Coronavirus Update: AAP StatShot Shows US Book Market in May - Publishing Perspectives

Today's trip into the Catosphere took Panzer to the Publishing Perspectives site. With a little digging in the posts, our traveling kitty boy found one about book sales in May.

The post by Porter Anderson quotes extensively from the Association of American Publisher's (AAP) StatShot report. According to the StatShot report a comparison of May 2020 to May 2019 shows a 12.1 percent decline in retail bookstore sales. Not surprisingly, both audio and ebook increased in sales of 20 percent for audio books and 39.2 percent for ebooks. The post includes several charts and graphs showing hardback, paperback, ebook and audio book sales and comparisons for different time periods. Of note, is the fact book returns are down by 45.2 percent over the same time period last year. Bookstores can return the unsold books to the publishers. It's also not surprising, the returns are down as bookstores are closed and there's no one to package and return the books to the publishers. Once bookstores re-open the returns will begin.

It's not a surprise, human. They're closed.

Panzer says, "It doesn't surprise this little kitty that, if the bookstores are in lockdown, book sales are down."

Note: Because of all the charts and graphs, this is a huge post. Bring a thermos of tea and six muffins for today's reading selection.

To read the post tootle over to AAP StatShot