Status: 01/11/2023 1:50 p.m
The reluctance to buy in the past year has not stopped at the book market – according to the provisional balance of the industry. However, the picture of local publishers and bookshops is quite different.
Counting books: Andrea Tuscher usually only does that between Christmas and New Year. Of course, not the ones on their own shelves at home, but the ones in their bookshop in Offenbach. With the inventory, the bookseller determines her stock every year and also sums up the situation in her own bookshop.
Her conclusion: 2022 was worse for the self-confessed literature lover than the year before, but 2021 was a particularly strong year with an increase of 19 percent. “In 2022 we had a decline in sales in stationary sales for the first time in ten years. Recently we have always had increases. Crime and children’s books have done well, however. Fiction and non-fiction books have declined.”
Tried and tested in times of crisis
A snapshot in the local bookstore that not everyone involved in the book market for 2022 can confirm. The S.Fischer publishing house in Frankfurt am Main does not give figures. Commercial director Gerd Robertz admits: “In difficult times of global conflicts, in times of climate crisis and pandemic, books have special opportunities – and that was particularly evident in non-fiction books in 2022, where we had great sales successes. People are looking now information and orientation, and what could be better than books?”
One of the bestsellers in the Frankfurt publishing house’s program: Greta Thunberg’s climate book. However, the year was difficult for debut works, according to Robertz: “In times of crisis, the public often reaches for books by well-known authors.”
Publishers satisfied with numbers
The balance at Egmont is clearly positive. Comics sold well in 2022, and there was even exorbitant growth in certain areas, according to Sales Manager Comic & Manga, Markus Iking: “Our Manga label recorded growth of almost 25 percent no new Asterix volume has been released, unlike the year before.”
The year 2021 was outstanding in many areas, which is why the overall decline in sales last year surprised only a few publishers and retailers. The figures from the German Book Trade Association (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels) prove this. In 2022, sales across the central distribution channels were 2.1 percent below the previous year, and the number of books sold fell by three percent in the same period; Internet sales were primarily responsible for the decline in sales.
However, local bookshops were able to increase their sales: the dealers made 4.8 percent more sales than in 2021 in their own shops – apart from exceptions like the bookshop in Offenbach.
Increased costs, especially for paper
Inflation is causing customers to “turn every euro twice over” when it comes to books, according to Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, head of the German Book Trade Association. “In addition, the frequency in the inner cities is low.” In contrast to the bookstore in Offenbach, the figures from the stock exchange association show an increase in sales of fiction. Travel books also grew – they had also suffered particularly during the lockdown and the pandemic.
The publishers are worried about the increased costs, especially for paper. Managing Director Robertz from Verlag S.Fischer does not lose his optimism. “Increased prices are hard reality, but we are on the right track: more and more flexibility in book production through additional digital printing processes and constant further development of logistics.” Publisher Wolf Stegmaier von Egmont is also looking to 2023 with confidence: “Compared to smaller publishers, we were quite well positioned as a group with our large print volumes and were able to shift amounts of paper between different titles and countries as needed. Nevertheless, we couldn’t help it, here and there to react to moderate price increases.”
Bookseller Tuscher, on the other hand, is not quite so optimistic. She expects a rather difficult year for the book trade. Their customers “understand the higher book prices, but many were more cautious during the Christmas business and simply gave away fewer books”.