There’s been a significant rise in the sale of religious press over the last year according to the Association of American Publishers. In 2021 the religion press category rose 21.9%, earning 1.42 billion dollars. An increase of this size is the first for religious publishing, and follows a decline of 8% seen in 2020.
The majority of the revenue was made from hardcover sales (58.4%), followed by audio sales which were 7%. For the first time ever, downloadable religious audio sales surpassed all other e-book sales, earning $100 million in 2021. (Publishers Weekly)
According to Guinness World Records, The best-selling book of all time is the Christian Bible. It’s not possible to precisely know how many copies have been printed in the roughly 1500 years since it was complied and standardized, however, research conducted in 2021 by the British and Foreign Bible Society pointed to an estimated total number lying between 5 and 7 billion copies.
- 5 billion – 7 billion copies of the Bible estimated printed
- 800 million copies of the Quran estimated printed
- 120 million copies of the Book of Mormon estimated printed (wordsrated.com)
Religious books sales revenue in the United States from 2017 to 2021 (Statista.com)
Publishers Weekly reports that “The findings are a part of AAP’s final estimate of total industry sales, which combines sales directly supplied by publishers with projections for companies that do not report data to the association. Nine ECPA members supply data to the report. Earlier in the year, the AAP reported that sales for religion reporting presses rose 11% in 2021 over 2020.”
An avid book reader and proud library card holder, Angela is new to the world of e-Readers. She has a background in education, emergency response, fitness, loves to be in nature, traveling and exploring. With an honours science degree in anthropology, Angela also studied writing after graduation. She has contributed work to The London Free Press, The Gazette, The Londoner, Best Version Media, Lifeliner, and Citymedia.ca.
