AAP StatShot: In 2023, US Revenues Were $12.6 Billion

From Publishing Perspectives:

In its release today (March 26) of its December 2023 StatShot report, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) the year-to-date figures cover last year, with total revenues across all categories in December 2023 down 2.5 percent as compared to December 2022, at US$970.7 million.
Year-to-date revenues, the AAP reports, for the overall industry were up 0.4 percent at US$12.6 billion.

As Publishing Perspectives readers know, the AAP’s numbers reflect reported revenue for tracked categories including trade (consumer books); higher education course materials; and professional publishing.

Trade Revenues

Calendar Year 2023

Trade revenues were down 0.3 percent at $8.9 billion for the calendar year.

In print formats:

• Hardback revenues were up 0.4 percent, coming in at $3.3 billion
• Paperbacks were down 2.0 percent, with $3.1 billion in revenue
• Mass market was down 22.9 percent to $140.0 million
• Special bindings were up 2.2 percent, with $210.0 million in revenue

In digital formats:

• Ebook revenues were up 0.6 percent for the year as compared to the year 2022 for a total of $1.0 billion
• The closely watched digital audio format was 14.9 percent for 2023, coming in at $864.0 million in revenue
• Physical audio was down 16.2 percent, coming in at $12.9 million

December 2023
In December, the industry’s trade revenues were down  1.2 percent, at $719.0 million.

In print formats:

• Hardback revenues were down 8.6 percent, coming in at $245.3 million
• Paperbacks were down 7.2 percent, with $244.0 million in revenue
• Mass market was up 5.4 percent to $11.0 million
• Special bindings were down 14.2 percent, with $18.1 million in revenue

In digital formats:

• Ebook revenues were up 16.3 percent as compared to December 2022, for a total $90.3 million
• The digital audio format was up 24.5 percent for December, at $81.9 million in revenue
• Physical audio was down 7.8 percent, coming in at $1.1 million

. . . .

AAP StatShot reports the monthly and yearly net revenue of publishing houses from US sales to bookstores, wholesalers, direct to consumer, online retailers, and other channels. StatShot draws revenue data from approximately 1,240 publishers, although participation may fluctuate slightly from report to report.

“StatShot reports are designed to give ongoing revenue snapshots across publishing sectors using the best data currently available. The reports reflect participants’ most recent reported revenue for current and previous periods, enabling readers to compare revenue on both a month-to-month and year-to-year basis within a given StatShot report.

“Monthly and yearly StatShot reports may not align completely across reporting periods, because:

• “The pool of StatShot participants may fluctuate from report to report
• “As in any business, it’s common accounting practice for publishing houses to update and restate their previously reported revenue data

“If, for example, a business learns that its revenues were greater in a given year than its reports first indicated, it will restate the revenues in subsequent reports to AAP, permitting AAP in turn to report information that is more accurate than previously reported.”

Link to the rest at Publishing Perspectives

PG is happy to be corrected by visitors to The Passive Voice who are more statistically literate than he is, but it appears that sales of digital books – ebooks and digital audio – are growing briskly while sales of physical books in all forms are in decline.

PG notes that this is only a snapshot of recent sales, but he doubts that sellers of physical books in any form have been dancing in the streets in recent weeks and months.

From the standpoint of a vendor, sales of digital books and digital audio have to be inherently more profitable because there are no expenses associated with physical stores to pay directly or indirectly.

Organized groups of electrons can be moved from place to place at an extremely low cost.