Trade e-book sales rose 4.3% in the first quarter of to $387.9 million, according to AAP's monthly StatShot report. The increase was due to a 39.6% increase in e-book sales in the children's/YA segment which offset a 0.6% decline in sales of adult e-books. Overall, sales in the children's/YA segment rose 31.5% in the quarter at publishers that report to StatShot led by sales of Veronica Roth's Divergent series.
Among the adult categories, hardcover sales rose 3.0% in the quarter, while trade paperback sales fell 2.8%. Mass market paperback continued to struggle in the quarter with sales off 12.9%. Spokenword audio had a mixed first quarter with physical audio sales down 11.3%, while digital downloads increases 24.3%. Sales of religious books rose 1.8%.
StatShot figures are based on sales reports from 1,218 publishers.
