Publishers' book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for September decreased by 12.1 percent over the previous year to $1.1 billion. Year-to-date sales increased by 3.8 percent.
E-book sales continued to increase significantly, up 158.1 percent over September 2009 ($39.9 million), while year-to-date sales were up 188.4 percent. Sales of downloaded audio books also increased over last year by 73.7 percent, with sales of $7.7 million in September; the category also was up 34.1 percent year-to-date. Physical audio-book sales, however, decreased 42.6 percent in September with sales totaling $11.6 million. Year-to-date sales were down 12.6 percent.
Other categories posting sales increases for September over the previous year included the following:
- University press paperback sales increased 10.6 percent for the month, with sales totaling $6.3 million. Year-to-date sales also were up by 5.5 percent.
- Sales of professional books rose 0.7 percent to $58.8 million and were up by 9.6 percent for the year-to-date.
- Higher-education publishing sales increased 2.2 percent for the month ($416.7 million) and increased 10.6 percent for the year.
More categories, however, experienced declining sales in September over last year. Those categories included the following:
- The children's book category decreased over last September, with hardcover children's/young-adult sales down 17.4 percent for the month ($76.6 million); year-to-date sales were down by 15.1 percent.
- Children's/young-adult paperback sales decreased 1.6 percent in September with sales totaling $53.3 million; sales fell 6.8 percent for the year-to-date.
- The adult hardcover category was down 40.4 percent in September with sales of $180.3 million, and sales for the year-to-date were down by 8.1 percent.
- Adult paperback sales decreased 15.8 percent for the month ($111.5 million) but increased by 1.5 percent for the year so far.
- Adult mass-market sales decreased 23.6 percent for September with sales totaling $67.8 million; sales were down by 15.7 percent year-to-date.
- Religious book sales were down 2.5 percent for the month with sales totaling $66.1 million; sales were down by 0.3 percent for the year-to-date.
- Sales of university press hardcover books decreased 4.8 percent in September to $5.1 million; sales increased by 4.1 percent year-to-date.
- The K-12 elementary/high school category posted total net sales of $351.5 million, down 10 percent over the prior year. Year-to-date sales of $3.2 billion, a 5.7 percent increase over 2009.
- Companies:
- Association of American Publishers