CATEGORY % CHANGE September % CHANGE YTD
(Measured in $ sales against same time periods, 2007) * Number of reporting companies.
Big gains in the children’s hardcover (led by Brisingr, Disney High School Musical 3 Junior Notebook and If You Give a Cat a Cupcake), e-book and higher education segments were the three bright spots in what was generally a gloomy September for publishers. According to AAP’s monthly sales estimates, the biggest drop came in the adult hardcover segment where a combination of a decline in gross shipments plus higher returns resulted in a steep drop in net sales for the 17 publishers who reported results. The elhi segment continues to struggle, with both basal (-18.4%) and supplemental (-14.2%) sales down in September. For the first nine months of the year, sales were down in eight segment and up in five.
Adult Hard (17)* -29.8% -9.2%
Adult Paper (18) -8.6 6.9
Mass Market (9) -8.3 0.8
Juvenile Hard (13) 41.9 -26.3
Juvenile Paper (14) -19.1 8.8
Audio (13) -12.3 -24.7
Electronic (13) 77.8 55.2
Religious (13) -11.8 -8.9
Higher Ed. (10) 18.4 4.9
Univ. Pr. Hard (38) -3.6 -6.1
Univ. Pr. Paper (38) 4.4 -6.5
Professional (9) 6.8 -1.0
Elhi (8) -17.6 -3.3