The book market is in crisis mood. Less and less people pick up a book in the Hand, but prefer to watch on the Smartphone. We look at the facts: How has the book market in the recent time?
Revenue – How is the German book market?
Depending on how you look at things. Numbers don’t lie as we know. Or is it? If you look at the sales figures of the book industry to 2017, a slight decrease of 1.6 per cent. The turnover last year amounted to 9,13 billion euros. That is a princely sum, now, many say. It is also.
Especially when you look at the comparison of the Numbers of related industries: The music industry came to 1.59 billion in sales, Computer and video games, to 2.4 million, and the film industry to 2.88 million Euro. And in the long-term comparison, the book industry has turn so in comparison to the thousand-year recorded a loss of approximately 1 percent.
But the devil is in the Detail. The pure sales too much not to say numbers are still on the Reading behavior of German. The read have just been generally less, the studies. And in particular, read less books! As the digital competition the entertainment industry is noticeable. The classic book, Yes numbers are only a small part of the still-great sales!
Title-flood – How many books in 2018?
In the book the year 2017, exactly 82.636 title appeared. A decade ago, the number stood at around 95,000. A sharp decline in so. Nevertheless, one or the other will ask now: So many titles, who’s going to read it? Here, too, the following applies: The devil is in the Detail. Positive, you could say: There are even still produced more titles than the listed 82.636 – E-Books and Print-on-Demand-productions are covered only to a small extent. And the Numbers of the first pads are also not bad, here there is a little Minus.
Spoilt for choice – the enormous flood of new Titles continues
The Minus signs in front of all the Backlist titles, that is to say: There are always more books that are more laid back and may quickly get to the Modern antiquarian migrate. In the book of acts that is clearly visible. Some of the Bestseller piled up meters high. The customer asks, but to titles that have not made it into the Bestseller lists, a lot of traders.
Books and more – What reader to buy?
Most can be bought still the Hardcover editions. This is also an explanation, that the revenue numbers overall, only a little went down, although the German read less books. The explanation is simple: the Bound books are more expensive that the revenue that drives the numbers in the height, even if less books are sold.
Pocket books are more in the downward trend. The formerly very popular, affordable paperback is suffering, so the presumption of the experts at the digital competition: “Above all, entertaining, short-lived reading material” is more and more engulfed in the digital.
No uniform picture emerges in the case of Segment audiobook/Audiobook. Here are the sales figures. But there, too: readings from literature and other people listen to nowadays prefer directly via Downloads and streaming services. These Figures are not recorded in the statistics.
E-Books contra books people read today, digital?
The optimistic dreams about the future of E-Books that offset before ten, fifteen years, the industry in excitement, already since a few years frustrated. Read E-Books in Germany and bought, they have not supplanted the classic book. The share of sales in the book market in 2017, a mere 4.6 percent. The proportion is higher than in previous years, the growth curve is rising but barely.
Books don’t have to hide in addition to digital products
Nevertheless, more and more people read E-Books, but since it is always cheaper to increase sales. Overall, also applies here: “Fast growth rates are already no longer the past – the buyer wasting, which covers the book market as a whole, does not leave the E-Book.”
Novels, thrillers, Science-Fiction – What to read?
And what are the (remaining) loyal readers read? Still prefer fiction, with 31.9 percent of the – so, the statistics is “the cornerstone of the total sales in the German book trade”.
In this group, the “narrative literature,” by far, so the “normal” novels and short stories with no specific Genre-classification. On the second place in the Segment “Thriller and suspense”, surprisingly, follows with a slight decline. On the places of Honour by far Comic, Cartoon, Humor and Satire”, “gift books” and “Science Fiction and Fantasy follow: “”.
And outside of fiction? Children’s and youth books say to place 2, then counselor, for the sales in the book trade is increasingly important to follow. The other places: School and learning books (the only group, the sales growth recorded), and finally non-fiction books.
The reader – The unknown being?
Who reads there (yet)? Also, there are detailed statistics. And here is the whole (Read Drama), if you want to call it so clearly: “all in All, the book market between 2013 and 2017, has lost approximately 6.4 million buyer,” as sober. These are sad Numbers.
Women read more than men
After all: In the ranking of the favorite pastimes of Germans, the reading climbed to a place from 14th to 13th place – because the “gardeners” was less popular. Of course this is only a small consolation. The people to see the loved one, watch a series on Netflix & co., listen to the Radio and surfing the Internet. For reading books less and less time remains. In men less than in women.
German Literature – An Export Hit?
And how it looks with the German literature abroad? Is sold there in the big wide English speaking world? Not in the least. What relates to the licensing business for Translations, the English-speaking countries, not even in the Top Ten! China has for years claimed the top spot. 2017 for the first time on place 2 of the Turkey. It is Spain, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Russia and the Netherlands.
The whole size belonging: “Exactly 7856 plants ‘Made in Germany’ have to leave in 2017, the the German language borders.”
In the United States and also in the UK, one is interested primarily not for German books. At least in this area do not need to fear US President Donald Trump in front of the German export economy, in the area of the book market.
The bookstore is A dying species?
The speech is also a lot of the crisis in the book trade. Books stores are a dying species? Yes, in some areas – and no, not in its entirety – so the correct answer must be. Still, the “bricks and mortar” book trade is, so there where books in the Store are sold, with distance (4.3 billion euros) to the most important distribution channel for books. But, everyone will know, and for that you have to be an expert: The Internet book trade has a larger share of the pie. And the Americans are not only, because Amazon is in on this deal – although clearly dominant in the market.
Specialty bookstores hold better – the bookstore Bittner, Cologne
You can see that it is so: The large branches need springs, many medium-sized, independent bookstores, it is anyway not good, only the specialists claim. The bookstores can be quite the support policy for sure.
“A town without a bookstore has lost a part of their soul,” said a senior politician recently at the Berlin book days. State Minister of culture Monika Grütters, the prize supports small businesses with the German bookstore. In addition, the coalition wants to protect the book trade in General.
The book fair – the engine of the industry?
Like weaken the book industry. The book fairs do not. The minor in Leipzig in the spring, and the world’s largest in Frankfurt anyway. The book fairs are an important engine in the industry. And they have long been much more than a Meeting of the publishers, in which new books are touted. Among the 7,500 participants of the 70. Edition of the Frankfurt book fair are many providers that don’t have any books in stock. The book fair has long been a large cultural event, or “Event,” to become a “meeting point for the entire creative industry”.
The exhibition grows from year to year, mainly due to the interest from abroad: More than 100 Exhibitor countries and trade visitors from over 140 Nations. Meanwhile, the abroad comes to a share of 67 per cent of all exhibitors. The 286.000 visitors from the past year are likely to be exceeded in 2018. About 3700 events to ensure a continuing flow of visitors. The film industry is also represented, such as education, Games and science. And the heart of the exhibition is, as some experts claim, anyway the agent center. Here, around 800 literary agents from 33 countries and buy and not sell only new books.
The Frankfurt trade fair offers much more than “just” books
The future – How’s it going’on with the book industry?
Nobody can say exactly. If you look at some Numbers and statistics, you might be to the cultural pessimists. For the interested reader, the reading of “book and book trade in Figures for 2018 it is recommended to come” (from the statistics, the quotes), ed. from the “Börsenverein of the German book trade”. There are many falling curves to discover (but also a few rising).
But this question must be allowed: in view of the many, many books that are thrown every year on the market, must be asked: Who should read it? And of course, it is not so, that the industry “degenerates”. Who wants a Good read, which is also enough good, challenging reading. You have to go through the trouble, perhaps, a little more than in the past. But who wants to read books, can do so in the future.