Total book sales slipped 1.9% in February for the 1,325 publishers that report their financial results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program. The only category to post a significant increase in the month was the higher education course materials segment, where sales rose 16.7%.

In trade, adult fiction sales inched up 0.3%, while adult nonfiction fell 5.6%. The two children’s/young adult segments had a tough month with fiction falling 14.1% and nonfiction dropping 9.3%. In adult fiction, only the two digital categories had increases in the month, with audio up 16.6% and e-book sales increasing 15.4%. With sales of $68.3 million, e-books were the second largest format in adult fiction in the month, trailing only sales of trade paperbacks. The decline in adult nonfiction sales was largely due to the 15.1% drop for trade paperbacks.

All formats in children’s/YA fiction had sales declines in February with sales of hardcovers and paperbacks down 19% and 10.7%, respectively. The results were largely the same in nonfiction, with hardcover and paperback sales down 13.3% and 10.1%, respectively.

Even the religious books segment, which has seen steady growth for several years, could not escape the lackluster February, with sales dipping 0.9% from last February. Sales in the biggest format, hardcover, managed a 1.1% increase in the month, but paperback and e-book sales fell 8.5% and 11.6%, respectively. Despite the small February decline, sales of religious books rose 3% in the first two months of 2025.

In the remaining two categories, sales of professional books fell 4.9% in February while sales of university press titles rose 2.9%.

Through the first two months of 2025, total sales from reporting publishers were down 1.7%. Sales of adult fiction books fell 4.3% in the two-month period while nonfiction declined 2.7%. Sales of children’s/YA fiction dropped 6.7%, but nonfiction sales rose 5.8%.