September: Another Month of Rising Book Sales

The Association of American Publishers released its latest figures on book sales: an increase of 5.7 percent for the month of September, and yearly sales maintaining their climb with an increase of 9.9 percent. The Harry Potter bubble is slowly receding; children’s/YA hardcover was down 12.8 percent over August’s numbers. But don’t shed a tear just yet: The category still produced $87.1 million in sales, over $15 million more than adult mass market paperbacks, which are in decline 7.5 percent for the month and 6.3 percent for the year to date.

And here’s one possible sign of the future: “Audio Book sales posted an increase of 36.5 percent for September compared to last year’s figures with sales totaling $22.5 million; sales for the whole year were up by 40.1 percent. E-books sales rose by 27.7 percent for the month ($2.9 million); the category also posted an increase of 23.6 percent for the year.” Let’s see what e-book sales are like for November, once the Kindle numbers are factored in, eh?

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