US Publishers: January Sales Up overall 3.6%; E-books Up 173.6%

In January, book sales rose 3.6% to $785 million, as reported by 81 publishers to the Association of American Publishers.

Book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of January 2009 increased by 3.6 percent to $785 million.
The Adult Hardcover category was down by 33.9 percent in January with sales of $60.5 million while adult Paperback sales decreased 24.7% percent for the month to $102 million.

The Adult Mass Market category reached sales of 56.4 million, a decrease of 12 percent, while Children’s/YA Hardcover category jumped up 60% percent for the month with sales of $54.4 million.The Children’s/YA Paperback category was also up by 9.3% percent in January with sales totaling $37.4 million.

Audio Book sales posted a decrease of 45.9 percent in January with sales totaling $7.7 million, while E-books sales jumped up by 173.6 percent for the month ($8.8 million). Religious Books saw a decrease of 9 percent for the month with sales totaling $46.5 million.

Sales of University Press Hardcover books were down 8.3 percent in January with sales of $6.2 million while University Press Paperback sales posted a decrease of 1 percent for the month with sales totaling $9.9 million.Sales in the Professional and Scholarly category were up by 2.1 percent in January ($48.7 million).
Higher Education publishing sales posted an increase of 29 percent for the month ($340.8 million) and the net El-Hi (elementary/high school) basal and supplemental K-12 category posted a decrease of 22.8% percent in January with sales of $57.8 million.

The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies—small and large.