AAP August 2024 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 8.5% for Month of August, and Up 7.8% Year-To-Date

Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 13.4% for Month of August, and Up 8.1% Year-to-Date

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for August 2024 reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Religious Presses, Higher Education Course Materials, and Professional Publishing.

Total revenues across all categories for August 2024 were up 8.5% as compared to August 2023, coming in at $1.7 billion. Year-to-date revenues were up 7.8%, at $9.3 billion for the first eight months of the year.

Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues

August

Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 13.4% in August, coming in at $848.2 million.

In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of August, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 17.1%, coming in at $297.4 million; Paperbacks were up 6.7%, with $302.0 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 35.8% to $8.6 million; and Special Bindings were up 3.6%, with $21.5 million in revenue.

eBook revenues were up 6.1% for the month as compared to August 2023 for a total of $90.4 million, and the Digital Audio format was up 38.8% for August, coming in at $93.9 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 54.8% coming in at $600 thousand.

Year-to-date

Year-to-date Trade revenues were up 8.1% at $5.9 billion for the first eight months of the year. Hardback revenues were up 8.0%, coming in at $2.0 billion; Paperbacks were up 5.9%, with $2.1 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 18.1% to $81.9 million; and Special Bindings were up 6.0%, with $133.0 million in revenue.

eBook revenues were up 3.5% as compared to the first eight months of 2023 for a total of $687.4 million. The Digital Audio format was up 26.8%, coming in at $707.1 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 29.2% coming in at $5.8 million.

Religious Presses

August 2024

Religious press revenues were up 47.4% in August, coming in at $85.3 million. Hardback revenues were up 85.8% to $55.0 million in revenue, while Paperback revenues were up 6.1% to $15.7 million. eBook revenues were down 3.6% coming in at $4.1 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 25.0% at $4.4 million.

Year-to-date

On a year-to-date basis, religious press revenues were up 21.2%, at $563.7 million. Hardback revenues were up 30.0% at $339.7 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 10.1% to $110.8 million, eBook revenues were up 2.5% at $35.8 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 17.6% at $35.1 million.

Higher Education

During August 2024 revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were $479.9 million, down 1.2% compared with August 2023. Year-to-date Higher Education Course Materials revenues were $1.7 billion, up 4.9% compared to the first eight months of 2023.

Professional Books

Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were down 0.4% during the month, coming in at $40.6 million. Year-to-date Professional Books revenues were $308.0 million, down 0.9% as compared to the first eight months of 2023.

AAP’s StatShot

AAP StatShot reports the monthly and yearly net revenue of publishing houses from U.S. sales to bookstores, wholesalers, direct to consumer, online retailers, and other channels. StatShot draws revenue data from approximately 1,280 publishers, although participation may fluctuate slightly from report to report.

StatShot reports are designed to give ongoing revenue snapshots across publishing sectors using the best data currently available. The reports reflect participants’ most recent reported revenue for current and previous periods, enabling readers to compare revenue on both a month-to-month and year-to-year basis within a given StatShot report.

Monthly and yearly StatShot reports may not align completely across reporting periods, because: a) The pool of StatShot participants may fluctuate from report to report; and b) Like any business, it is common accounting practice for publishing houses to update and restate their previously reported revenue data. If, for example, a business learns that its revenues were greater in a given year than its reports first indicated, it will restate the revenues in subsequent reports to AAP, permitting AAP in turn to report information that is more accurate than previously reported.

From AAP press releasem October 29, 2024