October 14, 2026
AAP August 2026 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 8.9% for the Month of August, and Up 5.9% Year-To-Date
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues Up 12.5% for Month of August, and Up 6.5% Year-to-Date
Today, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its StatShot report covering August 2026, reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Education (combines PreK-12 Instructional Materials and Higher Education Course Materials), and Professional & Scholarly Publishing.
Total revenue across all categories for August 2026 was up 8.9%, coming in at $1.2 billion as compared to August 2025. Year-to-date, compared with 2025, revenues were up 5.9%, at $7.9 billion in 2026.
The full report is available for purchase on AAP’s website.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
August
Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 12.5% in August at $904.7 million. In terms of physical formats during the month of August, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 13.8%, coming in at $320.2 million; Paperbacks were up 17.6%, with $333.3 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 14.6% to $6.2 million; and Special Bindings were up 3.7%, with $20.4 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 5.7% to $83.9 million for the month, and revenues from the Digital Audio format were up 12.6% for August, coming in at $105.4 million. Physical Audio revenues were down 35.2%, coming in at $400 thousand.
Year-to-date
Year-to-date Trade revenues were up 6.5% to $6.3 billion. Hardback revenues were up 3.1% year-to-date, coming in at $2.1 billion; Paperbacks were up 11.8%, with $2.3 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 57.2% to $26.9 million; and Special Bindings were up 14.5%, with $152.6 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 3.4% compared to 2025, totaling $685.1 million. Digital Audio revenue was up 12.6% to $806.3 million, while Physical Audio revenue was down 11.9% to $3.5 million.
Religious Presses Up 11.0% for August
Religious Presses revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same month in 2025, coming in at $85.3 million. Hardback revenues were up 16.2% at $53.8 million; Paperback revenues were up 5.1% to $15.2 million; eBook revenues were down 8.6%, coming in at $3.9 million; and Digital Audio revenues were up 3.2%, at $4.3 million.
On a year-to-date basis, Religious Presses revenue was up 2.2% during the first eight months of 2026 when compared with the same period in 2025, coming in at $558.4 million. Hardback revenues were down 0.1% to $329.0 million; Paperback revenue was up 7.8% to $108.1 million; eBook revenue was down 1.8% to $32.6 million; and Digital Audio revenue was essentially flat at $31.7 million.
Professional & Scholarly Publishing Up 8.0% for August 2026
Professional & Scholarly Publishing, including business, medical, law, technical, scientific, and other books and excluding journals, was up 8.0% for August 2026, coming in at $29.6 million. The category was up 1.8% for the first eight months of the year when compared to the same period in 2025, coming in at $261.5 million.
Education Materials (including PreK-12 Instructional Materials and Higher Education Course Materials) Down 2.8% for August 2026
During August 2026, revenues from Education Materials totaled $256.8 million, down 2.8% compared with August 2025. Year-to-date Education Materials revenues totaled $1.2 billion, up 1.8% compared to the first eight months of 2025.
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 more than 1,411 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.