Digital book revenues have declined every month this year, but one. In the United States they saw another 2.1% dip in sales and generated $82.9 million in October 2022. Year-to-date eBook revenues were down 5.9% as compared to the first ten months of 2021 for a total of $844.8 million. Digital audiobooks continue to soar, sales increased by 16.4% for October, coming in at $74.9 million in revenue. Physical Audio was up 16.2% coming in at $1.9 million. Over the course of the first ten months of 2022, digital audiobooks was up 7.4%, coming in at $693.1 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 30.0% coming in at $12.8 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of October, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were down 16.7%, coming in at $443.8 million; Paperbacks were down 14.2%, with $296.8 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 65.7% to $7.2 million; and Special Bindings was down 8.5%, with $25.0 million in revenue. This is quite surprising that every category of hardcover and paperback sales were down.
Year-to-date Trade revenues were down 5.1%, at $7.5 billion for the first ten months of the year. Hardback revenues were down 12.9%, coming in at $2.6 billion; Paperbacks were up 2.1%, with $2.7 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 24.8% to $151.4 million; and Special Bindings were down 2.7%, with $165.7 million in revenue.
Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.