Christian book sales were down slightly overall last month, but up over the same time last year, reveals a new tracking report from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).

According to aggregate data from 15 ECPA member houses, book sales month to month rose 1.15% for July, but returns were also up, by almost 13%, to leave a 1% dip in net sales month to month. Year to year, sales were down 2.23% in July. Returns were also down, by almost 26%, leaving a year-to-year net sales increase of 3.75%.

The ECPA report is drawn from information gathered and sent on to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), whose monthly updates include details from half-a-dozen other publishers--including general market houses with Christian divisions such as Hachette Book Group USA (FaithWords) and HarperCollins (Zondervan).

Other publishers reporting religious book sales to the AAP are Oxford University Press and St. Anthony Messenger Press.

"People are always looking for new information as to how the category is going, and we decided that it might be helpful if we started making these statistics a little more public," said Michael Covington, ECPA's information and education director, of the ECPA data.

ECPA members providing sales and returns details are Bardin & Marsee Publishing, Concordia Publishing House, Crossway, David C. Cook, Foundation Publications, Gospel Light, Harvest House Publishers, InterVarsity Press, Kregel Publications, Moody Publishers, NavPress, Rose Publishing, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Tyndale House Publishers and Wesleyan Publishing House.