Sales of adult trade books inched up 0.4% in the first nine months of 2017, over the same period in 2016, according to estimates released by the AAP’s StatShot program. Sales in the children’s/young adult segment fell 3.5% in the nine-month period, compared to the same stretch a year earlier.
In the adult segment, sales of hardcovers were up 7.3% over the first nine months of 2016, but sales of mass market paperbacks and trade paperbacks dropped 13.2% and 1.3%, respectively. Downloadable audio sales continued to be strong, up 24.2% in the nine-month period. E-book sales, meanwhile, continued to be soft, falling 5.5% in the January-September span at publishers that report results to the AAP
In the children’s/YA segment, hardcover sales were off 8.0% in the first nine months of 2017, while e-book sales declined 11.5%. Sales of both formats were affected by the huge sales of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child last year. Sales of board books were solid, up 4.4% in the first nine months of the year.
Sales for all 1,204 publishers that supply figures to AAP were down 0.5% in the first nine months of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016.
