Despite a string of dispiriting developments—including the ongoing restructuring of Hachette Book Group, the collapse of Small Press Distribution, and the likelihood that sales to Costco will be dramatically reduced in 2025—book sales are showing steady improvement this year.
According to the latest StatShot program produced by the Association of American Publishers, sales for the 1,277 companies that report results to the AAP rose 10.9% in May 2024 over May 2023. The increase followed a 18.3% gain in April. For the first five months of the year, total StatShot sales increased 5.5% over the comparable period in 2023.
This May, sales of adult fiction jumped 24.7% and were up 12% for the first five months of the year. Sales of religion books increased 23.4% in the month and rose 13.9% throughout it, the largest increase among all major segments. Sales of children's/YA fiction have been steady and rose 15.2% in May. Adult nonfiction also had another good month with sales up 9.4%. The increase pushed category sales up 2.2% over the five months of 2023. In the final trade category, children's/YA nonfiction sales fell 4.5% in May and were down 6.6% for the year-to-date.
In other categories, May higher education courseware materials sales fell 1.6% and sales of professional books fell 3.3%. PreK-12 instructional materials sales increased 0.8%.
In terms of format, sales of digital audio continued to hold strong in May in adult fiction, rising 24.1%, and increased 4.6% in adult nonfiction. E-book sales rose 5.7% in the month in adult fiction, but fell 6.5% in adult nonfiction.
