May 2020 book sales

[fjtorres]

From Publisher Weekly:

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...fell-12-1.html

Bad news first.

Net sales fell 12.1% in May, compared to May 2019, for the 1,360 publishers who report to AAP’s monthly StatShot program. Similar to the April report, the net sales figure was heavily influenced by a steep drop in returns, which offset a decline in gross sales in the month. (AAP calculates net sales by deducting returns from gross sales.)

Total gross sales fell 17.4% in May, but returns dropped 45.2%, leading to the 12.1% decline in net sales. Religion was the only category to have an increase in gross sales in the month, of 0.2%, and combined with a 38.9% drop in returns, the category had a 7% increase in net sales.

Note that with so many bookstores still closed in May, there's a lot of books out there, boxed and waiting to be returned.

Also it says a lot that the only category with a boost in sales was religion.
Sign of the times.
(There's also a much bigger sign in the form of historical sales of another, non medical, product.)

Buried lede:

The May report did show the first big jump in e-book sales since the pandemic struck, with sales up 30.6% over May 2019, an increase that helped to offset print declines. The gain lifted sales of e-books up by 4.3% for the first five months of 2020.

Now imagine what the numbers must look like without the ebook boost.

More at the source.