Both major trade segments--children's and adult--were up in April 2016, according to the latest figures from the Association of American Publishers' StatShot Program. While adult sales climbed a tiny 0.1%, sales of children's books for the month were up 12.8%.
Breaking it down by format, for adult titles, the AAP reported that hardcover sales for the month were down 6.6%. Paperbacks, however, were up; sales of paperbacks in April rose by 24.7%, over the same period last year. Mass market sales also rose, by 23%.
On the digital side, adult e-book sales continued slump, down by 21.9%. (In March, e-book sales were down 18.6%.) Downloadable audio was up 20.5%, while physical audio dropped by 6.8%.
In the children's/YA segment, hardcovers hardcovers were down 12.6%, while paperback sales were up 6.7%. Sales of mass market children's titles were down 14.7%. Children's e-book sales also tumbled, dropping 19.4% in the month, over the same period last year. Sale of children's physical audio titles slid, down 26.9%, but downloadable audio in the segment was up 32.2%.
Figures provided reflect sales from 1,205 publishers that report data to the AAP.
