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 is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
