Revealing New Stats from the AAP

The Association of American Publishers has released its latest round of stats, and findings are interesting. First, we’re getting a clearer picture of the state of bookselling in the U.S, as the AAP has increased the number of publishers providing input from approximately ninety to 1,149. They’ve also added categories such as children/YA ebooks.

What’s really interesting to note is the 11.5% rise in both print and ebook sales. Those who claim that print books are on their way out might want to rethink that idea. The report suggests that an improving economy could explain why people are buying more books from brick and mortar stores. Also, in January of last year, Borders was returning heaps of books, which is not the case this year, seeing as how they closed shop. Adult trade books rose by 16.4% this year, although mass market books are still down.

Also interesting to note is that the increase in childrens/YA ebooks has driven sales of print and digital books up a whopping 80.5%. Publishers attribute this huge rise to the availability of books for reading devices designed for that age group.

These stats are a really positive sign. People are buying more books in both print and ebook formats. In fact, you’ll see the rise in almost every category AAP lists with only three exceptions. Religious paperbacks, mass market books, and children’s board books sales are down. You can see the entire chart through the Shelf Awareness article at http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1703#m15549

DEADLY ACCUSATIONS, (now also out on Kindle http://tinyurl.com/7b5dfub
THE OPPOSITE OF DARK, now available for iphones, iPads, and iPodTouch at http://bit.ly/nZLlS8. Also available in paperback at http://tinyurl.com/30dlx64 and on Kindle at http://tinyurl.com/7kxuat8
FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n