Adult sales up, kids sales down in US

In the US, estimates from the AAP’s StatShot program show that sales of adult trade books increased slightly (0.4%) in the first nine months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, reports Publishers Weekly. Sales of children’s and young adult books fell 3.5% in the same nine-month period.

The AAP data showed that sales of adult hardcovers between January-September 2017 were up 7.3% compared to the same period in 2016, but that mass market paperbacks and trade paperbacks fell by 13.2% and 1.3%, respectively.

The results also showed that audio sales continued to grow—up 24.2% in the same period—while ebook sales in the January-September period fell by 5.5%.

In the children’s and young adult segment, both hardcover and ebook sales were affected by the sales success of 2016’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, with hardcover sales declining 8% in the first nine months of 2017, while ebook sales were down 11.5%.

The AAP receives sales figures for 1204 publishers. In the first nine months of 2017, sales for all publishers were down 0.5% compared to the same stretch in the previous year.

This news story first appeared in Books+Publishing on 12 February 2018. Books+Publishing is Australia’s leading source of print and digital news about the book industry, keeping subscribers up to date with the latest industry news, announcements, job advertisements, events, trends and more.

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