Ebook revenue in the United States are up 25.0% for the month of July 2020 as compared to July 2019 and the format generated $103.7 million. On a year-to-date basis, ebooks were up 14.2%, coming in at $652.9 million for the first seven months of 2020. Notably, ebook revenues in the Children’s and YA category saw a 76.4% jump during the month, coming in at $11.6 million. On a year-to-date basis, ebook revenues in the Children’s and YA category were up 63.3% for the first seven months of the year, coming in at $73.2 million.
Digital audiobook revenues saw a 24.9% increase as compared to July of last year, reaching $58.1 million in revenue. On a year-to-date basis, audiobook sales are up 15.6% as compared to the same period in 2019, with a total of $374.7 million for the year so far. The digital audio continues the long-standing trend of seeing continuous growth every month since 2012.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of July, in the Trade (consumer books) category, Hardback revenues jumped 47.0%, coming in at $246.0 million; Paperbacks were down 0.2%, with $211.2 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 1.1% to $23.5 million; and Board Books were up 20.4%, with $16.5 million in revenue.
On a year-to-date basis, Hardback revenues were $1.4 billion, up 5.1%; Paperbacks were $1.4 billion, up 1.4%; Mass Market was $132.4 million, a decline of 2.4%; and Board Books were $86.8 million, up 13.8% as compared to the first seven months of 2019.
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.
