AAP’s Annual StatShot

This morning in Washington, DC, the 2024 annual StatShot report has been released by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

It estimates that the United States’ publishing industry generated US$32.5 billion in aggregate publishing revenue for books and course materials across print and digital formats.

That’s an increase of 4.1 percent as compared to an adjusted $31.3 billion in 2023.

Syreeta Swann, the AAP’s chief operating officer, says, “This year’s report shows encouraging levels of year-over-year growth across multiple categories during 2024 and paints a picture of an industry that’s dynamic, fast-moving, and continuing to evolve.

“In reference to the five-year period covered by StatShot Annual, we saw the continuation of some long-term trends.

“Those include the dominance of print formats, which accounted for more than half of the overall market for each of the five years. And we saw sustained growth for the digital audio format, which has had a revenue increase of nearly 80 percent since 2020

The report was prepared by Industry Insights Inc., working with the AAP in design and execution. Data going into the report covers a five-year period—2020 to 2024—from 43 participants representing 1,281 publishers was included in the final analysis. “All data,” a disclaimer says, “is confidentially maintained by Industry Insights and not shared with AAP nor anyone else outside Industry Insights.”

Market segments covered by the annual edition comprise trade (consumer books, higher education, pre-kindergarten to grade-12, professional books, and university presses.

Swann offers several highlights:

• During 2024, the trade sector increased by 4.4 percent to an estimated $21.2 billion;
• Higher education course materials revenue increased by 1.8 percent to $4.3 billion;
• Pre-kindergarten to grade-12 instructional materials increased 5.1 percent to $5.3 billion;
• Professional books increased 2.5 percent to $1.4 billion; and
• University presses increased 3.1 percent to $350 million.

Because of the perennial energy behind the industry’s interest in the digital audio format, we might add that in the trade sector, digital audio revenue saw an increase of 22.5 percent

The structure of the annual report is different from the monthly StatShot series, of course, and features primarily a quick discussion of print, digital, and channels. We’ll look at digital first because that’s where the sharpest dynamic tends to lie in the industry today, just ask a fan of audiobooks.

Digital

In the overall industry, digital formats (digital audio and ebooks) accounted for 14 percent of all revenue for 2024, representing a revenue increase of 11.4 percent since 2023. Digital audio increased 22.5 percent to $2.4 billion in 2024, and ebooks increased 1.5 percent to $2.1 billion.

During the five years covered by this report, revenue for the digital audio format grew by a significant 78.1%, and ebooks by 2.0%. 

In trade, digital formats accounted for 21.2 percent of the overall revenue for 2024, returning an increase of 11.8 percent for the sector. Digital audio revenue for trade enjoyed a healthy increase of 22.5 percent while ebooks increased 1.8 percent.

Print

Overall in the US book publishing industry, print formats—hardback, paperback, mass market, and special bindings—accounted for 50.5 percent of publishers’ revenue.

During the year, revenue from the hardback format is reported to have climbed 3.6 percent to $7.9 billion, while paperbacks increased 3.2 percent to $7.8 billion.

In the trade, the hardback and paperback formats together accounted for nearly three-quarters of revenue (72 percent), maintaining their position as the most popular formats with $7.7 billion in revenue each. On a year-over-year basis in trade, the hardback format was up 3.6 percent and the paperback format climbed 3.0 percent.

Channels

Publishers’ online sales in 2024 made up the largest category of American-market retail channel action, at $12 billion.

In online retail:

• 34.5 percent of revenue was attributable to digital formats (ebooks and digital audio);
• 57.1 percent to print formats; and
• 6.5 percent was attributable to instructional materials and
• 1.9 percent went to physical audio or other formats.

During the year, physical retail revenue increased 3.3 percent to $6.2 billion. Over the five-year period, this channel grew 48.0 percent.

In the trade, physical retail revenue rebounded from the pandemic-era low in 2020, growing 4.3 percent to $4.7 billion in 2024 and 74.1 percent over the five-year period, while digital retail rose 11.0 percent to nearly $11 billion in 2024 and 28.5 percent over the same five-year period, although growth for both channels now appears to be returning to more typical patterns, the report suggests.

About the Annual StatShot Report

In its note on methodology, the AAP’s media messaging says that the annual report “offers a valuable financial overview of the book publishing industry by reporting estimated and aggregate revenue and reported unit sales.

For the calendar year 2024 report, Industry Insights conducted a comprehensive, multi-step analysis. Primary sources included US Census annual and quarterly data; survey responses from publishers; and historical StatShot monthly and annual reports from the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Additional reference points included Bowker’s Books In Print; Circana’s BookScan tools with PubTrack Digital; research on independent and self-publishing trends; and data from digital publishing markets.

“Supplementary context was drawn from relevant economic datasets and publicly available articles on the US publishing industry and individual publishing companies. All participants were asked to report on all five years covered by this report. This edition accounts for both participation changes and restatements for each year included.”