Book sales at brick and mortar bookstores rise 2% year on year

Book sales at brick and mortar bookstores rise 2% year on year

Jul 12 2016

Publishers' trade book sales (i.e. books for general readers) at physical retail stores in the USA rose for the second year in a row in 2015, climbing 1.8%, to $4.15 billion, according to the Association of American Publishers' StatShot Annual. Physical store sales comprise about 26% of publisher revenue and included more than 610 million trade books during the year.

Online continued to be the top sales channels for publishers' revenue in the trade category, comprising 37% of the market. Some 806 million units were sold online in 2015.

In terms of revenue, sales of all books in 2015 fell 0.6% (mainly because of "a challenging year in the education markets").

In trade, adult books was the category with the highest growth: up 6%, to $10.47 billion in revenue, with adult nonfiction books (including coloring books) providing the most revenue.

More News Stories