In the United States, e-book sales plummeted in the spring and this trend continued into the past summer. In July 2021, e-book sales fell 16% per month from July 2020 and generated $ 86.2 million. Meanwhile, digital audiobooks continue to soar. The format rose 5.5% for July, to revenue of $ 61.8 million. Physical audio fell 17.6% to $ 1.8 million.
E-book revenue declined 2.8% from the first seven months of 2020 to a total of $ 629.1 million. Digital audiobooks grew 16.4% to $ 440.3 million in revenue. Physical audio rose 3.3% to $ 12.5 million.
In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of July, in the Commerce category (Consumer books), related revenues increased by 1.8%, reaching $ 250.5 million; Paperbacks grew 30.0%, to $ 274.3 million in revenue; The mass market grew 9.8% to $ 25.8 million; and hardback books grew 3.9%, with sales of $ 17.6 million.
Year-to-date hardback revenues increased 21.5% to $ 1.75 billion; Paperbacks grew 18.3%, to $ 1.6 billion in revenue; The mass market grew 8.3% to $ 143.1 million; and Board Books grew 9.0%, with sales of $ 98.0 million.
Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for twelve years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post, and The New York Times. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
