The latest monthly sales report (December 2015) has been released from the Association of American Publishers; it offers an opportunity for analysis of 2015’s performance against 2014 and earlier. Publishers Lunch has done their usual thorough review of the figures, including in-depth commentary, available by subscription only.
For the month of December 2015, ebook sales continued their decline to the tune of 33 percent against the prior year. (Things started to go off a cliff in October 2015.) Michael Cader’s analysis mentions that the ebook sales decline could be attributable to no ebook equivalent to coloring books (which boosted print sales), a consumer switch to digital audio formats (which experienced a very nice increase in sales), the continuing decline of Nook, the rise of Kindle Unlimited (Amazon’s ebook subscription service), and/or the return to agency pricing by traditional publishers (leading to higher-priced ebooks).
Bottom line: The AAP numbers are just one facet of the industry—the traditional publishers report these numbers themselves—and have to be placed in context with data from other sources, such as Nielsen and AuthorEarnings. If you missed it, we recommend taking a look at our March 9 item, What Do We Know about Print and Ebook Sales Trends?
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
