eBook revenue was down 3.9% in June 2023

August 22, 2023 By Michael Kozlowski Leave a Comment

Digital book revenue in the United States slightly declined by 3.9%, generating $79.9 million in June 2023. There is always a slight slowdown in ebook sales in the summer since most people are either on holiday or working. They tend to increase in the new year when people start populating their new e-readers with digital content. Digital audiobooks saw a rise of 15.3% for June, coming in at $74.1 million in revenue. Physical Audio was up 9.5% coming in at $1.1 million. Year-to-date e-book revenues were down 4.7% at $27.9 million, and digital audiobook revenue was up 6.8% at $23.0 million.

In terms of physical paper format revenues during June, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were up 5.8%, coming in at $191.2 million; Paperbacks were down 3.0%, with $246.0 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 39.1% to $13.0 million; and Special Bindings were up 2.5%, with $11.1 million in revenue. Year-to-date Trade revenues were down 0.9%, at $4.1 billion for the year’s first half. Hardback revenues were down 2.0%, coming in at $1.4 billion; Paperbacks were down 1.0%, with $1.5 billion in revenue; Mass Market was down 23.9% to $72.8 million; and Special Bindings were down 0.1%, with $80.8 million in revenue.

Total revenues across all categories for June 2023 were down 1.3% as compared to June 2022, coming in at $890.0 million. Year-to-date revenues were up 1.2%, at $5.6 billion for the first half of the year.

Michael Kozlowski has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Filed Under: Bookselling News, Business News and Statistics