So far, this year has not been a good one for the publishing industry. The AAP has reported big losses for virtually all categories for the first quarter of 2009.
For the month of January 2009 the Association of American Publishers (AAP) reported sales were generally down nearly 30%, the one bright spot being Children’s/YA Hardcover, which had a 60% sales jump. That enabled an overall gain of 3.6% to yield $785 million in sales. Religious Books saw a decrease of 9 percent for the month with sales totaling $46.5 million.
February 2009 sales decreased by 12.0 percent at $447.5 million. Religious Books saw a decrease of 19.0 percent for the month with sales totaling $44.3 million.
March showed an even greater slump, down by 17.0 percent at $388.4 million. Religious Books saw a decrease of 11.4 percent for the month with sales totaling $44.1 million; sales were down by 12.0 percent for the first quarter of the year.
The biggest category loser in the first quarter was audio books. They posted a decrease of 43.3 percent in March with sales totaling $7.6 million; sales for the year were down by 47.1 percent.
The big gain went to e-book category. Sales jumped up by 110.4 percent for the month ($10.0 million), reflecting an increase of 131.0 percent for the quarter.
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