The trade segments had another good month in May, although rather than the children’s/YA category leading the charge it was adult books where sales, helped by the Shades of Grey trilogy, rose 19.5%, according to AAP’s Monthly StatShot figures. Within adult books, trade paperback sales were up 17.7%, while e-book sales increased 51.6%, to $106.4 million in May. For the first five months of 2012, e-book sales rose 31.7%, to $469.8 million at the companies reporting data to StatShot.
In the children’s/YA segment, sales were up 10.6% in May with e-books having a particularly strong month with sales jumping 297%, to $27.7 million. Hardcover sales rose 0.9% in the month, but paperback fell 10.8%.
In other segments, sales fell 12.6% in religion in May and were down 8.2% in the K-12 segment and 8.1% in high education. Sales rose 13.5% in professional books and 28.2% in university presses.
