Book Sales Up, But Not for Bookstores

According to yesterday’s press release from the Association of American Publishers, the net sales for publishing were up 6.4 percent in January, with significant growth in hardcovers for both adults and children. Not only that, audiobook sales went up 21.2 percent for the month, religious book sales were up 28.2 percent…even university press hardcovers showed a modest gain of about 4 percent.

So how does that square with last week’s report from PW that January’s bookstore sales dropped 1 percent, even as the entire retail segment of the economy showed a 4 percent gain? I don’t rightly know, but my intuition tells me it can’t all be Starbucks…

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