MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
July 12 – July 18, 2010 Edition Book Sales Rise for May and Year-to-Date
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/ July 14, 2010 Publishers book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of May increased by 9.8% percent on the prior year to $715.3 million and were up by 11.6 percent for the year-to-date.
The Adult Hardcover category was up 43.2% percent in May with sales of $138.5 million; sales for the year-to-date are up by 21.7% percent. Adult Paperback sales decreased 2.2 percent for the month ($110.7 million) but increased by 15.7 percent for the year so far. Adult Mass Market sales decreased 14.6 percent for May with sales totaling $54.6 million; sales were down by 7.3 percent year-to-date. Hardcover Childrens/YA sales declined 1.3 percent for the month with sales of $58.1 million in May; year-to-date sales are down by 23.3 percent. Childrens/YA Paperback sales decreased 8.1 percent in May with sales totaling $39.9 million; sales fell 6.6 percent for the year-to-date.
Physical Audio Book sales posted an increase of 5.1 percent in May with sales totaling $12.9 million; sales for the to-date are up by 13.1 percent. Downloaded Audio Books increased 72.9 percent on last year, with sales of $5.9 million this May; the category was also up 33.3 percent year-to-date. E-book sales grew 162.8 percent for the month ($29.3 million), year-to-date eBook sales are up 207.4 percent. Year-To-Date E-book sales of the 13 submitting publishers to that category currently comprise 8.48 % of the total trade books market, compared to 2.89% percent for the same period last year.
Religious Books were up 8.2 percent for the month with sales totaling $40.1 million; sales were up by 2.6 percent year to date.
Sales of University Press Hardcover books increased 13.9 percent in May to $4.1 million; sales increased by 1 percent year to date. University Press Paperback posted a gain of 4.9 percent for the month with sales totaling $2.8 million; sales were down 0.1 percent for the year. Sales of Professional books rose by 6.7 percent to $56.9 million and were up by 13.2 percent for the year-to-date.
Higher Education publishing sales increased 6.3 percent for the month ($160.0 million) and increased 21.4 percent for the year. Finally, the K-12 El-Hi (elementary/high school) category posted total net sales of $267.3 million, down 0.4 percent on the prior year, in May, and year-to-date sales of $756.6 million, a 5.3 percent increase on 2009.
About AAP
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAPs 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 Associations highest priorities.
