US publishers report 4.6% sales growth in 2014

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has reported that US book sales increased by 4.6% in 2014 compared to the previous year, reports Publishers Weekly. The increase was led by a 9.9% sales rise in the K-12 instructional materials segment, while sales also rose in the professional segment (up 4.6%) and trade (up 4.2%). Total units increased 3.7%, reaching 2.70bn, while units in the trade category rose 4.1% to 2.42bn. The fastest-growing category in the trade segment was children’s/young adult books, where units increased 13.5% and sales rose 20.9% to US$4.40bn (A$56.78bn). Sales of adult fiction fell 2.0% in the year and nonfiction dropped 1.1%. The industry data is based on actual sales supplied by around 1800 US publishers. This is the first year the AAP has taken responsibility for producing this data, after not renewing its agreement with the Book Industry Study Group and BookStats.

Category: International news