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Dec 6 – Dec 12, 2010 Edition AAP Reports October Book Sales
New York, NY, December 8, 2010 Publishers book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of October decreased by 0.9 percent on the prior year to $721 million and were up by 3.4 percent for the year to date.
In the childrens book category, Hardcover Childrens/YA sales showed an increase of 13.9 percent over October of last year with sales of $100 million; however, year-to-date sales decreased by 11.1 percent. Childrens/YA Paperback sales are down by 3.3 percent in October with sales totaling $50.9 million; sales fell 6.5 percent for the year to date.
The Adult Hardcover category was down 6.5 percent in October with sales of $242.9 million, and sales for the year-to-date down by 7.7 percent. Adult Paperback sales decreased 11.8 percent for the month ($115 million) revealing no change for the year to date. Adult Mass Market sales decreased 1.1 percent for October with sales totaling $60.2 million; sales were down by 14.3 percent year to date.
E Book Sales Hold Steady At Nearly 9% of Trade Book Sales
E-book sales from participating reporting publishers continue to grow, with a 112.4 percent increase over October 2009 ($40.7 million) compared to $19.2 million in October 2009. January-October 2010 year-to-date E-book sales are up 171.3 percent reaching $345.3 million compared to 127.3 million from January-October 2009.
Downloaded Audio Books also saw an increase of 20.7 percent over last year, with sales of $6.3 million this October; and the category was also up 38.6 percent year-to-date. Physical Audio Book sales decreased 20.5 percent in October with sales totaling $14.7 million; sales for the year to date are down 13.5 percent.
Religious Books were down 4.1 percent for the month with sales totaling $57.5 million, and sales were down by 0.7 percent for the year to date.
Sales of University Press Hardcover books decreased 15.6 percent in October to $4.4 million; sales increased by 1.9 percent year-to-date. University Press Paperback sales decreased 13.2 percent for the month with sales totaling $3.0 million, with sales up 4.1 percent for the year. Sales of Professional books decreased 6.1 percent to $44.8 million and were up by 8.4 percent for the year to date.
Higher Education publishing sales increased 12.0 percent for the month ($-22.5 million) and increased 10.6 percent for the year. Finally, the K-12 El-Hi (elementary/high school) category posted total net sales of $154.3 million in October, down 10.8 percent over the prior year, and year-to-date sales of $3.3 billion, a 3.8 percent increase over 2009.
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAPs members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies.
NOTE: All sales figures cited in this release are domestic net sales
