Led by a 44.1% increase in sales of K-12 instructional materials and double-digit gains in the children’s/young adult and religious press segments, industry sales rose 3.7% in January, according to AAP’s StatShot program, whose figures are based on reports from 1,368 reporting publishers.
Sales in the children’s/YA segment increased 12% over January 2021, led by a 23.6% increase in paperback sales and a 11.5% jump in hardcover sales. Downloadable audio sales fell 9.3% in the month, while e-book sales declined 17.8%. Both digital formats represent a small slice of sales in the category.
Sales of religious presses were 11% higher in January compared to a year ago, led by increases in all print formats. E-book sales fell 11.6%, though digital audio sales rose 3.1%.
Sales of adult books inched up 0.6% over January 2021. The e-book format limited the sales increase, falling 8.9%. Hardcover sales were up 4.1%, and trade paperback sales rose 2.1%. Downloadable audio had a 6.4% increase.
In the other major categories, professional book sales fell 5% in the month, while sales of higher education course materials rose 0.8%. Sales at university presses fell 12%.
