October 17, 2023
AAP August 2023 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 8.5% for Month of August, and Up 0.6% Year-To-Date
Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 8.9% for Month of August, and Down 0.5% Year-to-Date
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for August 2023 reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Higher Education Course Materials, and Professional Publishing.
Total revenues across all categories for August 2023 were up 8.5% as compared to August 2022, coming in at $1.5 billion. Year-to-date revenues were up 0.6%, at $8.0 billion for the first eight months of the year.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
August
Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 8.9% in August, coming in at $785.0 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of August, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 17.4%, coming in at $277.8 million; Paperbacks were up 8.9%, with $295.1 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 19.1% to $12.2 million; and Special Bindings were up 15.0%, with $19.6 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 3.7% for the month as compared to August 2022 for a total of $87.1 million, and the Digital Audio format remained up at 5.7% for August, coming in at $68.2 million in revenue. Physical Audio was up 21.1% coming in at $1.3 million.
Year-to-date
Year-to-date Trade revenues were down 0.5%, at $5.5 billion for the first eight months of the year. Hardback revenues were up 0.7%, coming in at $1.9 billion; Paperbacks were down 2.0%, with $2.0 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 22.1% to $98.1 million; and Special Bindings were up 1.0%, with $116.3 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 1.0% as compared to the first eight months of 2022 for a total of $666.9 million. The Digital Audio format was up 15.4%, coming in at $559.0 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 10.9% coming in at $8.0 million.
Religious Presses
August
Religious press revenues were up 36.3% in August, coming in at $84.2 million. Hardback revenues were up 44.8% to $54.2 million in revenue, while Paperback revenues were up 39.5% to $15.7 million. eBook revenues were down 6.5% coming in at $4.5 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 0.8% at $3.9 million.
Year-to-date
On a year-to-date basis, religious press revenues were up 4.8%, at $504.7 million. Hardback revenues were up 4.6% at $294.2 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 4.1% to $104.1 million, eBook revenues were down 4.4% at $36.7 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 6.1% at $30.3 million.
Education
During August 2023 revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were $607.9 million, up 7.2% compared with August 2022. Year-to-date Higher Education Course Materials revenues were $2.1 billion, up 4.2% compared to the first eight months of 2022.
Professional Books
Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were up 8.7% during the month, coming in at $41.9 million. Year-to-date Professional Books revenues were $330.6 million, down 2.4% as compared to the first eight months of 2022.
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 1,240 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.