Association of American Publishers (AAP) Releases New Data Overall Publishing Industry Up 8.3% for Month of October, and Up 7.1% Year-To-Date (October 2024 StatShot Report)

From AAP:

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for October 2024 reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Religious Presses, Higher Education Course Materials, and Professional Publishing.

Total revenues across all categories for October 2024 were up 8.3% as compared to October 2023, coming in at $1.4 billion. Year-to-date revenues were up 7.1%, at $12.1 billion for the first ten months of the year.

Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues

October

Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 7.3% in October 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 8.8%, coming in at $487.9 million; Paperbacks were up 6.2%, with $321.4 million in revenue; Mass Market was up 11.7% to $10.1 million; and Special Bindings were up 1.5%, with $27.2 million in revenue.

eBook revenues were down 2.5% for the month as compared to October 2024 for a total of $83.9 million, and the Digital Audio format was up 18.7% for October, coming in at $86.5 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 54.2%, coming in at $800 thousand.

Year-to-date

Year-to-date Trade revenues were up 6.9% at $7.9 billion for the first ten months of the year. Hardback revenues were up 7.5%, coming in at $2.9 billion; Paperbacks were up 3.8%, with $2.7 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 16.2% to $101.1 million; and Special Bindings were up 4.3%, with $187.4 million in revenue.

eBook revenues were up 2.9% as compared to the first ten months of 2023 for a total of $861.9 million. The Digital Audio format was up 26.1%, coming in at $883.4 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 36.2% coming in at $7.4 million.

Religious Presses

October 2024

Religious press revenues were up 19.1% in October, coming in at $96.4 million. Hardback revenues were up 23.3% to $64.2 million in revenue, while Paperback revenues were up 12.4% to $16.1 million. eBook revenues were down 2.2% coming in at $4.1 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 8.7% at $3.8 million.

Year-to-date

On a year-to-date basis, religious press revenues were up 18.5%, at $739.2 million. Hardback revenues were up 24.7% at $454.1 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 10.2% to $141.9 million, eBook revenues were up 1.4% at $43.7 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 15.9% at $42.7 million.

Higher Education

During October 2024 revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were $184.2 million, up 18.9% compared with October 2023. Year-to-date Higher Education Course Materials revenues were $2.3 billion, up 5.8% compared to the first ten months of 2023.

Professional Books

Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were up 2.0% during the month, coming in at $38.8 million. Year-to-date Professional Books revenues were $385.7 million, down 0.4% as compared to the first ten months of 2023.

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.

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, Journal Articles, News, Publishing, Reports