June Trade Sales Soar

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had much more of an impact on sales in the children's hardcover and spoken-word audio segments than Living History did in the adult hardcover category. Led by Phoenix, children's hardcover sales soared 645% in June, while audio sales, where Phoenix sales were also strong, jumped 165%. Phoenix had a much more limited impact on children's paperback sales, although sales still rose 11.5%. Despite a burst of Living History sales in June, adult hardcover sales were only up 1.8% in the month, while trade paperback sales enjoyed an 8.5% increase. E-books continued to show large monthly gains, with sales in June up 218%, to $500,000. Excluding e-books, for the first six months of 2003, the children's hardcover segment had the largest sales increase at 67%, while the 16.3% decline in the adult hardcover segment was the largest drop among the categories tracked by the AAP.