March 23, 2022
AAP JANUARY 2022 STATSHOT REPORT: PUBLISHING INDUSTRY UP 3.7% FOR FIRST MONTH OF 2022
Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues up 4.3% in January 2022
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for January 2022 reflecting reported revenue for all tracked categories, including Trade (Consumer Books), K-12 Instructional Materials, Higher Education Course Materials, Professional Publishing, and University Presses.
Total revenues across all categories for January 2022 were up 3.7% as compared to January 2021, coming in at $1.3 billion.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
Trade (Consumer Books) sales were up 4.3% in January, coming in at $720.6 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of January, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 6.9%, coming in at $261.4 million; Paperbacks were up 8.7%, with $250.6 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 1.8% to $19.1 million; and Special Bindings were down 8.5%, with $15.2 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 10.1% for the month as compared to January of 2021 for a total of $81.5 million. The Downloaded Audio format was up 5.0% for January, coming in at $62.1 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 38.2% coming in at $1.2 million.
Religious Presses
Religious press revenues were up 11.0% in January, coming in at $64.7 million. Hardback revenues were up 8.4% to $38.1 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 16.4% to $11.5 million, Downloaded Audio revenues were up 3.1% at $2.7 million, and eBook revenues were down 11.6% coming in at $3.4 million.
Education
During January of 2022 Education revenues were $493.3 million, up 3.8% compared with January of 2021.
Revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were up 0.8% for the month, as compared to January of 2021, coming in at $445.8 million.
PreK-12 Instructional Materials revenues were up 44.1% for January 2022, at $47.5 million. More in-depth information on PreK-12 Books and Materials Monthly is included in AAP’s PreK-12 monthly report.
The performance of the Education categories during this month may reflect multiple factors, including rebounding business post-COVID.
Professional Books
Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were down 5.0% during the month, coming in at $31.6 million.
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 1,368 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.