Print sales hit $745 million as trade posts second record month
Adult nonfiction led the surge, up 23 percent, while a separate e-book tally shows digital revenue sliding 3.4 percent.
Print is having a real moment — $745 million in July, up 18 percent, with fiction and nonfiction both pulling their weight. But don't let the headline number lull you: this is print's win, not the whole market's. If you sell into digital, another outlet's tally shows e-book revenue down 3.4 percent the same month, and these two data sets don't fully reconcile — treat both as directional, not gospel.
Why it matters to you: Where a book is bought — print versus digital — is shifting again, and that changes which format deserves your marketing dollars this fall.
This story ran in the Coral Wire edition of Fri, Sep 25 2026, when the Coral Index stood at 42/100 (Headwinds).
Coverage — 2 sources
Every outlet found reporting this story.
- Print Gains Boost Trade Book Sales For Another Record in Julylunch.publishersmarketplace.com
- US e-book revenues were down 3.4% in July 2026goodereader.com
Also in this edition
- Amazon cuts KDP weekly upload cap to two titles per formatPlatform — It's not Amazon's first squeeze on volume publishing — a similar limit reportedly dates back to 2023
- Unsealed filings tie OpenAI training data to LibGenLegal — Court documents describe the pirated book repository in blunt internal terms, not corporate euphemism
- Florida orders schools to pre-ban books before parents complainLegal — Commissioner Henry Mack's seven-page letter gives districts a 90-day plan to weed titles proactively, backed by threats to funding
- HarperCollins pulls David Walliams titles from its backlistMarket — The publisher has dropped his backlist rather than quietly letting it ride
- Copyright Alliance says piracy claims no fair use passLegal — The group argues pirated training data needs a compelling justification courts are unlikely to find, since legitimate copies are widely available.
- Granta's book sales fall 9% as rights income climbsMarket — The publisher's 2025 numbers show rights revenue growing by a quarter even as print and book sales slid
- Union Square launches Singularity, a 10-12 title novella lineMarket — The new imprint's first slate lands Fall 2026, including a fresh edition of Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
- Amazon ID checks and Meta bans expose rented platform riskPlatform — Authors are being pushed to own their customer data after watching KDP verification demands and Facebook account lockouts cut off access with little warning