AAP reports drops in sales

[Ros]

There are some pretty drastic drops in sales reported by the AAP lately:

https://the-digital-reader.com/2019/03/14/aap-reports-ebook-sales-down-5-in-january-2019/

Although the Ebook drop is the title, it's the drop in paperback and hardback sales that caught my eye, along with the overall downward trend. Audio might be bucking the trend, but it's still minor compared with the other formats.

I'd love to be able to compare those figures with current ones for self-publishers.

[TimothyEllis]

Sign of the times.

Audio books up 36.1%.

Just another woe is us piece, because Trad isn't adapting as the market changes.

[David VanDyke]

Mine are pretty standard for what I'd expect. No dramatic drops.

[TimothyEllis]

Mine are pretty standard for what I'd expect. No dramatic drops.

I'm 3 months from the last book, and not finished the next one yet. So the drop is expected.

[PJ Post]

Just another woe is us piece, because Trad isn't adapting as the market changes.

I don't think it's a matter of not adapting, I think it's a matter of shoring up and leveraging the old system in an effort to maximize short-term profits. As far as I can tell, they don’t give two sh*ts about tomorrow. Wall Street was the same way in 2008. Everyone knew 'the end was nigh', but they just kept riding out each new bonus cycle. It’s not that they don’t get it, it’s that they don’t care.

[Bill Hiatt]

Or maybe it's both not getting it and not caring. Those aren't the same, but they aren't mutually exclusive.

Are these ebook figures only for ebooks with an ISBN? In that case, we know they aren't reflective of what's happening in self-publishing.

[Ros]

Are these ebook figures only for ebooks with an ISBN? In that case, we know they aren't reflective of what's happening in self-publishing.

Figures are from the Association of American Publishers. It includes many large and medium publishers, but no self-publishers.