Boosted by the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 and 2, sales in the children’s/young adult category jumped 31.1% in July over a year ago, according to figures released by the Association of American Publishers as part of its StatShot program. Cursed Child gave a particular spark to the segment’s hardcover format, where sales soared 95.2% over July 2015. The other formats in the children’s/YA category all declined in the month, including e-books, which fell 29.3%.
For the first seven months of 2016, sales in the children's/YA category were up 6.3% over a year ago.
Without a book similar to Cursed Child, sales in the adult book segment fell 5.4% in July. The biggest decline came in hardcover, with sales falling 22.2%. Last July, Go Set a Watchman was a huge hit in hardcover. The brightest spot for the adult segment was once again digital audio, with sales up 23.2% in the month. E-book sales fell again, dropping 12.7% in the month.
For the first seven months of 2016, sales of adult books were down 3.3%.
For the entire publishing industry, sales fell 17.9% in July compared to a year ago. The educational segments took the biggest hits, with July sales off 20.2% in the K-12 instructional category and down 27.1% in the higher educational course materials segment.
Sales are based on reports from 1,208 publishers.
