Digital book sales have fallen by double digit figures in the first month of the year in the United States. They have plummeted by a massive 10.1% and the format generated $81.5 million. It’s worth noting that ebook sales were up 21% in January of last year, so the comparative percentage drop should be seen in that context. Meanwhile, digital audiobooks continue their explosive growth and sales increased by 5% for the month and brought in $62.1 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 38.2% coming in at $1.2 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of January, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 6.9%, coming in at $261.4 million; Paperbacks were up 8.7%, with $250.6 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 1.8% to $19.1 million; and Special Bindings were down 8.5%, with $15.2 million in revenue. Total revenues across all categories for January 2022 were up 3.7% as compared to January 2021, coming in at $1.3 billion.
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.
