US publishers’ total industry sales fell slightly in 2017 to US$26.23 billion (A$35.5bn), down from US$26.27 billion (A$35.6bn) in 2016, according to results released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and reported in Publishers Weekly.
The results are based on sales from more than 1200 publishers (which accounted for US$15.55 billion; A$21bn), combined with estimates based on AAP’s model for publishers that did not report sales.
Sales in trade publishing—the industry’s largest segment—rose 0.3% to US$15.95 billion (A$21.6bn), led by a 5.4% increase in adult nonfiction sales. Sales declined in adult fiction and children’s/young adult fiction.
Higher education sales rose by 0.5%, but sales of books for preschoolers dropped 2.9%, and sales in the professional segment fell by less than 1%.
The results also highlighted the growth in downloadable audio, which reached US$820 million (A$1.1bn) in 2017. The format saw 28.8 % year-over-year growth from 2016 to 2017. Ebook sales fell 5.3% in 2017 to US $2.05 billion (A$2.8bn).
Sales through online retailers rose 6.4% to US$6.18 billion (A$8.4bn), and in 2017 these accounted for 38.8% of all trade sales. Meanwhile sales through physical retailers fell 6.5% to US$3.88 billion (A$5.3bn), accounting for 24.3%, with sales made by intermediaries (mainly wholesalers) accounting for 24.9% of sales.