MAIN NEWS HEADLINES

March 15-31, 2005 Edition

Publishing

Sales Surge

in January

NEW YORK, NY/03/10.2005—Publishing sales witnessed tremendous growth in the first month of the New Year yielding grains in all but three categories tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) in January. Adult and children’s hardcover categories gained significantly allowing for an overall 8.0 percent year to date growth figure for January.

Sales of adult hardcover books surged by 29.9 percent in January, with sales of $67.9 million. The adult paperback category gained 1.2 percent ($77.0 million). The adult mass market category gained an impressive 25.0 percent, with sales of $52.6 million in January.

The children’s and young adult hardcover category posted a tremendous 59.1 percent gain (31.3 million). The children’s and young adult paperback publishing sales witnessed a 31.2 percent gain with sales totaling $22.1 million.

Audio book sales ushered in the New Year with a 25.4 percent growth figure in January ($9.1 million). E-books sales also gained; that category is up by 69.9 percent ($100,000) for the year. Religious books gained a slighter 3.8 percent in January with sales totaling $25.5 million.

Sales for university press hardcover books witnessed a 14.5 percent decline in January ($9.7 million). Sales in the university press paperback category, however, grew by 3.6 percent in January (sales totaled $19.1 million). Sales in the professional and scholarly category lost a slight 0.1 percent in January, with sales of $45.9 million. Meanwhile, sales of ‘other’ types of books posted a gain of 24.4 percent for 2005 with sales of $2.0 million.

Higher education publishing sales dipped 1.8 percent in January ($207.9 million). Finally, the net El-hi (elementary/high school) basal and supplemental K-12 category grew 13.3 percent in January, with sales of $92.4 million, a solid start for 2005.

The Association of American Publishers is the principal trade association for the U.S. book publishing industry with over 300 members, comprising most of the major commercial book publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and medium-sized houses, non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies.