The story the latest trade book sales numbers tell is an assortment of tales. Children’s and YA titles saw a big climb, while adult books moved upward though more slowly.
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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As publishers prepare to gather at the Frankfurt Book Fair in ten days, the summer’s sales figures are becoming available, reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.
“We can start with the good news. For the more than 1,300 publishers who supplied data to AAP, sales in July rose 5.9%, with books in the adult category showing hardcover sales up a healthy 7.8%. Mass market paperback sales fell, as has been the trend for some time now, down almost 19% in July, prime beach reading months, and trade paperback sales dipped 2.8%.”
Sales figures from AP’s StatShot program show the children/young adult category rose 16.6% in July over July 2018, while sales of adult books increased 3.9% over 2018, according to PW.
“The star of the show continues to be downloadable audiobook sales, which increased 17.6% in the month over 2018,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “That is one of the smallest increases of the year so far. For the first seven months of 2019, downloadable audio sales were up a total of 29.1% over 2018.
Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
