Religious presses improved in October 2015 compared to October 2014, according to the latest available Association of American Publishers’ StatShot report. While total industry sales were down 5.2 percent year over year, religious presses posted an 11 percent rise—the second-highest rise of the month. K-12 instructional materials (up 3 percent), children & young adult books (up 8.1 percent) and “all other” (up 11.5 percent) also improved this month, while every other category posted a decline relative to October 2014.

The increase is a very good sign for Christian retailers. The strong October improvement means that overall year-to-date religious sales have broken even with last year, after lagging behind for the first nine months. Religious presses have accrued $449.9 million in revenue to date in 2015. This trend defies the overall industry, which has declined by 2.8 percent in year-to-date statistics.

The religious press sales increase for October 2015 can be attributed to strong hardcover sales (up 16.8 percent) and paperback sales (up 8.4 percent). Religious e-books continued the slump that began in July, with sales that declined 11.2 percent in October 2015 relative to October 2014.

Religious publishers' e-books have fared poorly for most of 2015 and declined even further this month, down 10.1 percent in year-to-date sales. Paperback sales continued to see positive year-to-date growth (up 2.9 percent), but for the first time in months hardback sales also improved over 2014 sales (up 1.9 percent).

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