Digital book revenue in the United States increased for the second time this year in July 2023. Ebook revenues were up 2.3% for the month compared to July 2022 for a total of $83.7 million, and digital audiobooks remained up at 12.1% for July, coming in at $69.5 million in revenue. Physical Audio was up 4.7%, coming in at $1.0 million.
On a year-to-date basis, ebook revenues were down 0.7% compared to the first seven months of 2022, for $578.7 million. Digital audiobooks were up 16.6%, reaching $489.8 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 15.5%, coming in at $6.7 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during July, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were down 1.6%, coming in at $165.8 million; Paperbacks were down 11.9%, with $232.1 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 31.3% to $10.2 million; and Special Bindings were down 3.5%, with $16.0 million in revenue.
Year-to-date Trade revenues were down 1.8%, at $4.7 billion for the year’s first seven months. Hardback revenues were down 1.6%, coming in at $1.6 billion; Paperbacks were down 3.2%, with $1.7 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 24.8% to $83.2 million; and Special Bindings were down 1.9%, with $96.8 million in revenue.
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.