Association of American Publishers

First Half of 2015 Not a Great Start for Book Publishers
October 9, 2015 at 12:30 pm

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its quarterly StatShot report for the book industry, including revenue numbers for over 1,200 publishers in the trade, education, university press, and professional publishing sectors. According to the report, sales declined 4.1% in the first half of 2015 when compared to the first half of 2014. Book sales…

Ebook Sales Are Down, But Are We Surprised?
August 6, 2015 at 5:35 pm

I’ve admitted before on this blog that I’m not a big ebook reader. Despite being branded as a tech-savvy, social-media-rampant millennial, I still prefer print reads. But I’m not a “I love the smell of old books,” person or the “I enjoy holding something tangible in my hands” type. When it comes down to it,…

Textbooks Out of Synch with Common Core
September 2, 2014

School districts nationwide are struggling to find textbooks that are aligned with the rigorous Common Core standards for math and English Language Arts. Some critics say that's because the controversial standards have outpaced resources.

According to a recent study by the Education Week Research Center, fewer than one-third of teachers nationwide say their textbooks are aligned with the Common Core standards. But Richard Weisenhoff, Baltimore County's executive director of academics, says publishers tell a different story.

How Amazon Brought Publishing to Its Knees - And Why Authors Might Be Next
August 1, 2014

Morgan Entrekin is happy with the relationships he's developed with Amazon. As the president of independent publisher Grove/Atlantic Books, he witnessed the industry change as Amazon's introduction of the Kindle helped publishers like him embrace the digital revolution that has battered other industries. It's the future that he's worried about.

 

U.S. Publishing Industry Annual Survey Reports $27 Billion in Net Revenue, 2.6 Billion Units for 2013
June 27, 2014

The overall US book and journal publishing industry generated $27.01 billion in net revenue for 2013, representing 2.59 billion in units (volume), according to BookStats Volume 4, the annual statistical survey of publishing's size and scope being released today. As reported in BookStats, the Trade sector - covering general consumer fiction and non-fiction - generated $14.63 billion in net revenue and 2.32 billion in volume.

For 2013, Adult Non-Fiction was the fastest-growing Trade category, surpassing Juvenile (Children's/Young Adult) which had been the growth leader for the past two years.

Slowing Ebook Sales May Embolden Publishers in Amazon Spat
June 27, 2014

With Amazon.com (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos battling major publishers to divvy up the economic spoils of the book market, both sides could point to seemingly good news in the latest industry statistics.

U.S. publishers collected about $3 billion in trade ebook sales last year, virtually unchanged from 2012, according to the new report from the Bookstats Project, jointly produced by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group. Total revenue from print and digital books in the trade category, which excludes textbooks and journals, declined 2% to $14.6 billion.

Diversity An Issue As Annual BookExpo America Convention Opens
May 28, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) - Three years ago, guest speaker Mindy Kaling joked that publishing's annual national convention, BookExpo America, resembled "a high school reunion where all the jocks were killed in a plane crash, and all the minorities, too."

Little seems to have changed.

From Wednesday to Saturday, tens of thousands of publishers, authors, agents and librarians will meet at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York for a convention predominantly organized by whites, spotlighting books predominantly written, edited and published by whites.

As Ebook Sales Slow, Strategies Shift
March 11, 2014

Remember print books, those antiquated relics of a bygone age that pundits and prognosticators had forsaken and buried a long time ago? Apparently, they're back in vogue and not going away anytime soon, which should make digital publishers and authors sit up and take notice."The Evolution of the Book Industry: Implications for U.S. Book Manufacturers and Printers," a study of about 800 respondents, found that nearly 70% of consumers feel it is unlikely that they will abandon print books by 2016

A Critical Look at the New Yorker's "Off-Base" Amazon Profile
February 17, 2014

Borders is long gone, Barnes & Noble (BKS) is on the ropes, and total sales at U.S. bookstores have fallen 22% over the past five years. Is every book lover's nightmare coming true? Is the publishing industry somehow being destroyed by a combination of Amazon (AMZN) price cutting and a wave of Netflix (NFLX) watching, iPhone gaming and tweeting?

Definitely not, though you might come away with that ridiculously pessimistic view from some recent coverage trashing Amazon's role in the industry.

DreamWorks Animation Launches Children's Books Imprint
February 11, 2014

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. is diversifying into children's books, creating a publishing unit that this year will issue titles based on such DreamWorks movies as "Kung Fu Panda" and "Madagascar."

DreamWorks Press, which will publish books in print and digital form, is the latest part of an effort by the animation studio to diversify beyond the high-risk movie business. Previous steps involved theme parks, a consumer-products business and the acquisition of an online video network.