U.S. book sales fell 9% in August compared to a year ago at the 1,367 publishers who report data to AAP’s StatShot program. All segments had declines in the month.
The largest drops came in the university press category, where sales fell 22.3%, and at religious publishers, which saw a 17.8% decline. Sales in the higher education course materials segment fell 6.5%. Sales in both trade segments also fell, with sales of adult books down 9.3% and sales of children’s/young adult books declining 10.9% in the month.