Thanks to gains in the downloadable audio segment, publishers saw their revenue climb slightly in 2017. Revenue from the more than 1,200 publishers who report sales to the AAP increased 0.4% in the year, over 2016. The numbers, provided by the AAP as part of its StatShot program, show revenue was up from $14.65 billion in 2016 to $14.70 billion last year.
Trade sales rose 1.5% in 2017, to $7.11 billion, led by a 3.0% increase in sales of adult titles. This offset a 2.1% drop in sales in the children’s/young adult segment. Adult trade sales were $5.05 billion last year, while children’s/YA revenue was $2.05 billion.
Leading the sales charge in the trade segment was downloadable audio, where sales jumped 29.5% over 2016. At $343.4 million, sales of downloadable audio accounted for 6.8% of revenue in the adult trade category, where the vast majority of sales take place. E-book sales from reporting publishers, on the other hand, fell to $1.10 billion in 2017, a 4.7% decline from 2016. This marks a slower decline, however, than the last few years. (E-book sales do not include results from Amazon’s various e-book publishing efforts).
Among the major categories, sales of professional books bounced back after a dip in 2016, rising 8.4%, to $687.5 million. Sales in the university press segment rose 5.3%, to $58.7 million.
Sales in the education segments had mixed results. Higher education course material sales rose 0.2%, to $3.54 billion, but sales of K1-2 instructional materials fell 3.6%, to $32.83 billion.
In the religious segment, sales dipped 1.8%, to $447.8 million.
The sales results are from the slightly more an 1,200 publishers who regularly supply data to the AAP. Later this year, the organization expects to release sales estimates for the entire publishing industry.
