Children's titles boost global book market

Growth in children’s books is driving print market growth across the world, Nielsen’s Global managing director Jonathan Stolper told delegates at the Nielsen Book Insights Conference last week (23rd March).

Physical book markets in the UK, China, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Brazil and South Africa grew in value across 2015, while the US remained “steady”. China grew faster than any other market worldwide.

E-book sales have plateaued, their share of the UK market growing just 1% in the UK (to 27%) and falling 4% in volume in the US. In America, some genres of adult fiction are almost 50% e-book sales, such as romance, science fiction and fantasy and crime and thriller, yet juvenile e-books have a lower than 10% market share. In print in the US, juvenile sales have grown 40% over the last decade. With e-books, this propelled it to an all-time high in 2014—though a decline in e-book sales in 2015 sees figures “somewhat down”, according to Stolper.

Stolper also commented on the strength of the Children’s market in China, with a 29,000 extra kids’ books being published year-on-year in 2015, a 15% increase. Children’s market share has increased from less than 10% in 2004 to nearly 20% today in China, driven by sales through physical bookstores, Stolper said.  In particular, children’s fiction makes up the bulk of sales through bookshops, while picture books and educational sold strongly through e-tailers. Non-fiction sales account for 62% of the market in China.

In the UK, Children’s books have grown 2.7% in the last 10 years. Value is outstripping volume, pushing average selling price to all-time high. While nearly every Nielsen territory saw growth in the Children’s market, kids’ sales were particularly strong in New Zealand and Australia, where “nearly a third” of the top 20 bestsellers were Children’s, and South Africa saw a boost in educational titles.