German book sales down marginally

In time for the annual industry conference later this month in Leipzig, the German trade association Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels has released its economic data for 2015. For the second year in a row sales of books and journals were down, this time marginally by 1.4% to €9.2bn (£7.2bn).

While the figure was in line with expectations, the way the cake has been divided gives reason for concern. After two years in which brick-and-mortar bookstores finished ahead of the online competition, fortunes have been reversed in favour of the internet - and by some margin. Online sales were up 6% to €1.6bn (£1.3bn), not enough to compensate a larger than expected decline of 3.4% to €4.43bn (£3.5bn) in the high street.

Still the word from Börsenverein’s headquarters in Frankfurt is one of optimism; not least because 2016 started promisingly with sales up 2% in the first quarter. “Publishers and booksellers have proven their ability to make the best of structural changes, find new ways and invest wisely,” said managing director Alexander Skipis. The industry, he notes, has taken “a huge step forward” with booksellers embracing multi-channel strategies and publishers nurturing an active culture of innovations.

Despite the decline, physical bookstores remained by far the largest sales channel with a market share of 48.2% (2014: 49.2%), with online retail growing to 17.4% from 16.2%. All the time the dramatic decline of the mail order business, once a stalwart in the industry, continued in the wake of the Weltbld insolvency and the dismantling of Bertelsmann’s book club operation. Mail order sales fell in the year by 26.4% to €118m.

E-books have established themselves in the market, but to a much more moderate extent than in the US or UK. Sales in the consumer market have risen 4.7% in value, with the number of e-books sold growing by 9%, indicating a lower average price. According to Börsenverein, the market share of electronic books rose marginally from 4.3% to 4.5%. The number of e-book buyers remained flat at 3.9m, 63% of them female. 85% (84%) of all e-books sold were fiction.

For the first time since 2010, German publishers released more new titles – 76,547 compared to 73,863 in 2014. On the other hand the downward trend in the number of translated titles, which always feature strongly in German publishing, has gathered pace: 9,454 books were published in translation, down 5%. Literary fiction was most affected (down 7.6% to 5,400 titles). Thanks to booming business with China, the number of German books sold internationally jumped 16.7% to 7,521 titles, of which 1,514 went to China (up 54%).  A total of 574 rights (450 in 2014) were sold to English-speaking markets.