Publishing: Association of American Publishers (AAP) Releases May 2024 StatShot Report: Overall Publishing Industry Up 10.9% for Month of May, and Up 5.5% Year-To-Date
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today released its StatShot report for May 2024 reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Religious Presses, Higher Education Course Materials, PreK-12 Instructional Materials and Professional Publishing.
Total revenues across all categories for May 2024 were up 10.9% as compared to May 2023, coming in at $1.1 billion. Year-to-date revenues were up 5.5%, at $5.2 billion for the first five months of the year.
Source: AAP
Trade (Consumer Books) Revenues
May
Trade (Consumer Books) revenues were up 16.5% in May, coming in at $789.1 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of May, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 21.0%, coming in at $289.1 million; Paperbacks were up 16.7%, with $289.6 million in revenue; Mass Market was up 118.2% to $11.2 million; and Special Bindings were up 28.4%, with $13.6 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were up 2.2% for the month as compared to May 2023 for a total of $84.4 million, and the Digital Audio format was up 15.3% for May, coming in at $80.2 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 27.0% coming in at $800 thousand.
Year-to-date
Year-to-date Trade revenues were up 5.1%, at $3.6 billion for the first five months of the year. Hardback revenues were up 3.9%, coming in at $1.3 billion; Paperbacks were up 4.6%, with $1.3 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 15.1% to $50.5 million; and Special Bindings were up 0.8%, with $76.5 million in revenue.
eBook revenues were up 2.3% as compared to the first five months of 2023 for a total of $422.5 million. The Digital Audio format was up 22.6%, coming in at $423.7 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 21.6% coming in at $3.7 million.
Religious Presses
May
Religious press revenues were up 23.4% in May, coming in at $72.3 million. Hardback revenues were up 33.5% to $43.2 million in revenue, while Paperback revenues were up 15.7% to $14.5 million. eBook revenues were down 6.0% coming in at $4.2 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 12.4% at $4.5 million.
Year-to-date
On a year-to-date basis, religious press revenues were up 13.9%, at $355.2 million. Hardback revenues were up 17.7% at $213.6 million in revenue, Paperback revenues were up 8.1% to $69.0 million, eBook revenues were up 3.1% at $23.6 million, and Digital Audio revenues were up 14.6% at $22.1 million.
Education
During May 2024 revenues from Higher Education Course Materials were $111.0 million, down 1.6% compared with May 2023. Year-to-date Higher Education Course Materials revenues were $881.4 million, up 10.1% compared to the first five months of 2023.
Revenues from PreK-12 Instructional Materials were $168.0 million, up 0.8% compared with May 2023. Year-to-date PreK-12 Instructional Materials revenues were $361.2 million, up 5.0% compared to the first five months of 2023.
Professional Books
Professional Books, including business, medical, law, technical and scientific, were down 3.3% during the month, coming in at $37.6 million. Year-to-date Professional Books revenues were $186.0 million, down 1.3% as compared to the first five 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.
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.
