September 22, 2026
AAP July 2026 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 14.0% for the Month of July, and Up 5.4% Year-To-Date
Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 16.4% for Month of July, and Up 5.5% Year-to-Date
Today, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its StatShot report covering July 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 July 2026 was up 14.0%, coming in at $1.0 billion as compared to July 2025. Year-to-date, compared with 2025, revenues were up 5.4%, at $6.7 billion in 2026.
The full report is available for purchase on AAP’s website.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
July
Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 16.4% in July at $804.1 million. In terms of physical formats during the month of July, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 18.5%, coming in at $242.5 million; Paperbacks were up 25.2%, with $311.6 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 43.7% to $5.8 million; and Special Bindings were down 1.0%, with $20.6 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 3.4% to $85.3 million for the month, and revenues from the Digital Audio format were up 12.4% for July, coming in at $103.1 million. Physical Audio revenues were up 36.7%, coming in at $400 thousand.
Year-to-date
Year-to-date Trade revenues were up 5.5% to $5.4 billion. Hardback revenues were up 1.4% year-to-date, coming in at $1.8 billion; Paperbacks were up 10.8%, with $2.0 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 62.7% to $20.7 million; and Special Bindings were up 16.3%, with $132.1 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 3.1% compared to 2025, totaling $601.4 million. Digital Audio revenue was up 12.6% to $700.9 million, while Physical Audio revenue was down 8.0% to $3.1 million.
Religious Presses Down 4.3% in July
Religious Presses revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same month in 2025, coming in at $59.5 million. Hardback revenues were down 6.8% at $32.4 million; Paperback revenues were up 1.4% to $13.2 million; eBook revenues were down 11.6%, coming in at $3.3 million; and Digital Audio revenues were down 14.4%, at $3.3 million.
On a year-to-date basis, Religious Presses revenue was up 0.8% during the first seven months of 2026 when compared with the same period in 2025, coming in at $473.1 million. Hardback revenues were down 2.8% to $275.1 million; Paperback revenue was up 8.4% to $92.9 million; eBook revenue was down 0.5% to $28.7 million; and Digital Audio revenue was flat at $27.4 million.
Professional & Scholarly Publishing Down 2.9% for July 2026
Professional & Scholarly Publishing, including business, medical, law, technical, scientific, and other books and excluding journals, was down 2.9% for July 2026, coming in at $32.8 million. The category was up 1.0% for the first seven months of the year when compared to the same period in 2025, coming in at $231.9 million.
Education Materials (including PreK-12 Instructional Materials and Higher Education Course Materials) Up 2.3% for July 2026
During July 2026, revenues from Education Materials totaled $168.6 million, up 2.3% compared with July 2025. Year-to-date Education Materials revenues totaled $964.9 million, up 3.2% compared to the first seven 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 1,416 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.