Books sales rise in Germany, but trade frets over declining readers

Book sales in Germany were up 2.8% to €9.7bn in 2023, according to figures released by the trade association Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and Booksellers Association). But despite the positive overall result, the industry has good reason to remain wary in the face of persistently high costs and sluggish consumer spending, said managing director Peter Kraus vom Cleff.

Assessing the market conditions, Kraus vom Cleff conceded that the general economic situation was still putting book retailers, publishers and industry logistics under pressure. "Sales are falling overall, and the number of consumers is continuing to decrease," he said, adding that because fewer people were heading into the city centres to shop, the footfall in stores and in the high street was lower than in the past.

If proof were needed that the industry is under pressure, Kraus vom Cleff reported the latest available figures for 2024. While sales were up by 1.2% in the first six months, alarm bells are ringing because this growth was only achieved through book prices rising by 2.8%, which translates into an actual sales decline of 1.6%.

According to Kraus vom Cleff, both brick-and-mortar bookstores and online booksellers grew their businesses in 2023. With sales rising 2.6% to €4.05bn (excluding e-commerce) physical bookstores commanded a 41.8% (2022: 41.9%) share of the total industry turnover, remaining the largest sales channel for books in Germany. Online book sales—around half of which are attributable to the online presence of physical booksellers—rose 5.5% to €2.4bn, translating into a market share of 24.8%. In a five-year comparison, online trade is clearly benefiting from the boost gained during the Covid pandemic: sales were up 29.5% on 2019, while brick-and-mortar stores were down 5.5% in the same period.

Last year’s sales increase is largely attributed to growth in four book categories, namely fiction, which grew by 7.7% and accounted for 35.5% of sales, children’s books/YA (+2.5%), schoolbooks/learning (+5%) and non-fiction (+2.7%). The demand for e-books has levelled off at a stable but fairly low level after a hike during the pandemic. At 3m, the number of buyers of digital books in the consumer market (excluding school and reference books) has remained on par with 2022.

Regarding new titles on the shelves, Kraus vom Cleff noted that publishers were becoming "noticeably more cautious and planning their lists more conservatively due to the ongoing crises". Not surprisingly, the number of new books published has declined again in 2023, falling 6.3% from 64,287 titles in 2022 to 60,230 last year. Similarly, the number of translations—which usually feature strongly in German publishers’ lists—fell 6.8% from 9,403 to 8,760. Still, the share of translated titles remained largely unchanged at 14.5% (2022: 14.6%).

Among the most worrisome developments in 2023, according to Kraus vom Cleff, remains the fact that the number of people buying books continued its downward spiral to approximately 25m buyers, around 800,000 less than the year before (-2.8%). While this figure is an improvement on 2022 (-5.2%) and 2021 (-4%), Börsenverein officials continue to warn against "a massive deficit in reading skills" that is becoming ever greater, according to chairwoman Karin Schmidt-Friderichs.

She argues that politicians and the public in general urgently need to work together to find strategies that will help improve the educational status in Germany. Initiatives such as the much-lauded KulturPass for 18-year-olds, which the minister of state for culture launched last year, have proven to be effective, she says. “Books are by far the most popular choice for young adults.” Despite tight financial strains, she asks the government in Berlin to “definitely” retain the KulturPass next year, at the same time asking for the budget to be increased again to the original €200 after being halved to €100 in 2024.