The AAP reported StatShot monthly sales statistics for December, along with cumulative totals for all 2012. December provided a weak finish to an otherwise strong year, documenting the disappointing holiday season that no one wanted to talk about on the record at the time. Total trade sales of $514 million were down $77 million, or 13 percent, from the same month a year ago (when the trade showed its first post-Borders lift). Adult ebook sales of $97.8 million were up only 19% compared to December 2011, with children’s ebook sales actually declining 21 percent in December, at $10.5 million, reflecting […]
Statistics
AAP October Trade Sales Flat, As eBooks Fall to 17 Percent of Revenues
The AAP released their monthly StatShot report for October 2012, showing flat trade sales overall and a continued falloff in the growth of ebooks–which comprised just 17 percent of all trade revenues in the month. Adult trade sales of $504.6 million were up a slim $3.7 million from a year ago. Adult hardcovers declined 6.4 percent, at $224.6 million, while trade paperbacks were virtually flat at $116.8 million. As in September, eBooks comprised the third-largest segment for adult books, at $103.7 million –a 40.7 percent increase over $73.7 million a year ago. With the seasonal decline, adult ebooks are back […]
Briefs: Safari Online Acquires Pub Factory; Foyles Holiday Sales Drop
Safari Books Online acquired PubFactory, which builds systems for delivering books, videos, reference, and other content on the web, from RDW Group’s iFactory division for an undisclosed sum. The deal closed on Decmeber 31, 2012. Under the agreement, Safari Books Online now owns the proprietary software developed by iFactory, which is used to develop scalable and semantically rich electronic libraries for publishers. “For some time now, we’ve admired the PubFactory team’s expertise in building powerful web-based systems for delivering mixed content like books, videos, journals, and reference databases. Their platform will be a robust complement to our growing stable of […]
August AAP Sales Rise, As eBooks Continue to Moderate
The AAP reported sales for August from the nearly 1,200 publishers they track, with overall trade sales of $562.1 million up 10.4 percent versus $509.1 million. This time both adult and children’s sales rose, and both sectors had higher shipments as well. In adult books, the growth came from trade paperbacks (e.g. 50 Shades) and ebooks. Consistent with Barnes & Noble’s recent report and the trend we have been underscoring all year, however, ebook sales continue to grow at a far slower rate: Adult ebook sales of $118.6 million were up 34 percent from a year ago, and children’s ebooks […]
Trends Continue In Busy Pre-Frankfurt Week
As promised last week, we have looked again at deal reports from October 1 through October 7 (so it does not include the new wave of Monday announcements), to see if last-minute activity would change the analysis of this season’s deal patterns leading up to the Frankfurt Book Fair. The big trend observed in September–significantly higher fiction sales, driven by higher than ever sales of romance and women’s fiction–continued apace. (Fiction sales were once again significantly higher in this period than ever observed before.) Children’s sales finally rose, after registering unusually low in September, and the total number of US […]
Trade Sales Rise In May; eBooks Hit New Record
The AAP monthly sales reports remain relentlessly cheerful, with May statistics released Wednesday morning showing strong trade sales and another burst in ebook sales. Total trade sales from the reporting publishers were $535 million, up 17 percent from $457 million a year ago. In contrast to some previous months, the gains came from higher true shipments/sales in multiple categories, rather than just fewer returns. eBook sales, which had been growing at a slower pace since last fall, hit a new record for the month, at $133.7 million overall–well ahead of the previous high mark of $121.1 million in January. (That […]