Book sales are retail stores were up 2 percent in August 2016, as compared to August 2015.
The latest figures are estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. August book sales, which is usually a busy time for back-to-school shopping, increased to $1.66 billion from $1.63 billion during the comparable quarter last year. Publishers Weekly has more:
The increase in August followed a 1% decline in bookstore sales in July which was the first time monthly sales fell in 2016 compared to 2015. For the first eight months of 2016, bookstore sales were up 4.5% over the comparable period in 2015, hitting $7.85 billion.