In April, total net book sales fell 3.1%, to $828.4 million, compared to April 2012, representing sales of 1,193 publishers and distributed clients as reported to the Association of American Publishers.
E-book results were all over the lot. The biggest gainers overall were university and religious e-books categories at 75% and 42.3%, respectively. At the same time, the category with the biggest drop was children's/YA e-books, down 64.8%. The largest e-book category in sales--adult e-books--rose 7.1%, far down from its triple-digit gains of a year or two ago.
|
CATEGORY |
SALES |
% CHANGE |
|
University press e-books |
$1.1 million |
75% |
|
Religious e-books |
$6.4 million |
42.3% |
|
Children's/YA paperbacks |
$42.5 million |
32.2% |
|
University paperbacks |
$3.1 million |
30.7% |
|
Religious paperbacks |
$9.2 million |
24% |
|
Downloaded audio |
$10.1 million |
19.9% |
|
Religious hardcovers |
$23.1 million |
15.8% |
|
Higher ed course materials |
$83.2 million |
14.5% |
|
Children's board books |
$2.7 million |
13.4% |
|
K-12 |
$154.1 million |
12.7% |
|
Professional publishing |
$52.6 million |
10% |
|
Adult e-books |
$106.6 million |
7.1% |
|
University hardcovers |
$3.6 million |
5.3% |
|
Adult hardcovers |
$127.3 million |
2.3% |
|
|
|
|
|
Physical audiobooks |
$6.1 million |
-12.6% |
|
Adult paperbacks |
$108.5 million |
-17.4% |
|
Mass market |
$23.1 million |
-18.2% |
|
Children's/YA hardcovers |
$41.2 million |
-46.4% |
|
Children's/YA e-books |
$14 million |
-64.8% |