According to BookStats Volume 4, the industry remained flat in 2013 as compared to 2012, with $27 billion in net revenue. However, e-book and audio book downloads hit an all-time high. New 2013 figures show some notable trends:

  • 2013 defied conventional wisdom predicting a significant decline in revenue and units in the wake of 2011 and 2012’s blockbusters, including The Hunger Games and 50 Shades of Grey. While specific extraordinary titles may impact sales from year to year, the industry shows consistent health, driven by the depth and range of publishers’ titles.
  • K-12 revenue is up compared to 2012 and Higher Ed shows incremental revenue gains.
  • Adult Non-Fiction was the fastest-growing Trade category, surpassing Juvenile (Children’s/Young Adult), the growth leader for the past two years. 
  • In formats, ebooks hit record volume numbers though revenue was flat. Audio downloads hit all-time highs in both revenue and units. 
  • In sales channels, publishers’ net revenue from sales of digital and print content via online retail is now ahead of revenue from brick-and-mortar retail.

BookStats provides actionable information for better investing, budgeting and strategy. Covering 2008-2013, BookStats provides the only comprehensive view of the size and shape of the US book publishing industry and its ongoing transformation as measured by publisher net unit and dollar sales. It allows publishers to assess the effectiveness of their own programs relative to the entire industry. For investors and others, it provides six years of trend information to better understand ongoing changes in the publishing business. 

This edition includes analytics for Trade, K-12, Higher Education and Professional/Scholarly publishing. It also has data specific to subject categories, formats, and sales channels and is the only comprehensive source of ebook sales information.

BookStats Volume 4 Online Data Dashboard releases today; available for purchase here . PDF Reports Available for Preorder for August Delivery

The BookStats Online Data Dashboard is available for purchase in different configurations depending on your  needs.  Two PDF reports featuring analysis of the data, a 15-page executive summary and a 70-page annual report, are available for pre-order and will be published in August.