Books and publishing had a strong year by some industry-revenue measures, but the gains were uneven. U.S. publishing revenue and UK publishing income rose in 2025, while education publishing declined in both markets; formats and sales channels moved at different speeds, too. And publisher growth alone says little about the income of individual authors or how often readers buy new books.
Is the book publishing industry growing?
In the United States and United Kingdom, the latest full-year figures show growth at the aggregate level. They do not describe one uniform global market: the U.S. figures measure publisher revenue, the UK figures measure publishing income, and Canadian statistics use a separate operating-revenue frame for 2024.
| Market | Measure and period | Reported total and change |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Association of American Publishers (AAP), calendar 2025 | $33.4 billion in book and course-material publisher revenue; up 2.5% year over year. |
| United Kingdom | Publishers Association, calendar 2025 | £7.4 billion in publishing income, a record; the export market was £4.7 billion, up 4%. |
| Canada | Statistics Canada, 2024 compared with 2022 | $1.7 billion in book-publishing operating revenue; up 3.1% from 2022. |
These totals are useful as national snapshots, not as a league table or a combined global figure. They cover different years and statistical definitions, and the U.S. and Canadian amounts are in their respective national currencies.
Growth did not reach every sector
The U.S. trade category—consumer books—grew 2.7% to an estimated $21.7 billion in 2025, according to AAP’s 2026 announcement. Within it, adult fiction rose 3.9% to $7.1 billion, adult nonfiction rose 1.3% to $6.0 billion, and children’s and young adult fiction rose 0.9% to $5.4 billion. Outside trade, PreK–12 instructional-material revenue fell 2.5% to $5.2 billion; professional and scholarly publishing excluding journals fell 1.2% to $1.3 billion.
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The UK showed a similar split between consumer publishing and education, but with a different mix. Consumer publishing revenue reached £2.6 billion in 2025, up 3%. Fiction rose 8% to £1.1 billion and children’s publishing rose 7% to £493 million, while non-fiction fell 3% to £1.0 billion. Education publishing revenue fell 4% to £636 million; academic publishing, by contrast, rose 5% to £3.7 billion.
The Publishers Association points to constrained education budgets and the planned 2028 curriculum as factors likely to influence education-spending decisions. That is the association’s explanation of the context, not a quantified estimate that either factor caused the reported decline.
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Are print books still selling?
Yes: print remained a major source of publisher revenue in the figures available, even as digital formats grew. These are revenue measures, not counts of copies sold or direct measures of what readers prefer.
| Market and scope | Digital | |
|---|---|---|
| U.S., all AAP categories | Print formats accounted for 50.6% of publisher revenue. | Ebooks and digital audio together accounted for 14.2% of revenue, up 4.3% year over year. |
| U.S., trade publishing | Print formats accounted for 76.3% of trade revenue, according to AAP COO Syreeta Swann. | Digital formats accounted for 21.5% of trade revenue. Digital audio revenue rose 5.3% to $2.5 billion; ebook revenue rose 3.2% to $2.2 billion. |
| UK, consumer publishing | Print revenue was £2.1 billion and represented 79% of consumer revenue. | Consumer digital revenue rose 7% to £558 million. Digital audiobook revenue rose 10% to £255 million. |
| Canada, book sales | Non-online print title sales were 59.6% of book sales, but declined 0.9% to $817.0 million in 2024. | Not stated in the cited Statistics Canada release for this comparison. |
The U.S. figures also show growth in particular physical formats: AAP reported 2025 hardback revenue up 3.9% to $8.2 billion and paperback revenue up 2.1% to $8.0 billion across the industry. Swann described the overall pattern this way: “This year’s report reflects a healthy and agile publishing industry.” Her statement and the trade-format figures are from AAP’s 2026 announcement.
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Canada is a useful reminder that a large print share need not mean every print category is expanding. Non-online print titles remained the country’s largest reported book-sales category in 2024, but were the only category in that release to decline. The Canadian figures cover 2024, unlike the U.S. and UK 2025 snapshots.
Which sales channels gained or lost ground in the United States?
AAP’s 2025 channel estimates concern publisher revenue, not bookstore profit or the share of consumer purchases made through each type of retailer.
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| U.S. channel | 2025 publisher revenue | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|---|
| Online retail | $12.3 billion | Up 3.1% |
| Physical retail | $6.7 billion | Up 7.2% |
| Intermediary channels | $4.4 billion | Down 0.6% |
Both online and physical retail revenue rose in the estimate, with physical retail growing faster; intermediary-channel revenue edged down. The figures do not establish whether retailers themselves became more profitable or how many sales occurred in each channel.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why might authors struggle if publishing revenues are up?
Publisher revenue and author earnings are different measures. Revenue reported across an industry does not show how that money is distributed among publishers, authors, books, or other participants. It also does not tell us how much a typical writer earns.
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The Authors Guild’s June 2026 article cites its 2023 author-income survey: median annual book income among full-time authors was $10,000, while median income from all writing-related work was $20,000. Those are survey findings from an author organization, not a measure of every author or a direct comparison with publisher revenue. They illustrate why rising industry totals cannot by themselves answer whether authors are earning a living.
Are readers buying new copies of the books they read?
Not always, according to a survey described by the Authors Guild in June 2026. The article says a Codex Group survey sponsored by the Guild found that 25% of readers paid for a new print or ebook copy of a book they had read in the previous month. It also reports that 19% of books in text formats were bought as new print or ebook copies and 6% were accessed through subscriptions.
These percentages describe the survey and the population covered by its methodology; without applying that methodology, they should not be treated as estimates for all readers. They do, however, mark an important distinction: a publisher’s revenue growth and the proportion of recently read books obtained as new copies are not the same statistic.
What do the industry totals measure—and what do they leave out?
AAP’s StatShot Annual estimates U.S. revenue for books and course materials. Its report description says the independent work by Industry Insights, Inc. combines submissions from publishers and distributors with market modeling, and estimates revenue, unit sales, and average net unit price across markets, formats, and channels. AAP’s public 2026 announcement reports the revenue figures summarized here; the full report is a paid download.
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The UK Publishers Association’s figures describe publishing income, while Statistics Canada reports operating revenue for Canada’s book-publishing industry. They are not interchangeable measures. Nor do any of these national totals establish a complete global outlook, the final full-year result for 2026, bookstore profitability, or author income across the industry.
That is how the year can look like a success and a strain at once: overall revenue rose in the U.S. and UK, but education and some other segments fell; print remained substantial while digital revenue advanced; and measures of author livelihood and reader access raise questions the aggregate totals cannot settle.
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