Trade Book Revenues Reached $7.2B Last Year: AAP

By Dianna Dilworth 

Publishers book sales for trade books were $7.2 billion in 2015, up 0.8 percent from $7.1 billion in 2014.

Overall publisher revenue for 2015 was $15.4 billion, down 2.6 percent from the prior year. These metrics include sales data for trade, religious, K-12 instructional materials, higher education course materials, professional publishing, and university presses). AAP tracks sales from more than 1,200 publishers.

“For trade publishers, 2014 was a blockbuster year – especially in the Childrens and Young Adult Books category; so despite the challenging comps, increased sales in Adult Books helped the industry post gains in 2015,” explained Tina Jordan, vice president of the Association of American Publishers, in a statement. “We’ll explore the reasons for the gains in the upcoming StatShot Annual.”

According to the report, e-book sales declined in 2015, while audio book sales grew. In fact adult audio books were up 38.9 percent in 2015 over 2014.