Big Gains, Losses in June

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 8/2/2004

There were some big winners and losers among the different publishing segments in June. According to AAP's monthly estimates, sales in the children's hardcover segment plunged 82% in June, as the category faced difficult comparisons with June 2003, when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenixbroke sales records. In contrast, the adult hardcover segment benefited from record-breaking nonfiction sales of My Life, which helped to push sales up 58.7% in June. The university press segment, which began perking up in May, had another solid month, with June sales up by more than 95% in both the hardcover and paperback segments. The higher education segment also continued to rally in June, with sales up 23.5%. Sales in the elhi segment slumped again in the month with a 24% decline in basal sales offsetting a 7.9% increase in supplementary sales. The biggest increase among AAP's print segments in the first six months of the year was in the adult hardcover and religious categories, which both had a 26.9% gain. Children's hardcover sales had the largest decline, down 44.1%.