Total revenue for the 1,209 publishers who submit figures to the AAP’s StatShot program rose 4.9% in 2014 to $15.72 billion, the association reported this morning. The increase was led by the children’s/young adult segment, while sales of adult books saw a slight drop.
In the children's/YA segment, revenue increased 20.8%. In adult books, sales fell 1.4%. Meanwhile, the K-12 instructional materials segment posted a 10.7% increase. Sales of professional books increased 10.1%, and sales in the religious book segment rose 1.3%.
Within the adult trade segment, e-book sales rose 1.0%, to $1.29 billion, at reporting companies and accounted for 27.2% of adult trade sales in 2014 compared to 26.6% in 2013. Trade paperback sales increased 2.3%, but sales of mass market paperback fell 4.2%. The hardcover segment had the largest decline among trade formats with sales off 8.2%. Sales of downloadable audio rose 27.2%, helping to offset a 7.7% decline in sales of physical audio.
In children’s/ya, e-book sales jumped 33.6%, to $227.3 million and accounted for 12.0% of sales, up from 10.9% in 2013. The board book segment had a good year as well with sales up 33.0%. Paperback sales rose 24.4% and hardcover sales increased 15.0%.
The AAP said more data and analysis about 2014 sales will be available later this year. The AAP and BISG will not produce the BookStat statistics program that the two organizations had collaborated on over the past several years.
