AAP Reports April Book Sale Data

Posted on June 4, 2004

April experienced dramatic losses in three categories overshadowing successful growth in seven categories tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Adult paperbacks, religious books and professional and scholarly publications, as well as Elementary and High School (El-Hi) book publishing gains, which would have ordinarily buoyed gains, acted to effectively keep losses to a minimum.

Sales of adult hardcover books grew 8.3 percent from April 2003, with sales of $94.8 million (up 16.6 percent for the year). Adult paperback sales grew an impressive 16.8 percent (with sales of $85.4 million), with the year to date figure up by an encouraging 4.5 percent. The adult mass market category lost 25.2 percent in April, with sales of $48.8 million for this category, and again came up short for the year (the mass market category carries a deficit of 20.2 percent in 2004).

The children�s and young adult hardcover category posted a narrow 3.2 percent gain in April ($27.9 million); the category is up by a slightly wider spread (3.7 percent) for the year. The children�s and young adult paperback publishing sales gained a slight 0.3 percent with sales totaling $35.6 million for April. This category is 10.0 percent higher in 2004.

Audio books lost 2.5 percent ($10.0 million) in April; this decline in publishing sales is unusual amidst that category�s steady growth in 2004, which is 23.8 percent greater than the April 2003 year to date figure. Ebooks have also stumbled a bit in April with sales down 21.4 percent ($800,000) in this rapidly expanding category. Ebooks maintain an encouraging 73.1 percent margin of growth for the year. Religious books helped to counter losses with an exciting 54.9 percent gain in April ($28.2 million in sales for the month); religious books are up 34.2 percent for the year.

Sales of university press hardcover books posted a slight gain of 2.1 percent ($11.3 million) in April. This category is still recovering from early year losses and maintains a narrowing year to date deficit of 5.4 percent. Sales in the university press paperback category suffered a setback of 45.1 percent in April (sales totaled $14.1 million); this category continues to lag by 17.7 percent for the year. Sales in the professional and scholarly category grew 36.6 percent in April, with sales of $43.6 million, closing the gap between last year�s and this year�s sales to �0.1 percent. Finally, sales of �other� types of books lost 19.3 percent in April with sales of $700,000. This catchall category has, however, gained 15.0 percent for the year.

Higher education publishing sales witnessed heavy losses for the second month in a row resulting from textbook returns. Publishing sales happened to be up 67 percent from April 2003; however, April 2004 still witnessed a deficit (sales in April were -$6.9 million compared to -$20.9 million April 2003); that category is down 26.4 percent for the year. Typical seasonal patterns in the higher education market account for the negative numbers, as returns were high. El-Hi (elementary/high school) basal and supplemental K-12 net sales gained 17.6 percent in April, with sales of $211.8 million for the month of April, leading to 9.3 percent growth for the year.

The Association of American Publishers is the principal trade association for the U.S. book publishing industry with over 300 members, comprising most of the major commercial book publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and medium-sized houses, non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies.