Faith-based publishers reported a modest bump in hardcover sales for October, though net paperback sales fell by 32% compared to the previous October, according to the latest figures available from the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Net paperback sales from religious presses fell from $10.7 million in October 2012 to $7.3 million in October a year later. That drop resulted in the total net paperback sales for the first 10 months of 2013 declining 4% over the same period in 2012—$106.9 million and $111.3 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, net hardcover sales from religious presses grew by 8.3% in October, with sales of $36.4 million surpassing October 2012’s $33.6 million. This growth helped to somewhat offset an overall downward slump in hardcover sales for the first 10 months of 2013, with year-to-date hardcover sales at the end of October down 6.6% versus the same period in 2012—$235.1 million, from $251.7 million a year before.

Religious presses’ net sales of all titles, including ebooks, shrank from $60 million in October 2012 to $59.7 million in October 2013, a 0.4% decrease. Total net sales from the first 10 months of 2013 fell by 3.7% compared to the same period in 2012—$462.5 million versus $480.4 million, respectively.

Religious presses’ e-books continue to show slight gains—$5 million in October 2013 versus $4.9 million in October 2012, a 1.8% increase, helping to boost e-book sales for first 10 months of 2013 to $52.4 million, a 2.5% increase over the $51.1 million sold in the same period of 2012.

With nearly 1,200 publishers reporting, AAP's Monthly StatShot report includes data from Crossway, Gospel Light, Moody Publishers, David C Cook, Thomas Nelson and Tyndale House Publishers, among others represented by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.

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