Led by a 47% increase in trade paperback sales, sales of religious books rose 1.2% in October over 2022 at publishers that report to AAP’s StatShot program. Sales of hardcovers, by far the largest format, rose 5.7%. Both digital formats had small gains in the month with audio up 4.3% and e-book sales rising 0.9%.
For the first 10-months of the year, sales from religious presses rose 7.1%. Hardcover sales were up 6.2% in the period and trade paperback sales increased 10.7%. Digital audio sales increased 6.2% in the first 10 months of 2023, but e-book sales fell 3.9%. Digital sales accounted for 12.2% of sales in the category in the 10-month period, down from 13.1% in the comparable period in 2022.
For the first 10 months of the year, sales for all 1,225 publishers that supply data to AAP were up 0.7% over the comparable period in 2022, with October sales up 1.8%
