An October afternoon in New York’s Central Park. Image – Getty: Edichen Photo
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
October Year-to-Date US Revenues: Up 7.1 Percent
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its October 2024 StatShot report on December 19 during Publishing Perspectives‘ winter break. We return to it today (January 6), with the top-line news that the overall United States book industry was up 8.3 percent in October 2024 over that month in 2023.
The year-to-date revenues, the AAP reports, were up 7.1 percent at US$12.1 billion for the first 10 months of 2024.
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 commentary on the October StatShot report, it’s pointed out that gross sales in trade books increased 5.5 percent, while—because of a 12-percent decrease in returns, net sales increased 7.3 percent.
Digital audio made continued strides, its increase in October coming to 18.7 percent. Indeed in year-to-date figures on formats, digital audio sales represented 15.0 percent of adult book sales.
Adult books in the States saw net sales in October rise by 7.5 percent over October 2023. The StatShot research, however, points out distinct differences between adult fiction and nonfiction.
Adult fiction saw a substantial sales increase of 17.5 percent at the same time that adult nonfiction suffered a 0.5-percent decrease in sales. This contributed to an 8.0-percent year-to-date increase in adult book sales, with fiction growing by 13.5 percent and nonfiction by 2.3 percent.
Trade Revenues
Year-Over-Year Numbers
Trade revenues were up 7.3 percent in October 2024 over October 2023 at $1.1 billion.
Image: AAP
In print formats:
- Hardback revenues were up 8.8 percent, coming in at $487.9 million
- Paperbacks were up 6.2 percent, with $321.4 million in revenue
- Mass market was up 11.7 percent to $10.1 million
- Special bindings were up 1.5 percent, with $27.2 million in revenue
In digital formats:
- Ebook revenues were down 2.5 percent for the month as compared to October 2023 for a total of $83.9 million
- The , and the digital audio format was up 18.7 percent for October, coming in at $86.5 million in revenue
- Physical audio was down 54.2 percent, coming in at $800,000
Year-to-Date Numbers
Year-to-date, the industry’s trade revenues were up 6.9 percent at $7.9 billion for the first 10 months of the year. In print formats:
- Hardback revenues were up 7.5 percent, coming in at $2.9 billion
- Paperbacks were up 3.8 percent , with $2.7 billion in revenue
- Mass market was down 16.2 percent to $101.1 million
- Special bindings were up 4.3 percent , with $187.4 million in revenue
In digital formats:
- Ebook revenues were up 2.9 percent as compared to the first 10 months of 2023 for a total of $861.9 million
- The Digital Audio format was up 26.1 percent, coming in at $883.4 million in revenue
- Physical audio was down 36.2 percent coming in at $7.4 million
Religious Press Performance
Year-Over-Year Numbers
Religious press revenues were up 19.1 percent in October, coming in at $96.4 million.
- Hardback revenues were up 23.3 percent to $64.2 million in revenue
- Paperback revenues were up 12.4 percent to $16.1 million
- Ebook revenues were down 2.2 percent coming in at $4.1 million
- Digital audio revenues were up 8.7 percent at $3.8 million
Year-to-Date Numbers
On a year-to date basis, religious press revenues were up 18.5 percent, at $739.2 million.
- Hardback revenues were up 24.7 percent at $454.1 million in revenue
- Paperback revenues were up 10.2 percent to $141.9 million
- Ebook revenues were up 1.4 percent at $43.7 million
- Digital audio revenues were up 15.9 percent at $42.7 million
Higher Education
During October 2024, revenues from higher education course materials were $184.2 million, up 18.9 percent compared with October 2023.
Year-to-date, those course-material revenues were $2.3 billion, up 5.8 percent compared to the first 10 months of 2023.
Professional Books
Professional books—including business, medical, law, technical and scientific books—were up 2.0 percent during October, at $38.8 million.
Year-to-date professional-book revenues were $385.7 million, down 0.4 percent as compared to the first 10 months of 2023.
About the AAP StatShot Reports
The StatShot program provides this statement: “AAP StatShot reports the monthly and yearly net revenue of publishing houses from United States sales to bookstores, wholesalers, direct-to-consumer programs, 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) as with any business, it’s 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.
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