Book sales got off to a sluggish start in 2025. Total sales at the 1,297 publishers that report results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program falling 0.7% in January from a year ago.
The decline was due largely to a 5.7% drop in sales in the adult fiction category despite January being another stellar month for digital audio, with sales jumping 28%, and e-book sales were up 7.1%. But that wasn’t enough to offset the big hits in print formats, with hardcover down 22.2% and trade paperback falling 10.7%. (The sales don’t reflect those of the January bestseller, Onyx Storm, whose publisher, Entangled, doesn't report to AAP. Sales from publishers that don’t report results are captured in AAP’s year-end final report.)
Sales of adult nonfiction, where results were nearly the opposite, slipped 0.3% in the month. Digital audio sales fell 10.9%, but hardcover sales rose 12.6%—though trade paperback sales did drop 5.3%.
Sales dipped 1% in the educational segment during one of the biggest months on the higher education calendar, and professional books fell 8.5% in the month. On the positive side, sales of religion books continued their winning ways, with sales up 7%.
The children’s/young adult category also had a good month, with nonfiction sales up 21.6% and fiction sales increasing 1.7%. For the total children’s/YA segment, paperback sales were up 5%, and hardcover rose 2.4%. Digital audio, which still represents just a small portion of category results, saw sales fall 13.5% in January.
