Category % Change August % Change YTD
(Measured in $ sales against same time periods, 2005)
* Number of reporting companies.
The soft summer bookstore sales reported by the U.S. Census Bureau were not reflected in August sales estimates from the AAP. The only trade segment to show a decline in the month was the children's hardcover category, which was still dealing with comparisions from the sale of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in summer 2005. Although sales slipped 0.6% in the January through August period, the elhi segment continued to perform better than expected in a year in which there were far fewer state textbook adoption opportunities than in 2005.
Adult Hard (17)* 14.0% -7.0%
Adult Paper (18) 3.3 12.5
Mass Market (9) 16.3 8.1
Juvenile Hard (13) -18.2 -42.1
Juvenile Paper (13) 13.1 1.4
Audio (10) -0.6 -25.6
Electronic (8) -2.7 19.9
Religious (5) -19.5 -18.0
Higher Ed. (13) 3.0 2.4
Univ. Pr. Hard (38) 7.9 -2.3
Univ. Pr. Paper (37) 1.7 5.3
Professional (9) 10.9 5.3
Elhi (9) -1.6 -0.6