Following sales slumps in July and August, business rebounded in September, according to AAP’s StatShot report. Sales in the month increased 14.4% at the 1,324 publishers who provide data to AAP, as increases in four major segments offset declines in three others.
The biggest bump came in sales of religious books, where sales rose 21.2% over September 2024. However, the huge September increase still left sales of religious books down 0.4% for the first nine months of the year.
Three of the four trade categories also had increases in September, with only children’s/YA nonfiction posting a decline with sales down 4.7%. Children’s/YA fiction sales increased 9.2% in September. For the first nine months of 2025, total children’s sales slipped 1.1% compared to 2024.
In the adult categories, fiction jumped 15.4% in September driven by massive gains in hardcover sales—up 42.7%—plus a 12.2% increase in trade paperback sales. E-book sales were down 7.3% in the month and digital audiobook sales inched up 1.2%.
Adult nonfiction sales had a 6.8% increase in September, which was also led by strong print gains. Trade paperback sales jumped 24.7% in the month and hardcover sales rose 3.2%. Both digital formats had declines of more than 10%.
Despite improvement in September, adult fiction sales were down 3% through the first nine months of 2025 from a year ago and nonfiction was off 5.9%.
In other areas, sales of professional books dropped 12.1% in September, while sales of university presses sales slipped 1.8%. Sales were unavailable for both educational categories due to insufficient reporting levels.
Through the first nine months of 2025, sales from reporting publishers were down 0.4%.
