March 17, 2023
AAP January 2023 StatShot: Overall Publishing Industry Up 3.5% for Month of January
Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 3.1% for Month of January
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for January 2023 reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Higher Education Course Materials, and Professional Publishing.
Total revenues across all reported categories for January 2023 were up 3.5% as compared to January 2022, coming in at $1.3 billion.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
Trade (Consumer Books) sales were up 3.1% in January, coming in at $754.9 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of January, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 0.3%, coming in at $264.0 million; Paperbacks were up 7.0%, with $276.9 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 35.7% to $12.4 million; and Special Bindings was down 2.1%, with $15.6 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were up 3.7% for the month as compared to January 2022 for a total of $85.0 million. Digital Audio was up 9.2% for January, coming in at $69.6 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 11.7% coming in at $1.1 million.
Religious Presses
Religious press revenues were down 1.8% in January, coming in at $73.3 million. Hardback revenues were down 4.5% to $40.3 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were down 1.3% to $15.8 million, eBook revenues were down 2.2% coming in at $4.2 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 9.5% at $2.9 million.
Higher Education
During January 2023 revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were $463.3 million, up 4.1% compared with January 2022.
Professional Books
Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were up 1.2% during the month, coming in at $43.8 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 1,240 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.