CATEGORY % CHANGE February % CHANGE YTD
(Measured in $ sales against same time periods, 2008) * Number of reporting companies.
With two notable exceptions, February was about as bad as it gets for publishing, with several segments reporting steep declines in the month. The hardest hit was the trade paperback segment where sales were off 38.8% (last year A New Earth was a runaway hit at this time), while sales of audiobooks dropped 31.7%. Bright spots were in the children's segments with both the hardcover and paperback categories reporting large gains. The e-book segment also continued to post big increases, with sales from the 14 reporting companies jumping 131%, to $6.7 million, putting e-book sales for the first two months of the year at $15.8 million.
Adult Hard (17)* -0.9% -17.7%
Adult Paper (18) -38.8 -29.5
Mass Market (9) -18.3 -14.7
Juvenile Hard (14) 62.1 46.4
Juvenile Paper (14) 13.4 17.4
Audio (14) -31.7 -39.2
Electronic (14) 131.0 177.2
Religious (14) -19.0 -12.1
Higher Ed. (10) -24.9 22.7
Univ. Pr. Hard (38) 0.0 -4.3
Univ. Pr. Paper (38) -7.0 -2.8
Professional (9) -19.7 -11.2
Elhi (8) -9.9 -160.0