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US publishers’ revenues were up 4.2% year-on-year to $662.2m in February ($597.4m in February 2015), with sales for the first two months of the year now down 3% overall ($1.68bn) compared to 2015, according to statistics released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).
The latest monthly AAP StatShot - which collects sales data from over 1,200 publishers - showed gains in children’s/YA books and religious presses, although a decline in adult books meant an overall decline for trade titles of 0.9% to $418.m compared to February 2015 (8.2% year-to-date versus 2015).
Children’s/YA books had $101.2m in sales in February 2016, up 17% from $86.5m in February 2015, while religious presses had $35.4m in sales, up 3.2% year-on-year ($34.3m in 2015). Adult Books had $281.5m in sales in February 2016, down 6.6% ($301.2m in 2015).
In terms of formats for trade books, paperback, downloaded audio and hardbacks grew 9.8%, 42.9% and 4.6% respectively, while e-books were down a full 18.7%. The AAP data does not include self-published e-books.
Educational Materials had gains of 5.5% for K-12 instructional materials and 58.5% for higher education course materials, in February 2016. The AAP highlight that education sales in February are "typically low" in relation to the rest of the year.
Professional publishing was down 19% in February 2016 year-on-year. This sector includes business, medical, law, scientific and technical books and journals.