CATEGORY % CHANGE November % CHANGE YTD
It was about as bad as it gets in November with all but two of the publishing segments tracked by the AAP showing declines in the month. Sales in the children's/YA segment, fueled by the Twilight series plus several other notable new titles, rose 14.3%, while e-books sales continued to post strong gains, jumping 108.3% in the month. Otherwise it was nothing but negative numbers with declines extending from trade houses to educational and professional publishers. In addition to declines in gross sales, the trade publishers were hurt by steep returns in the month, with returns in the adult hardcover category up almost 20% and trade paperback returns up over 11%. With only one month to go in the year, the 81 publishers who report their sales to the AAP showed a decline in nine segments with a sales increase in only four.
(Measured in $ sales against same time periods, 2008) * Number of reporting companies.
Adult Hard (17)* -13.9% -13.3%
Adult Paper (18) -13.0 2.9
Mass Market (9) -29.5 -2.5
Children's/YA Hard (13) 14.3 -20.6
Children's/YA Paper (14) -18.0 3.8
Audio (13) -6.6 -21.6
Electronic (13) 108.3 63.8
Religious (14) -9.0 -10.4
Higher Ed. (10) -19.0 2.0
Univ. Pr. Hard (38) -23.1 -9.3
Univ. Pr. Paper (38) -21.5 -8.6
Professional (9) -19.3 -3.6
Elhi (8) -9.8 -4.0