AAP Reports March Gains in Publishing Sales

May 24, 2010, New York, NY -- Book sales tracked by the Association of American
Publishers (AAP) for the month of March increased by 16.6 percent at $458.2 million and
were up by 8.0 percent for the year.

The Adult Hardcover category was up by 15.1 percent in March with sales of $92.0
million; year-to-date sales were up by 3.7 percent. Adult Paperback sales increased 38.2
percent for the month ($123.2 million) and went up by 23.5 percent for the year. The
Adult Mass Market category decreased 18.1 percent for March with sales totaling $53.6
million; sales were also down by 6.6 percent year-to-date. The Children’s/YA Hardcover
category declined 12.3 percent for the month with sales of $45.4 million, and sales for
year-to-date were down by 35.2 percent. The Children’s/YA Paperback category
increased by 6.1 percent in March with sales totaling $47.0 million; sales fell 8.5 percent
for the year.

Audio Book sales posted an increase of 8.6 percent in March with sales totaling $9.8
million; sales for the whole year were up by 14.7 percent. Downloaded Audio Books
increased 29.3 percent at sales of $6.2 million; the category was also up 32.5 percent
year-to-date. E-book sales jumped up 184.8 percent for the month ($28.5 million),
reflecting an increase of 251.9 percent for the year. Religious Books were up 7.0 percent
for the month with sales totaling $49.5 million; sales were down by 3.5 percent for the
year.

Sales of University Press Hardcover books reflected an 8.9 percent increase in March
with sales of $4.8 million; sales decreased by 1.5 percent for the year. University Press
Paperback sales posted a gain of 13.3 percent for the month with sales totaling $2.7
million; sales were down 2.7 percent for the year. Sales in the Professional and Scholarly
category rose by 27.3 percent in March ($48.0 million) and were up by 14.3 percent for
the year.

Higher Education publishing sales dropped 2.1 percent for the month ($-54.2 million) but
increased 18.3 percent for the year. Finally, the K-12 El-Hi (elementary/high school)
category posted total net sales of $123.8 million, down 12.4 percent from March 2009,
and year-to-date sales were $320.4 million, an 11.9 percent increase.

Footnote:
Apologies for all those annoying line breaks in above piece. I've spent half an hour trying unsuccessfully to remedy it and now that mentor Paul Reynolds is not about to guiide me I'm not sure how to fix it.