July 21, 2026
AAP May 2026 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 6.8% for Month of May, and Up 2.6% Year-To-Date
Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues Up 7.6% for Month of May, and Up 2.3% Year-to-Date
Today, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its StatShot report covering May 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 May 2026 was up 6.8% as compared to May 2025, coming in at $931.1 million. Year-to-date revenues were up 2.6%, at $4.7 billion.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
May
Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 7.6% in May at $799.5 million. In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of May, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 7.4%, coming in at $281.5 million; Paperbacks were up 10.4%, with $290.8 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 73.8% to $2.5 million; and Special Bindings were up 25%, with $18.9 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down nearly 1% at $84.2 million for the month, and revenues from the Digital Audio format were up 13.0% for May, coming in at $100.7 million in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were up 16.3%, coming in at $500 thousand.
Year-to-date
Trade revenues were up 2.3% at $3.8 billion for the year. Hardback revenues were down 3.2%, coming in at $1.3 billion; Paperbacks were up 6.6%, with $1.4 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 75.6% to $10.1 million; and Special Bindings were up 26.1%, with $94.6 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 3.5% compared to 2025, for a total of $429.7 million. The Digital Audio format was up 14.5%, coming in at $500.4 million in revenue. Physical Audio revenues were down 6.3%, coming in at $2.2 million.
Religious Presses Up 9.3% In May
Religious Press revenues were up 9.3% compared to the same month in 2025, coming in at $69 million. Hardback revenues were up 4.9% to $38.8 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 27.8% to $13.8 million, eBook revenues were up 23.5% coming in at $4.4 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 8.8% at $4.1 million.
On a year-to-date basis, Religious press revenues were up 0.9% during the first five months of 2026, coming in at $351.1 million. Hardback revenues were down 2.6% to $205.4 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 7.3% to $68.2 million, eBook revenues were up 3.6% at $21.5 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 2.9% at $20.5 million.
Professional & Scholarly Publishing Down 3.3% for May 2026
Professional & Scholarly Publishing, including business, medical, law, technical, scientific, and other books, was down 3.3% for May of 2026, coming in at $30 million. The category was up 2.8% for the first five months of the year, coming in at $166.6 million.
Education Materials (combines PreK-12 Instructional Materials and Higher Education Course Materials) Up 1.1% for May 2026
During May 2026, revenues from Education Materials were $88.9 million, up 1.1% compared with May 2025. Year-to-date, Education Materials revenues were $672.7 million, up 3.2% compared to the first five 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.