Religious presses improved in August 2015 compared to August 2014, according to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot report. While total industry sales were down 2.8 percent year over year, religious presses posted 41.7 percent growth. Religious presses and “all other” improved the most this month (44.9 percent growth), while every other category posted a decline relative to August 2014.

The growth is a good sign for Christian retailers, given that overall year-to-date religious sales have lagged behind last year’s by 2.3 percent. The overall industry has done no better, declining by 2.3 percent as well in year-to-date statistics.

Religious press growth for August 2015 can be attributed to strong hardback sales, which nearly doubled their year over year value with a net positive change of 86.6 percent. E-books continued their July slump; sales declined 15.1 percent in August 2015 relative to August 2014.

The e-books category has fared poorly for most of 2015 and declined even further this month, down 9.0 percent in year-to-date sales. As was the case in July, the only religious category to see positive year-to-date growth is paperback, which has a respectable 2.8 percent increase over 2014 sales.

• Prev
• Next