August Brings a Third Straight Record Month for US Book Sales
United States publishers sold a record US$819 million of trade books in August, up 13 percent on a year earlier.
Trade books, meaning books sold to general readers through bookshops and online retailers rather than to schools or universities, have now set a monthly sales record three months in a row, according to the Association of American Publishers' StatShot report, a monthly survey of publisher revenue Publishers Marketplace.
Adult books did the heavy lifting. Sales rose 16 percent to US$614 million. Fiction led the way at US$361 million, up 18 percent. Nonfiction followed at US$253 million, up 13 percent.
Paperbacks grew fastest among adult formats. Sales climbed 25 percent to US$231 million. Hardcovers rose 14 percent to US$191 million. Audio, meaning downloaded audiobooks and CDs, increased 15 percent to US$93.8 million.
Ebooks were the outlier. Adult ebook sales fell 4 percent to US$73.0 million. That was the only adult format to lose ground.
Books for younger readers also grew. Children's and young adult sales, which cover picture books through teen fiction, reached US$206 million, up 4 percent.
The August total beats July's US$804.1 million, itself then a record. July trade revenue had risen 16.4 percent year on year, while overall industry revenue was up 14.0 percent for the month, according to the association's July report Association of American Publishers.
What makes this stand out is the breadth. Print, audio and children's lists all moved up together. Only ebooks slipped.
For readers, this means full shelves. For publishers, it means momentum heading into autumn, the season when hardcovers pile up for holiday gifting.
The run follows a steadier 2024, when total US publishing sales rose 4.1 percent to US$32.5 billion and unit sales increased 3.4 percent to 3.1 billion copies, according to final association estimates Publishers Weekly.
