October Sales Off

After posting strong gains in September, book sales fell in nearly every category tracked by the AAP in October. According to AAP estimates, net sales were hurt by an overall increase in returns in the month. Returns for children's paperbacks, for instance, rose 33.1% in October, contributing to a 23.2% decline in net sales. Sales in the children's hardcover segment managed to post a 1.9% increase in the month, but sales were down in both adult categories, while sales in mass market paper plunged 33.5%. Countering the poor trade results was the religious book category, which had a 96.5% sales increase. Sales of e-books continued strong in the month, up 163%, while year-to-date sales were ahead 182%, to $4.8 million. The elhi segment had its best month of the year with October sales up 11.4% as both the basal (12.2%) and supplemental (9.3%) segments had solid gains. For the first 10 months of the year, the children's hardcover and religious books segments both had sales gains of at least 41%, while the children's paperback category had the weakest performance in the period, with sales down 7.3%.