Category % Change January
(Measured in $ sales against same time period, 2001)
If every month was like January, the publishing industry would have much fewer problems. According to monthly estimates from the AAP, all trade segments had large gains in January 2002 compared to January 2001, led by a 94.1% increase in sales in the children's paperback segment and a 93.6% increase in adult hardcover, the latter of which benefited from the shipment of John Grisham's The Summons plus much lower returns. Lower returns also helped the children's hardcover segment, where sales rose 77.5%. The only negative numbers in the month were in the professional segment, where sales fell 7.3%, and university press hardcover, where sales dropped 6%.
Adult Hardcover 93.6
Adult Paperback 48.4
Juvenile Hardcover 77.5
Juvenile Paperback 94.1
Audio Books 48.7
Univ. Pr. Hardcover -6.0
Univ. Pr. Paperback 3.5
Mass Market Paperback 11.8
Professional -7.3
College Texts 10.3
School Texts 9.2