Digital Book revenue has been in a state of decline since the Spring of 2021, but this all changed in November. The format increased by 5.6% and generated $91.5 million in revenue. For the first 11 months of the year, ebook sales were slightly down, by 4.6% and US sales were $984.0 million. Digital audiobooks sales were up 21.9% for November, coming in at $68.3 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 37.5% coming in at $2.6 million. Year to date digital audiobooks were up 14.9%, coming in at $700.3 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 15.5% coming in at $20.3 million.
Trade (Consumer Books) sales were up 5.7% in November, coming in at $990.4 million. In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of November, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were down 1.5%, coming in at $455.1 million; Paperbacks were up 8.9%, with $277.0 million in revenue; Mass Market was up 56.1% to $22.8 million; and Board Books were up 7.3%, with $23.0 million in revenue.
Year to date Trade revenues were up 13.0%, at $8.7 billion for the first eleven months of the year. Hardback revenues were up 12.8%, coming in at $3.4 billion; Paperbacks were up 19.9%, with $2.8 billion in revenue; Mass Market was up 9.7% to $221.5 million; and Board Books were up 8.6%, with $192.3 million in revenue.
Next month, we will finally get finalized statistics on how many audiobooks and ebook sales occurred in the US, which should give us an indication on how 2022 will play out.
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.
