As per Publisher’s Weekly, the overall book sales in the world saw a mixed trend, with half countries showing a decline and the other half showing growth in 2022. The international news website that focuses on book publishing, literary and related topics found about the trend through their reporting from the Federation of European Publishers earlier.
They mentioned in their article how during the Readmagine conference in Madrid, Enrico Turrin (deputy director of the Federation of European Publishers) said that among the 29 countries that they track, half were showing a decline, and the other half were showing growth in book sales. However, the same has been confirmed again from the Global Bookselling Markets report (submitted by the European and International Booksellers Federation), as per PW.
The reports were published on the basis of data taken from different countries, including Europe, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, and the US. The author of the report spoke about the two different trends. “Half of the analyzed markets experienced a clear decrease in book sales last year, while the other half reported stability and, in some cases, a positive development in turnover,” he said.
The authors also highlighted the reason behind the trend. According to them, after the bookshops were re-opened in 2021 (after a long closure due to the pandemic), bookstores saw the most extensive sales in 10 years. Later, even though 2022 witnessed good book sales, it was still not as substantial as the one reported in 2021.
Another reason was the inflation and energy crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war, which made it expensive to create/purchase the books and eventually affected sales.
The Netherlands saw the most book sales gains in 2022, with a 27% increase in 2021 (as per the report). The list further included both Mexico and Portugal, with a 21.8% and 16.2% gain, respectively. Countries that saw a sales decline were the US (6%) and France (6.5%).
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.
