Ebook revenues continued to decline, dropping 8.9% and generated $80.0 million USD compared to October 2018. Audiobooks continued to be another bright spot for the industry, increasing 15.1% to $49.6 million compared to the same month last year. The Downloaded Audio format has seen at least some growth every month since AAP began tracking it in 2012.
Total sales year to date in 2019 (Jan-Oct) were $12.57 billion, an increase of 3.6% over the same period last year. For the month of October overall publisher revenue was $1.13 billion, a slight decrease of 0.8% from the October 2018 total of $1.14 billion.
Physical paper formats continued dominate the Trade (consumer publications) category, accounting for $751.0 million, or 80.0% of the category’s $938.7 million in revenue for the month. Among physical formats, paperback books again saw the most growth, climbing 11.0% compared to October 2018.
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.
