Religious book sales were up according to the latest monthly figures available from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), with a strong ending for 2011. Sales were reported to the AAP by 77 publishers, including 22 religion publishers.

Religious book sales were up 3.1% in December net sales over the same month the previous year, to $52.4 million, and up more than 8% for the year over 2010 to $645.1 million.

Other categories that made gains in December were children’s/young adult hardcover (up 12.3% to $67.1 million, down 4.7% for the year to nearly $662 million); e-books (up more than 72% for the month to $85 million and up 117.3% for the year to nearly $970 million); and downloaded audiobooks (up 17.4% for December to $10.2 million and up 25.5% for the year to nearly $99 million). Audiobooks—not downloaded—made a minor gain of 0.6% for the month to $12 million, but the category was down for the year 8.1% to $118.7 million.

Major trade categories that saw losses were adult hardcovers, down 11.8% for the month and down 17.5% for the year; adult paperbacks down nearly 12 % for the month and down 15.6% for the year; adult mass market down nearly 41% for the month and down nearly 36% for the year; and children’s/young adult paperback, down 13% and down 12.7% for the year.

Among Christian publishers reporting to the AAP were eChristian, Concordia Publishing House, Crossway, David C Cook, InterVarsity Press, Moody Publishers, NavPress, Thomas Nelson and Tyndale House Publishers.

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