In 2017, the U.S. book industry had estimated net revenues of $26.23 billion and sold 2.72 billion books, according to the Association of American Publishers' 2018 StatShot Annual Report, which is based on sales reported by publishers as well as "market modeling." The approach is different from the AAP's monthly statistics, which are based solely on publisher sales reports. Released in May, those reports, based on what some 1,200 publishers and distributed clients reported to the AAP, put 2017 book industry net book sales at $14.7 billion.
Among the highlights from the StatShot Annual Report:
For the first time, publisher sales to physical and online retail channels were almost equal, at $7.6 billion and $7.5 billion, respectively. Sales to online retail channels consisted of 43.2% print formats; 27% e-books; 16.3% instructional materials; 10.5% downloaded audio; and 3.1% physical audio or a different format.
Downloaded audio was the fastest-growing format again, up 28.8% compared to 2016. In the past five years, downloaded audio has grown 146.2%.
In 2017, more than one billion paperback books were sold (more than any other format), representing 36.9% of books sold in all categories.
Trade sales rose 0.3%, to $15.95 billion, last year. Nonfiction adult book sales rose 5.4% in 2017, while adult fiction slipped 1.2%. Unit sales for children's books grew 1.1%, while YA grew 4.4%.