AAP StatShot: US Publishing Industry Up 8.5 Percent in August

In News by Porter AndersonOctober 29, 2024

The United States’ book publishing trade in August was up 13.4 percent year over year, and was up 8.1 percent year-to-date.

Image – Getty: EyeEm Mobile

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Year-to-date revenues, the AAP reports, were up 7.8 percent at US$9.3 billion.

As Publishing Perspectives readers know, the AAP’s numbers reflect reported revenue for tracked categories including trade (consumer books); religious presses; higher education course materials; and professional publishing.

In several interesting comments from the StatShot authors on their August 2024 report, we read, “Gross sales were up by 8.5 percent; however, due to a 21.9-percent decrease in returns, net sales increased by 13.4 percent.”

The commentary also recognizes—without causal interpretation—that “digital audio sales experienced another significant net increase of 38.8 percent,” perhaps performing something of an understatement with the descriptor “significant.”

In adult books, the discussion tells us, in the trade category, “Both fiction and nonfiction contributed” to that 11.8 percent rise in August, “with fiction sales up 14.7 percent and nonfiction sales up 8.5 percent. This contributed to a 9.4-percent year-to-date increase in adult book sales, with fiction growing by 13.6 percent and Nonfiction by 4.6 percent.”

In children’s and young adult books, net sales increased by 7.6 percent year over year, the guidance indicates, with fiction for young readers rising 6.6 percent and nonfiction rising by 12.2 percent. Year-to-date, however, “this sub-category remains relatively flat, with a 0.6-percent increase.

And university presses, the input also notes, saw an 18.2-percent increase in net sales over August 2023.

That may be timely good news for member publishing houses of the Association of University Presses, which are observing their annual University Press Week activities, November 11 to 15.

Year-Over-Year NumbersTrade revenues were up 13.4 percent in August over the same month last year, at $848.2 million.

In print formats:

In digital formats:

Year-to-Date NumbersYear-to-date, the industry’s trade revenues were 8.1 percent, at $5.9 billion for the first eight months of the year.In print formats:

In digital formats:

Year-Over-Year Numbers

Religious press revenues were up 47.4 percent in August, coming in at $85.3 million.

Year-to-Date Numbers

On a year-to date basis, religious press revenues were up 21.1 percent, reaching $563.7 million.

During August 2004, revenues from higher education course materials were down 1.2 percent for the month, as compared to August 2023, coming in at $479.9 million, while year-to-date higher education course material revenues were up 4.9 percent, at $1.7 billion.

Professional books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were 0.4 percent during the month, coming in at $40.6 million.

Year-to-date professional books revenues were $308.0 million, down 0.9 percent as compared to the first eight months of 2023.

Quoting the StatShot copy on methodology, as usual: “AAP StatShot reports the monthly and yearly net revenue of publishing houses from US sales to bookstores, wholesalers, direct-to-consumer, online retailers, and other channels. StatShot draws revenue data from approximately 1,280 publishers, although participation may fluctuate slightly from report to report.

“StatShot reports are designed to give ongoing revenue snapshots across publishing sectors using the best data currently available. The reports reflect participants’ most recent reported revenue for current and previous periods, enabling readers to compare revenue on both a month-to-month and year-to-year basis within a given StatShot report.

“Monthly and yearly StatShot reports may not align completely across reporting periods, because: a) The pool of StatShot participants may fluctuate from report to report; and b) Like any business, it is common accounting practice for publishing houses to update and restate their previously reported revenue data. If, for example, a business learns that its revenues were greater in a given year than its reports first indicated, it will restate the revenues in subsequent reports to AAP, permitting AAP in turn to report information that is more accurate than previously reported.

More from Publishing Perspectives on industry statistics is here. More on the Association of American Publishers is here, more of our coverage of AAP StatShot reports is here, and more on the US market is here.

Porter Anderson has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (Fellow, National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.

Tags: AAP, Association of American Publishers, Association of University Presses, Audiobooks, Book Sales, Children's Books, Digital Publishing, Ebooks, Educational Publishing, Industry Statistics, Print, Religious Publishing, StatShot, United States