June 17, 2024
AAP April 2024 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 18.3% for Month of April, and Up 4.2% Year-To-Date
Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 20.6% for Month of April, and Up 2.3% Year-to-Date
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for April 2024 reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Religious Presses, Higher Education Course Materials, PreK-12 Instructional Materials and Professional Publishing.
Total revenues across all categories for April 2024 were up 18.3% as compared to April 2023, coming in at $947.5 million. Year-to-date revenues were up 4.2%, at $4.1 billion for the first four months of the year.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
April
Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 20.6% in April, coming in at $725.1 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of April, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 16.6%, coming in at $252.6 million; Paperbacks were up 20.3%, with $249.9 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 34.5% to $8.2 million; and Special Bindings were up 13.7%, with $14.4 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were up 16.8% for the month as compared to April 2023 for a total of $83.1 million, and the Digital Audio format was up 54.6% for April, coming in at $100.0 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 15.0% coming in at $800 thousand.
Year-to-date
Year-to-date Trade revenues were up 2.3%, at $2.8 billion for the first four months of the year. Hardback revenues were down 0.2%, coming in at $985.3 million; Paperbacks were up 1.6%, with $1.0 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 27.8% to $39.2 million; and Special Bindings were down 3.6%, with $62.9 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were up 2.3% as compared to the first four months of 2023 for a total of $338.1 million. The Digital Audio format was up 24.5%, coming in at $343.5 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 19.8% coming in at $2.9 million.
Religious Presses
April
Religious press revenues were up 38.2% in April, coming in at $68.5 million. Hardback revenues were up 41.5% to $40.5 million in revenue, while Paperback revenues were up 38.5% to $12.7 million. eBook revenues were up 1.0% coming in at $4.3 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 33.0% at $4.9 million.
Year-to-date
On a year-to-date basis, religious press revenues were up 11.7%, at $282.9 million. Hardback revenues were up 14.2% at $170.5 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 6.3% to $54.5 million, eBook revenues were up 5.3% at $19.4 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 15.2% at $17.7 million.
Education
During April 2024 revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were $78.9 million, up 17.7% compared with April 2023. Year-to-date Higher Education Course Materials revenues were $781.2 million, up 12.4% compared to the first four months of 2023.
Revenues from PreK-12 Instructional Materials were $86.3 million, up 12.2% compared with April 2023. Year-to-date PreK-12 Instructional Materials revenues were $193.2 million, up 9.1% compared to the first four months of 2023.
Professional Books
Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were up 6.7% during the month, coming in at $36.9 million. Year-to-date Professional Books revenues were $148.4 million, down 0.7% as compared to the first four months of 2023.
AAP’s StatShot
AAP StatShot reports the monthly and yearly net revenue of publishing houses from U.S. sales to bookstores, wholesalers, direct to consumer, online retailers, and other channels. StatShot draws revenue data from approximately 1,280 publishers, although participation may fluctuate slightly from report to report.
StatShot reports are designed to give ongoing revenue snapshots across publishing sectors using the best data currently available. The reports reflect participants’ most recent reported revenue for current and previous periods, enabling readers to compare revenue on both a month-to-month and year-to-year basis within a given StatShot report.
Monthly and yearly StatShot reports may not align completely across reporting periods, because: a) The pool of StatShot participants may fluctuate from report to report; and b) Like any business, it is common accounting practice for publishing houses to update and restate their previously reported revenue data. If, for example, a business learns that its revenues were greater in a given year than its reports first indicated, it will restate the revenues in subsequent reports to AAP, permitting AAP in turn to report information that is more accurate than previously reported.