January As eBooks Drop to Lowest Point In Years
The AAP reported StatShot figures for January 2015, putting overall trade sales of $495.5 million flat compared to a year ago, with adult sales up a couple of million dollars and children’s/YA sales down a couple of million. In adult sales, trade paperbacks were the notable gainer, up $11.5 million to $122.7 million, while mass market paperbacks declined almost as much (down $9.2 million) and ebook sales were down $4.4 million as agency pricing returned. Digital audio, however, continued its advance, at $15.6 million up 37 percent from $11.4 million a year ago. Children’s books declined $2.2 million, or 1.7 percent, as print sales of […]
Statistics 101: Juvenile Book Sales Did Not “Plummet”
The internet is so full of groundless stories about book publishing these days that the most efficient approach is for us to ignore most of them. But PW posted a story Thursday, “Juvenile Book Sales Plummet,” that is simply wrong and should be cleared up before the meme gets set. The thrust of the piece was this: Juvenile print book sales “plunged in the week ended April 19, 2015, compared to the similar week in 2014. Unit sales in the juvenile nonfiction category fell 39% in the week and dropped 46% in fiction at outlets that report to BookScan.” But they simply misunderstand how to make reasonable year-over-year […]