E-Books Decline 16.4% and Audiobooks increase by 29.2%

The Association of American Publishers has reported that from January to November 2016 e-books declined by 16.4% and digital audiobooks increased by 29.2%. This is good news for the audio industry that has been consistently been seeing massive gains over the past three years.

Trade Books

From Jan. – Nov. 2016 vs. the same time in 2015 trade books were flat at 0.5% growth year-to-date.

By Category:
- Adult Books were down 2.1% to $4.4 billion
- Childrens & YA Books were up 5.8% to $1.6 billion
- Religious Presses were up 8.6% to $455.4 million

By Format
- Paperback books grew 6.5% to $2.0 billion
- Hardback books grew 2.1% $2.5 billion
- Downloaded audio grew 29.2% to $244.1 million
- eBooks were down 16.4% to $1.1 billion

Educational Materials and Professional Books

Educational Materials had a revenue loss of 9.0% for PreK-12 Instructional Materials and 11.5% for Higher Education Course Materials from Jan. – Nov. 2016 vs. the same time in 2015
Professional Publishing was down 21.1% From Jan. – Nov. 2016 vs. the same time in 2015. These categories include business, medical, law, scientific and technical books. University presses were down 2.5% for the 11 months.

Michael Kozlowski (7738 Posts)

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about electronic readers and technology for the last four years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the Huffington Post, CNET and more. Michael frequently travels to international events such as IFA, Computex, CES, Book Expo and a myriad of others. If you have any questions about any of his articles, please send Michael Kozlowski an email to michael@goodereader.com

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