Record Year for British Publishing in 2019 (publishersweekly.com)

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its StatShot report for August 2022 reflecting reported revenue for Trade (Consumer Books), Higher Education Course Materials, and Professional Publishing. The report does not include PreK-12 revenue due to delays in data collection but will be updated as soon as that data becomes available. Total revenues across all categories, excluding PreK-12, for August 2022 were down 9.0% as compared to August 2021, coming in at $1.4 billion. Year-to-date revenues were down 5.0%, at $7.9 billion for the first eight months of the year. Trade (Consumer Books) sales were down 10.5% in August, coming in at $744.3 million.

Amazon.com announced its selections for Best Books of the Year So Far, naming Tara Westover’s memoir Educated: A Memoir the top pick overall. The annual list is hand selected by the Amazon Books Editors and features the Top 20 books released between January and June 2018—offering readers a mid-year look at the best books. The Amazon Books Editors’ picks for the first 10 of the Top 20 Best Books of the Year So Far are: 1. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover: Tara Westover didn’t see the inside of a classroom until she was seventeen, but it was an experience that dramatically changed the trajectory of her life. This stirring memoir chronicles how she survived her survivalist upbringing, eventually earning a PhD from Cambridge University. It’s a rousing reminder that knowledge is, indeed, power. 2. The Great Alone: A Novel by Kristin Hannah: In this pressure cooker of a page-turner, a damaged Vietnam vet moves his family to the wilds of Alaska. Initially it’s a welcome change, but as winter approaches, and his mental state deteriorates, his wife and daughter find themselves in an increasingly precarious position. Like her mega-bestselling The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone highlights the heroics of everyday people, especially women. 3. The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson: Clever, informative, and sometimes endearingly bumbling, this mix of natural history and crime opens up new worlds. Readers will never look at an old stuffed bird or an elaborately tied fishing fly the same way again. Click Read More below for additional information.

The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics for the 13th week of the second quarter for fiscal year 2023 showing consistent or improved delivery performance across all mail categories. The average time for the Postal Service to deliver a mailpiece or package across the nation remained at just 2.5 days. FY23 second quarter service performance scores covering Jan. 1 through March 31, included: *First-Class Mail: 91.0% of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fiscal first quarter. *Marketing Mail: 94.6% of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an increase of 0.7 percentage point from the fiscal first quarter. *Periodicals: 86.6% of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from the fiscal first quarter.