February 11, 2026
AAP December 2025 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 9.4% for Month of December, and Up 1.1% Year-To-Date
Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 14.2% for Month of December, and Down 0.5% Year-to-Date
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for December 2025, reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Religious Presses, and Professional Publishing.
Total revenue across all categories for December 2025 was up 9.4% as compared to December 2024, coming in at $1 billion. Year-to-date revenues were up 1.1%, at $14.6 billion for the year.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
December
Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 14.2% in December at $830.4 million. In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of December, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 13.5%, coming in at $307.6 million; Paperbacks were up 27.5%, with $296.3 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 61.6% to $3.9 million; and Special Bindings were up 13.8%, with $21.8 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 2.8% at $78.7 million for the month, and revenues from the Digital Audio format were down 0.8% for December, coming in at $92 million in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were up 11.3%, coming in at $500 thousand.
Year-to-date
Year-to-date Trade revenues were down 0.5% at $9.8 billion for the year. Hardback revenues were up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis, coming in at $3.7 billion; Paperbacks were down 3.4%, with $3.3 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 29.2% to $84.9 million; and Special Bindings were up 0.3%, with $232.5 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 0.3% compared to 2024, for a total of $1 billion. The Digital Audio format was up 2.1%, coming in at $1 billion in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were down 31.2%, coming in at $6.1 million.
Religious Presses
December
Religious press revenues were up 16.8% in December, coming in at $78.4 million. Hardback revenues were up 18.7% to $46.6 million, while Paperback revenues were up 8.5% to $14.7 million. eBook revenues were up 4.7%, coming in at $3.6 million.
Year-to-date
On a year-to-date basis, religious press revenues were up 2.9%, at $926.4 million. Hardback revenues were up 2.9% at $577.5 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were down 4% to $158.4 million, and eBook revenues were down 0.3% at $49.9 million.
Professional Books
Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were up 13.5% for the month, coming in at $42.5 million. Year-to-date, Professional Books’ revenues were $433 million, down 6.5% as compared to 2024.
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 1,300 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.