Children’s and Young Adult Drive Book Sales for 2014

The AAP reports book sales for 2014 rose 4.9% to $15.72 billion compared to 2013, driven by children’s and YA books, up 20.8% to $1.9 billion for the year.

By Dennis Abrams

The American Association of Book Publishers (AAP) has reported that book sales for 2014 rose 4.9% to $15.72 billion compared to 2013, based on figures submitted to the AAP’s StatShot program by 1,209 publishers.

This increase was driven by increased sales of children’s and young adult books.

Sales for children’s and YA books rose by 20.8% to $1.9 billion for 2014, while children’s and YA e-book sales soared by 33.7% to $227.3 million, making up 12.0% of sales, up from 10.9% in 2013.

Instructional materials for K-12 saw a 10.7% increase to $3.2 billion, professional books rose by 10.1% to $798.1 million.

Adult trade book sales as a whole fell 1.4%. Trade paperback sales rose by 2.3%, mass market paperback sales fell by 4.2%, and adult trade hardcover titles declined by 8.2%.

Adult trade e-book sales rose 1.0% to $1.29 billion.

About the Author

Dennis Abrams

Dennis Abrams is a contributing editor for Publishing Perspectives, responsible for news, children's publishing and media. He's also a restaurant critic, literary blogger, and the author of "The Play's The Thing," a complete YA guide to the plays of William Shakespeare published by Pentian, as well as more than 30 YA biographies and histories for Chelsea House publishers.