We were waiting for the new industry sales figures that were due to appear in the new Statshot report. The Association of American Publishers announced on Monday that publishers' revenue fell by 3 percent for the month of March and 2,7 percent for the first quarter of 2016.
These statistics are 4 months behind, which makes the report more or less a reflection on the latest trends than those published quarterly since the first part of the year, precisely those that the biggest publishers do not want to admit because of the drop in most sales of e-books or digital books.
As expected, e-books were the worst-performing format in terms of sales for the 1.200 publishers who shared their data with the AAP. E-book revenue has fallen by 22 percent, while print revenue has increased by 6 percent and hardcover revenue has decreased by 8,5 percent.
Book sales by publishers for March 2016 totaled 501,8 million , a 3 percent decrease compared to the same month of the previous year. These figures include sales across all genres, such as fiction, non-fiction, religious texts, educational materials, professional publications, and university publications.
For the first quarter of the year, sales fell 2,7 percent to $2.14 billion. Adult books declined 10,3 percent to $941.3 million; children's and YA books fell 2,1 percent to $320,5 million; and religious books fell 5,8 percent to $105,9 million.
The trends now favor printed books with an increase of 6,1 percent, audiobooks which grew by 35,3 percent , while hardcover and e-books fell by 8,5 percent and 21,8 percent respectively.
An important report that puts the state of e-book sales on the table.