Irish market returns to fortune

The Irish print market’s return to form over the past two years has been even more dramatic than the UK’s rebound. After declining to record lows in 2013, with value dropping 14% to €106.1m, it contracted further still in 2014, with volume dropping 0.6%, shaving off 55,372 units from the annual total. In 2015 and 2016, however, the Irish market saw a return to fortune.

Despite the first half of 2015 posting a 2% drop in volume, the latter half of the year pulled it back spectacularly, resulting in a 4.5% jump in volume and a staggering 10.8% improvement in value (an extra €11.5m) by the year’s end. With worldwide hits such as J K Rowling-and-co’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, the Easter Rising centenary boosting the history sector, and homegrown stars such as rugby player Paul O’Connell and Graham Norton dominating the charts, 2016 proved to be even better. Value rose to €130m, a 23% jump in two years, and volume improved a further 9% on 2015 to just shy of 11 million books sold.

However, the party hasn’t quite continued into 2017. The UK market is undergoing a similar plateau, posting a marginal drop in volume alongside a marginal rise in value, but the Irish print market is experiencing the opposite. Against 2016’s year-to-date figures (to 17th June), 2017 has posted a volume of 3.69 million books— nearly 2% up—but a value of €41.5m— down 1.8%. While the UK market’s average selling price has increased 22p on the same point in 2016, Ireland’s is down 44 cents. For books published in Ireland (by an Irish press), the value drop is steeper: a Paul O’Connell-sized hole has resulted in a 17.8% decline year on year.

The Irish market appears to be wrestling with a similar problem to the UK market: print’s strength in depth remains, but there hasn’t been a runaway bestseller to really drive growth. At the same point in 2016, Joe Wicks’ Lean in 15 had sold 34,616 copies in the Emerald Isle; 2017’s bestseller, fellow Brit David Walliams’ Blob, has shifted a comparatively lean 13,177 copies.

However, fiction is thriving, posting a 6% jump in volume for the year to date—and it is Irish authors in particular flying off the shelves. The General and Literary Fiction sub-category is up 14.2%, pulling in well over half a million euros, with Sebastian Barry’s Costa Book Award-winning Days Without End selling strongly. Crime, Thriller and Adventure has had a stunning five months, jumping 227% in value—homegrown crime débuts such as fresh-faced up-and-comer Graham Norton, with Holding, and Richard & Judy Book Club pick Liz Nugent, with Lying in Wait, have both charted in the overall top 20. True Crime is also up, by 154% in value.

Children’s has grown almost at exactly the same rate as Fiction, surpassing €10m in value for the period for the first time in five years. In contrast to the UK, Children’s Fiction and School Textbooks & Study Guides are struggling, but Picture Books are flourishing—posting a 31% rise in value year on year.