Sales fell in all print segments except children’s in March, according to AAP’s Monthly StatShot released Friday morning. Sales in the children’s/young adult segment rose 46.6% in March led by a 173.9% increase in e-book sales (to a still relatively small $19.3 million) and a 59.3% gain in hardcover sales at the houses that report sales to the AAP. Sales of adult e-books increased 33.2% in the month, to $86.3 million, at reporting publishers. Overall, sales of adult trade books fell 11.6% in March at reporting publishers.
For the first quarter, adult e-book sales rose 28.1%, to $282.5 million, at reporting companies. In other adult trade segments in the January-March period, hardcover sales were up 2%, while trade paperback sales declined 10.5%. Sales of mass market paperbacks fell 20.8%, to $98.9 million, at reporting companies. Sales of downloadable audio rose 32.7% in the quarter, to $25.0 million, and surpassed sales of physical audio which rose 3.4% in the period, to $19.1 million, at reporting companies. Overall, total sales of adult books in the quarter rose 1.8%.
In the other major categories in the quarter, sales in the children’s/young adult segment increased 63.6%, while sales at university presses increased 3.6%. Sales were down in the other major categories: religious presses off 1.8%; professional sales down 2.6%; K-12 instructional materials dropped 13.4%; and sales of higher education course materials slipped 0.3%.
Sales are from figures supplied by 1,189 publishers, which includes distribution clients
