AAP Sales Report
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 1/22/2007
Category
% Change Nov. 2006
% Change YTD
Adult Hard (19)*
16.8%
3.0%
Adult Paper (20)
-9.7
11.6
Mass Market (10)
-6.3
6.1
Juvenile Hard (14)
8.1
-30.1
Juvenile Paper (15)
-8.3
0.3
Audio (12)
24.7
-11.7
Electronic (11)
-9.2
22.4
Religious (12)
-2.2
-9.5
Higher Ed. (13)
3.3
3.1
Univ. Pr. Hard (36)
0.0
3.8
Univ. Pr. Paper (36)
-14.1
4.6
Professional (9)
2.4
1.5
Elhi (9)
-15.7
-5.9
(Measured in $ sales against same time periods, 2006)
* Number of reporting companies.
Through November, the AAP monthly sales estimates indicated that four categories are headed for a decline in 2006. Two of those segments—the children's hardcover segment, with no new Harry Potter, and the elhi segment, with significantly fewer state adoptions—were expected to have a difficult year. Sales were also down in the religious segment, although because only 12 publishers report, there is some question about the reliability of data. Audio was the fourth category with down sales; the 11.7% decline is a surprise since the business was enjoying a sales boost from the downloading of digital audio files.
