The Association of American Publishers issued a press release this morning announcing that book sales “remained steady” in 2006, “on par with figures from 2005, at $10,027.9 billion compared to 10,044.2 billion in 2005, a small decline of 0.2 percent.” The good news is that many categories saw their sales rise over the last year, from adult hardcover (up 4.1 percent), adult paperbacks (8.5 percent), and electronic books (24.1 percent). This was, however, offset by the decline in audio books (down 11.8 percent), religious books (down 10.2 percent), and YA/children’s hardcovers (down 29 percent)—although the explanation for that last figure is pretty simple: 2005 had Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; 2006 didn’t have any Potter at all.