Trade book sales hit a third straight record month
August sales grew 13 percent to $819 million, with paperbacks up 25 percent and ebooks down 4 percent, per AAP's StatShot
Three months running of record sales is not noise, it's a pattern worth watching closely. The split underneath is the real story for you: paperbacks surged 25 percent while ebooks slid 4 percent, and fiction outran nonfiction by a wide margin, 18 percent growth versus 13. If you've been pricing or formatting on old assumptions about what readers want, this month's numbers are telling you something.
Why it matters to you: Trade book sales grew 13 percent to $819 million in August, the third consecutive record month reported by the AAP's StatShot report.
This story ran in the Coral Wire edition of Fri, Oct 16 2026, when the Coral Index stood at 22/100 (Storm warning).
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- August Marks Another Record Sales Monthlunch.publishersmarketplace.com
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