The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for September 2021 reflecting reported revenue for all tracked categories, including Trade (Consumer Books), K-12 Instructional Materials, Higher Education Course Materials, and Professional Publishing.
Total revenues across all categories for September 2021 were up 2.0% as compared to September 2020, coming in at $1.7 billion. Year to date revenues were up 12.4%, at $11.6 billion for the first nine months of the year.
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
Trade (Consumer Books) sales were up 0.3% in September, coming in at $938.5 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of September, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were down 4.4%, coming in at $398.9 million; Paperbacks were up 10.5%, with $298.7 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 20.1% to $16.6 million; and Board Books were up 0.4%, with $23.7 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 10.8% for the month as compared to September of 2020 for a total of $90.4 million. The Downloaded Audio format was up 7.8% for September, coming in at $64.6 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 20.4% coming in at $2.1 million.
Year to date Trade revenues were up 13.5%, at $ 6.6 billion for the first nine months of the year. Hardback revenues were up 15.3%, coming in at $2.4 billion; Paperbacks were up 19.3%, with $2.2 billion in revenue; Mass Market was up 5.9% to $177.5 million; and Board Books were up 11.2%, with $142.8 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were down 4.8% as compared to the first nine months of 2020 for a total of $808.5 million. The Downloaded Audio format was up 14.6%, coming in at $569.3 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 4.8% coming in at $16.1 million.
Religious Presses
Religious press revenues were up 10.6% in September, coming in at $69.2 million. Hardback revenues were up 19.3% at $41.5 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were down 6.1% at $11.2 million, eBook revenues were up 3.4% at $5.3 million, and Downloaded Audio revenues were down 5.1% at $2.6 million.
On a year-to date basis, religious press revenues were up 12.6%, at $513.9 million. Hardback revenues were up 16.6% at $311.4 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 5.2% at $77.9 million, eBook revenues were down 8.8% at $38.4 million, and Downloaded Audio revenues were up 7.5% at $30.1 million.
Education
During September of 2021 Education revenues were $720.4 billion, up 5.1% compared with September of 2020. Year to date education revenues were $4.6 billion, up 11.5% as compared to the first nine months of 2020.
Revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were down 8.1% for the month, as compared to September of 2020, coming in at $437.6 million. Year to date Higher Education was down 0.5%, at $2.6 billion.
PreK-12 Instructional Materials revenues were up 35.2% for September 2021, at $282.8 million. Year to date PreK-12 revenues were up 32.7%, coming in at $2.0 billion. 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. In addition, the percentage increase between September 2020 and September 2021 reflects the fact that school districts delayed purchases until later in the year during the pandemic.
Professional Books
Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were down 10.1% during the month, coming in at $31.3 million. Year to date Professional Books revenues were $291.7 million, up 5.0% as compared to the first nine months of 2020.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
