The sales of ebooks in the United States in January were $75 million, this was down 6% from 2019 when the format generated $80 million. It is very likely that the next report from the American Publishers Association will have average sales figures for this time of year, but Marchs data will likely surge, due to people practicing social distancing and most bookstores are closed, so ebooks would be the only format many people could easily buy.
Digital Audiobooks brought in $50 million dollars in January 2020 and this is an increase of 14% over the same period last year when they brought in $43 million dollars in sales. Trade sales, which includes hardcover and paperback books, were also up 3.7%, coming in at $568 million.
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.
