Print sales for February continue to hold up with AAP’s Monthly StatShot reporting total adult sales up 6.9% over the same period February 2011 on sales of $437 million. Total Children/YA sales, however, were especially strong showing sales up 73% on sales of $170.9 million. Children’s hardcover, paperback and e-book formats followed suit with sales rising 71.8% (on hardcover sales of $82.9 million) , 62.5% (on paperback sales of $56.4 million) and 177.8% (on e-book sales of $22.4 million) respectively in February 2012 over the same period in 2011. these ficture are supplied by the 1,191 publishers that report to the StatShot report.
February 2012 adult hardcover sales were up 24.4% on sales of $134.5 million, paperbacks down 3.3% on sales of $125 million, mass market paperbacks down 4.3% on sales of $64.6 million and, in an anomaly, e-books sales up only 9.9% on sales of $92.5 million. The “uncharacteristically low” percentage rise of adult e-books sales in 2012 over Feburary 2011 is attributed to a one-off retail revenue transaction report that updated the February 2011 e-book sales figures. The revision now makes that figure “abnormally high,” according to the StatShot report and, “therefore, affected comparisons with the 2012 figures.”
