Year-end snow in Back Bay Boston, Massachusetts. Image – Getty: Kirkikis
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘The Highest Year-to-Date Growth Since 2021’
In releasing its December 2024 StatShot report this morning (March 4), the Association of American Publishers (AAP) cites total revenues across all categories year-to-date up 6.5 percent, and down 4.3 percent for the month over December 2023.
Total year-to-date revenues for the trade, the AAP reports, were up 6.0 percent, down 5.3 percent for the month of December.
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.
Total revenues across all categories year-to-date were up 6.5 percent, reaching $14.2 billion.
Revenues for the month of December 2024 were down 4.3 percent as compared to December 2023, coming in at $904.6 million.
Commentary
Taken from the monthly view, December’s StatShot report showed what the team behind the report point out was the first decline since March for net revenue, when compared to December 2023. But for the year 2024, net sales were up 6.5 percent “including an increase in trade sales by 6.0 percent, the highest year-to-date growth since 2021.”
The year, of course, was a good one for digital audio, which has its vast army of fans. The notes provided to us point out that the format’s 12-percent increase in net sales marked “the ninth consecutive and 11th month within the year with an increase.”
Also in December, hardbacks stepped back by 1.0 percent; paperbacks decreased by 11.0 percent; ebooks decreased by 11.8 percent; and physical audio lost ground by 57.9 percent, which is not a surprising trend, of course—digital delivery is the real religion of audiobooks’ revival from the eras of cassette tapes and CDs.
In adult books, net sales decreased by 6.4 percent compared to December 2023. Adult fiction, as a subset of adult books, decreased by 3.3 percent, 3.3% and adult nonfiction took a 9.4-percent hit. “This contributed to a 7.0 percent increase in adult book sales in 2024,” the team writes, “with fiction growing by 12.6 percent and nonfiction growing by 1.3 percent.
By format year-to-date, digital audio sales represented 15.2 percent of adult book sales; hardbacks represented 33.3 percent; paperbacks represented 32.9 percent; mass market represented 2.0 percent; and ebooks represented 14.2 percent.
Trade Revenues
The Trade, Year-to-Date 2024
Image: Association of American Publishers
In print formats:
- Hardback revenues were up 6.8 percent, coming in at $3.5 billion
- Paperbacks were up 3.0 percent, with $3.2 billion in revenue
- Mass Market was down 13.3 percent to $122.9 million
- Special Bindings were up 4.3 percent, with $231.7 million in revenue.
In digital formats:
- Ebook revenues were up 1.6 percent as compared to 2023 for a total of $1.0 billion
- Physical audio was down 37.4 percent, coming in at $8.7 million
- And the digital audio format was up 23.8 percent, coming in at $1.1 billion in revenue
► Digital audio—the format that has launched a thousand publishing conference panels—stood at an 11.3-percent share of the US market in 2024 by format, per the graphic you see to the right.
The Trade, December 2024
Trade sales were down 5.3 percent in December, coming in at $687.9 million
In print formats:
- Hardback revenues were down 1.0 percent, coming in at $247.0 million
- Paperbacks were down 11.0 percent with $220.0 million in revenue
- Mass market was down 9.2 percent to $10.1 million
- Special Bindings were up 0.1 percent with $19.1 million in revenue
- Religious Press Performance
In digital formats:
- Ebook revenues were down 11.8 percent for the month as compared to December 2023 for a total $78.4 million
- Digital audio was up 12.0 percent for the month of December 2024, coming in at $92.9 million in revenue
- Physical audio was down 57.9 percent, coming in at $500, 000
Religious Presses
Religious Presses, Year-t0-Date 2024
Religious press revenues were up 18.9 percent, reaching $909.2 million.
- Hardback revenues were up 23.7 percent at $560.1 million in revenue
- Paperback revenues were up 11.6 percent to $171.0 million
- Ebook revenues were up 0.7 percent at $51.6 million
- Digital Audio revenues were up 13.4 percent at $51.3 million
Religious Presses, December 2024
Religious press revenues in December were up 14.7 percent in December, coming in at $68.2 million.
- Hardback revenues were up 13.3 percent to $40.0 million in revenue
- Paperback revenues were up 14.5 percent to $13.5 million
- Ebook revenues were up 1.9 percent coming in at $3.6 million
- Digital audio revenues were down 1.7 percent at $3.7 million
Education
Year-to-Date 2024
Higher education course material revenues were $2.5 billion, up 6.7 percent for the twelve months compared to 2023.
December 2024
During December 2024 revenues from higher education course materials were $127.4 million, down 1.4 percent compared with December 2023.
Professional Books
Year-to-Date 2024
Professional book revenues for the 12 months of 2024 were $459.7 million, down 0.5 percent as compared to 2023.
December 2024
Professional books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific publications, were down 6.5 percent during the month of December, coming in at $36.8 million.
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, 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.
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