Digital book sales in the United States continue to decline. Throughout 2022 the format fell by 6.5% and generated 1.95 billion dollars in revenue. Except for 2020, the first year of the pandemic, ebook revenue has declined yearly since 2014. Digital audiobook sales continue to grow at a torrid pace. Digital Audio revenue increased, climbing 2.6% to $1.81 billion. Income attributable to this format has increased steadily since 2012.
The U.S. book publishing industry generated $28.10 billion industry-wide during the year, a decline of 2.6% as compared to 2021. Despite the slight decrease, total industry revenue remained 6% higher than the $25.87 billion total recorded for 2019, just before the onset of the pandemic.
Print sales saw a noticeable decline across the board for 2022. During the year, Paperback outpaced Hardback for the first time since 2014. Paperback sales decreased 0.5%, and revenue was $6.38 billion. Hardcover sales fell 13.6% coming in at $6.18 billion. With inflation and the cost of goods rising in 2022, it is no surprise that the average reader buys paperbacks en masse instead of hardcovers.
Five-Year Trends in PublishingÂ
- Overall, the publishing industry revenue grew 11.0% between 2018 and 2022.
- Revenue in the industry’s largest category, Trade (consumer books), grew 9.7%.
- Religious Presses, a part of Trade, decreased by 2.4%.
- Higher Education revenue decreased by 18.0%.
- PreK–12 Education revenue increased by 67.4%.
- Professional books revenue decreased by 20.6%.
- University Presses, the smallest category reported, increased by 3.9%.
- Revenue from Hardbacks increased 4.1% during the five-year period.
- Revenue from Paperbacks increased 15.6% between 2018 and 2022.
- Mass Market revenue declined a total of 37.7%.
- ebook revenue decreased 2.5% during the five-year period.
- Revenue from Instructional Materials, which includes textbooks, workbooks, review books, standardized tests, digital textbooks, course materials as well as online tools such as homework managers increased 13.0%.
- Digital Audiobooks revenue increased by 71.7%.
- The growth in Digital Audiobook revenue continues to overtake Physical Audio, which declined by 69.8% during the five-year period.
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.
