Publishing’s summer sales slump continued in August, according to results from AAP’s most recent StatShot report. Total industry sales were down 4.4% in the month compared to last August and sales fell in every segment. The report, based on data from 1,320 publishers, followed a July report in which total sales were down 4.2%.

Similar to July, the trade segments saw declines across the board. The biggest drop came in adult nonfiction, where sales fell 17%, while children’s/young adult nonfiction sales declined 16.2%. Fiction fared better, but adult fiction sales were still off 3.4% and children’s/YA sales fell 8.2%.

In other areas, sales of religious books fell 7.7% in August and sales of professional books plunged 22.3%. University press sales slipped 4.8%. Sales were unavailable for both educational categories due to insufficient reporting levels.

Taking a deeper dive into the trade areas, in adult fiction, trade paperbacks had a steep decline, with sales down 14.1%, and e-book sales falling 4%. Sales of hardcovers rebounded, up 13.6%, and digital audio sales posted a small increase of 2.4%. In adult nonfiction, all formats had declines with trade paperback suffering the largest fall, off 17.4%, and hardcover sales did not do much better, dropping 16.6%. Both digital formats had declines, with digital audiobook sales off 13.2% and e-books down 5.3%.

In first eight months of 2025, adult fiction sales were down 5.5%, with every print format showing a decline, while digital audio was up 6.8% and e-book sales inched ahead 0.7%. Adult nonfiction sales were down 8% in the first eight months of the year with every format posting a decline. Hardcover sales had the smallest drop, with sales off just 0.1%, but trade paperback sales fell 12.9%. Digital audio and e-book sales fell 8.3% and 0.9%, respectively.

In children’s/YA, fiction sales fell 8.2% in August, with digital formats doing the best: digital audio rose 9.7% and e-book sales rose 2.1%. Hardcover sales took the biggest hit, falling 17.1% in August. Children’s/YA nonfiction sales tumbled 16.2%, with the important print formats of hardcover and paperback falling 14.2% and 19.3%, respectively. For the first eight months of the year, children’s/YA fiction sales fell 4%, but nonfiction posted a 4.3% increase.

For the industry segments that consistently report financials every month, sales through August were down 2.8%