Total net book sales in December in the U.S. fell 4.3%, to $904.6 million, compared to December 2023, representing sales of 1,279 publishers and distributed clients as reported to the Association of American Publishers. For all of 2024, net book sales rose 6.5%, to $14.177 billion.
December's drop in net book sales was the first monthly decline since March and included all trade formats except for digital audio, up 12%, and special bindings, up 0.1%. The other trade formats, all with lower net sales in December, were hardcovers, down 1%; paperbacks, down 11%; e-books, down 11.8%; and physical audio, down 57.9%.
For the year, trade revenues rose 6%, to $9.5 billion. Hardback revenues rose 6.8%, to $3.5 billion; paperbacks were up 3%, to $3.2 billion; mass market dropped 13.3%, to $122.9 million; and special bindings were up 4.3%, to $231.7 million. E-book revenues rose 1.6%, to $1 billion; digital audio rose 23.8%, to $1.1 billion; and physical audio fell 37.4%, to $8.7 million.
Sales by category for December 2024:
