Bookstore sales inched up 1.5% in November over November 2015, according to preliminary estimates released Friday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. November's sales were $805 million, up from $793 million a year ago.
The increase followed a decline in sales in October which a number of booksellers had attributed to distractions caused by the presidential election and many booksellers and publishers were hoping for a post-election sales bump. While not a huge increase, the 1.5% rise in bookstore sales got the trend heading in the right direction.
For the first 11 months of 2016, bookstore sales were $10.58 billion, an increase of 3.4% over the same period in 2015.
For the entire retail sector, November sales rose 5.2% and sales for the year to date increased 3.1%.
