Finance

A strong rebound in sales in the K-12 instructional materials category and another solid year in the trade segments led to a 12.2% increase in sales for the 1,369 publishers who report data to AAP’s StatShot program.

Financial results from Educational Development Corp. continue to suffer from comparisons to the record highs they hit last year, although EDC said sales through the first nine months of the year are still ahead of pre-pandemic levels.

Led by the fiction categories, unit sales of print books rose 8.9% in 2021 over 2020 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. 825.7 million print units were sold last year, a jump of nearly 68 million over 2020 and a whopping 132 million over 2019.

Sales of adult trade books rose 5.3% in November over 2020, while children’s/young adult book sales posted a 9.8% increase.

A huge increase in book fair revenue was the primary driver in lifting company sales 29% in the second quarter ended November 30, 2021, over the comparable quarter a year ago at Scholastic.

With all three of its operating segments posting increases, John Wiley & Sons reported that revenue for the second quarter ended October 31, 2021, rose 9% over last year, to $533 million, and operating income increased 6%, to $73.9 million.

Led by the education segments, sales rose 23.1% in October over October 2020 at the 1,368 publishers that report results to AAP's StatShot program.

Textbook sales were flat in the quarter ended October 30, 2021 compared to a year ago at Barnes & Noble Education and overall revenue at the company rose 5.3% over a soft back-to-school period last year.

Sales of K-12 materials rose 35.2% in September and were up 32.7% for the first nine months of the year, offsetting declines in several other publishing areas, including adult trade. The K-12 segment was the big driver for industry sales through the first nine months of 2021, rising 32.7%. Through the January-September period, industry sales…

Regnery Publishing had a small sales increase in the third quarter, while Salem Author Services had a 27% jump in self-publishing fees, leading to a 5.6% increase in revenue, to $5.7 million, at Salem Media's publishing group.