More big gains in adult fiction and religious books, alongside a nearly 40% increase in sales of higher educational course materials, led to a 10.3% increase in November sales at the 1,279 publishers who report financial results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program.

The 19.3% November sales increase in adult fiction sales drove the sales bump of all adult books by 9.7% in the month. November nonfiction sales only grew 2.2%. Within adult fiction, digital audio sales jumped 30.3%, while hardcover and trade paperback sales rose 26.5% and 18.4%, respectively. In nonfiction, trade paperback sales rose 9%, but hardcover sales were only up 0.9%, and digital audio rose 1.4%.

Sales in the children’s/young adult category fell 1.2% in November. A 16.1% increase in nonfiction sales was offset by a 4.5% decline in the much larger fiction category. Sales in fiction’s two largest formats, hardcover and paperback, fell 8.9% and 6.2%, respectively. In contrast, nonfiction hardcover sales rose 14.1%, and sales in the paperback format rose 15.6%.

November’s 24.6% increase in religious book sales continued the strong run sales the segment enjoyed in 2024, with year-to-date sales up 19.2% over 2023. In November, religion’s most important format, hardcover had a 23.9% increase, while paperback sales increased 23.1%.

In addition to the big gain reported in the higher education segment, university sales jumped by 12.6%. Sales of professional books rose by 5.5%.

Through the first 11 months of 2024, total sales were up 7.3% over 2023. Sales were up in every category with the exception of the children’s/YA nonfiction segment, where sales fell 2.7%.