For Immediate Release

September 6, 2005

Contact: Tina Jordan
Ph: 212-255-0200 x263
Email: tjordan@publishers.org

Publishing Sales Soar in July

September 6, 2005, New York, NY:  July brought a huge gain in publishing sales for ten categories tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).  Children's and Young Adult hardcover and Audio Books surged in July, with Adult Hardcover and Adult Mass Market making smaller gains.  Net sales were up 21.2 percent for the month, with sales for the year up 9.1 percent.

The sales figure for the adult hardcover category was up 8.4 percent in July, with sales of $76.7 million.  This category has grown 2.8 percent in 2005.  Adult paperback sales made gains in July of 9.4 percent (sales totaled $87.1 million).  Sales for this category have grown 7.9 percent over last year's sales.  The adult mass market category saw a large gain of 27.9 percent in July.  Sales totaled $57.7 million for this category, which is a slight gain of 0.6 percent for the year. 

The children's and young adult hardcover category posted an enormous 785.8 percent gain in July ($241.1 million).  This category has done extremely well in 2005 with sales 137.8 percent greater than last year's sales.  The children's and young adultpaperback publishing sales however, saw a small loss of 7.5 percent ($36.2 million). This category is up 5.6 percent for the year.

Audio book sales gained an impressive 197.9 percent in July ($33.5 million); year to  date sales are 40.5 percent greater than last year's.  E-books sales grew 49.7 percent ($1.3 million); this rapidly expanding category is up 38.2 percent for the year.  However, Religious book publishing sales were down 5.8 percent in July ($20.3 million); overall, sales were down by 2.9 percent for 2005.

Publishing sales of university press hardcover books showed a 31.9 percent loss in July (sales totaled $9.0 million).  This category has lost 25.1 percent in 2005. Sales  in the university press paperback category lost 38.1 percent in July (sales totaled  $17.7 million); this category has lost 18.9 percent for the year. Sales in the professional and scholarly category were down 4.9 percent for the month, with  sales of $98.1 million.

Sales in this category are down a slight 0.1 percent for the year.  Sales of  "other" types of books were down 32.0 percent in July (totaling $4.6 million), however, the year to date figure is 11.5 percent larger for 2005.

Higher education publishing sales grew 4.4 percent in July ($883.3 million); this category has witnessed a year to date net gain of 4.5 percent.  Finally, the net el-hi (elementary/high school) basal and supplemental K-12 category gained 5.0 percent in  July, with sales of $873.3 million, allowing for a 4.9 percent year to date growth figure.

The Association of American Publishers is the principal trade association for the U.S. book publishing industry with over 300 members, comprising most of the major commercial book publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and medium-sized
houses, non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies.

NOTE: All sales figures cited in this release are domestic net sales

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