Association of American Publishers (AAP) Releases October 2021 Statshot Report: “Publishing Industry Up 23.1% for Month, and 13.7% Year to Date; Trade (Consumer Book) Revenues up 16.8% in October, and up 14.1% Year to Date”

From AAP:

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for October 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 October 2021 were up 23.1% as compared to October 2020, coming in at $1.4 billion. Year to date revenues were up 13.7%, at $13.1 billion for the first ten months of the year.

Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues

Trade (Consumer Books) sales were up 16.8% in October, coming in at $1.1 billion.

In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of October, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 16.0%, coming in at $529.2 million; Paperbacks were up 35.2%, with $326.2 million in revenue; Mass Market was up 7.0% to $21.1 million; and Board Books were down 2.3%, with $26.4 million in revenue. 

eBook revenues were down 12.3% for the month as compared to October of 2020 for a total of $84.0 million. The Downloaded Audio format was up 10.3% for October, coming in at $62.7 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 45.3% coming in at $1.6 million.

Year to date Trade revenues were up 14.1%, at $7.8 billion for the first ten months of the year. Hardback revenues were up 15.7%, coming in at $3.0 billion; Paperbacks were up 21.3%, with $2.6 billion in revenue; Mass Market was up 6.0% to $198.5 million; and Board Books were up 8.8%, with $169.2 million in revenue.

eBook revenues were down 5.6% as compared to the first ten months of 2020 for a total of $892.5 million. The Downloaded Audio format was up 14.2%, coming in at $632.0 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 10.9% coming in at $17.7 million

Religious Presses

Religious press revenues were up 29.4% in October, coming in at $71.3 million. Hardback revenues were up 38.3% to $47.9 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 4.8% to $8.3 million, eBook revenues were down 11.0% coming in at $3.7 million, and Downloaded Audio revenues were up 7.7% at $2.8 million.

On a year-to date basis, religious press revenues were up 14.4%, reaching $585.2 million. Hardback revenues were up 19.1% at $359.3 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 5.2% to $86.2 million, eBook revenues were down 9.0% at $42.1 million, and Downloaded Audio revenues were up 7.5% at $32.9 million. 

Education

During October of 2021 Education revenues were $284.4 million, up 62.4% compared with October of 2020. Year to date education revenues were $4.9 billion, up 13.7% as compared to the first ten months of 2020.

Revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were up 42.8% for the month, as compared to October of 2020, coming in at $150.1 million. Year to date Higher Education was up 1.4%, at $2.8 billion.

PreK-12 Instructional Materials revenues were up 91.9% for October 2021, at $134.3 million. Year to date PreK-12 revenues were up 35.4%, coming in at $2.1 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..

Professional Books

Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were up 5.3% during the month, coming in at $29.5 million. Year to date Professional Books revenues were $321.3 million, up 5.0% as compared to the first ten months of 2020.

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 1,360 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 before.

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