March 27, 2025
AAP January 2025 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Down 0.7% for Month of January
Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Down 0.3% for Month of January
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for January 2025 reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Religious Presses, Higher Education Course Materials, and Professional Publishing.
Total revenues across all categories for January 2025 were down 0.7% as compared to January 2024, coming in at $1.2 billion.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were down 0.3% in January at $741.5 million. In terms of physical format revenues during the month of January, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 0.1%, coming in at $267.5 million; Paperbacks were down 4.3%, with $254.6 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 16.7% to $11.2 million; and Special Bindings were up 18.8%, with $19.9 million in revenue.
In terms of digital formats, eBook revenues were up 0.9% for the month as compared to January 2024 for a total of $78.5 million, and the Digital Audio format was up 6.1% for January, coming in at $85.1 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 2.5%, coming in at $600 thousand.
Religious Presses
Religious press revenues were up 7.1% in January, coming in at $80.9 million. Hardback revenues were up 9.4% to $48.7 million in revenue, while Paperback revenues were flat at $17.8 million. eBook revenues were down 25.2%, coming in at $3.9 million.
Higher Education
During January 2025, revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were $388.3 million, down 1.7% compared with January 2024.
Professional Books
Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were down 8.5% during the month, coming in at $33.1 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 1,280 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.