April publishing sales experienced dramatic losses in three categories overshadowing successful growth in seven categories tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Gains in religious books, adult paperbacks and professional and scholarly publications, which would have ordinarily buoyed gains, instead kept losses to a minimum.

Religious books helped to counter losses with a 54.9% gain in April ($28.2 million in sales for the month). Religious books are up 34.2% for the year.

Sales of adult hardcover books grew 8.3% from last April, with sales of $94.8 million (up 16.6% for the year). Adult paperback sales grew 16.8% (with sales of $85.4 million), with the year-to-date figure up by an encouraging 4.5%. The adult mass market category lost 25.2 % in April, with sales of $48.8 million for this category, and again came up short for the year (the mass market category carries a deficit of 20.2% in 2004).

The full report is located at http://www.publishers.org/.

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