MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
May 24- May 31, 2007 Edition
AAP Reports Sales
Of Books Totalled
$ 24.2 Billion in 2006
NEW YORK, NY/05/22/07–The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has today released its annual estimate of total book sales in the United States. The report, which uses data from the Bureau of the Census as well as sales data from eighty-one publishers inclusive of all major book publishing media market holders, estimates that U.S. publishers had net sales of $24.2 billion in 2006.
Trade sales of adult and juvenile books grew 2.9 percent to $8.3 billion, a compound growth rate of 3.7 percent per year since 2002. The strongest growth in this category came from adult paperback books whose sales rose 8.5 percent on last year to a total of $2.3 billion. Adult hardbound books also had a strong year growing by 4.1 percent to $2.6 billion.
Sales of titles for children and young adults (juvenile) fell by 2.0 percent and 0.6 percent for hardbound and paperbound respectively. Over the longer term juvenile books are still performing well, with compound annual growth rates of 5.9 percent for hardbound and 1.6 percent for paperbound.
After a bump in 2005, sales of audio books fell 11.7 percent to $182 million, however, compound growth since 2002 still looks healthy at 6.2 percent a year. Religious books had a difficult year with a 10.2 percent fall in sales in 2006. Compound growth is still strong at 7.5 percent per year. E-books saw a 24.1% increase in 2006 at $54 million, with a compound growth rate of 65% since 2002. Religious and E-Book data were compiled in cooperation with data received from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association and International Digital Publishing Forum respectively.
Mass market paperbacks saw growth of 4.6 percent in 2006 reaching $1.1 billion. Sales through book clubs fell by 3.0 percent to $640 million.
Educational titles had a mixed year; sales of K-12 products (El-Hi) fell by 5.8 percent to $6.2 billion. Higher Education titles did better with sales of $3.5 billion, up 2.8 percent on 2005.
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the US book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 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. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and electronic products and services. The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities.
