Irish book trade bullish after sales up 8.6% in 2018

Irish booksellers and publishers are feeling bullish about 2018 after seeing sales surge in the first few weeks of the year to date.

Nielsen’s Hazel Kenyon revealed to an audience at the Irish Book Trade Conference in Dublin on Friday (23rd March) that volume sales of books are up significantly: 8.6% year-on-year to 10th March.

Spirits are high with the economy back on track following the crash of 2013, booksellers and publishers told The Bookseller. According to Maynooth University Bookshop owner John Byrne, publishers investing more in the quality of the physical book has helped, along with a drop in the value of the pound in Britain.

However, despite the optimism, many reported a sense of worry about the possibility of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit, which Publishing Ireland president Ronan Colgan warned would be a “disaster” for the trade and the economy as a whole.

Speaking about the buoyant sales in the first few weeks of the year, bookseller Byrne said: “Some customers are sick of always looking at a screen, whether it be at a desktop or a mobile phone or whatever, and they increasingly like holding a physical book in their hand. The quality of books has really gone up over the last few years, which helps. But we have also been able to sticker our prices lower for books imported from the UK now the value of the pound has dropped (after the UK's vote to leave the European Union). A book we would mark at €17.99 we are now marking at €15.99. Customers are not stupid, they know the pound has gone down, and we have to be aware of pricing sensitively because we always know we will be compared to Amazon’s prices. So we are selling more because the prices are lower.”

Maria Dickenson, m.d of Dubray Books chain in Ireland, agreed consumer confidence felt much higher than this time last year. “Last year you had the news Donald Trump was going to be the US president, and there was a feeling of uncertainty and cautiousness around,” she said. “But there is definitely more confidence around at the moment, especially with the economy doing fairly well.”

The Irish book trade is also on a high after the Man Booker Prize Foundation announced in January it would begin accepting entries from Irish publishers for the first time in its history from this year - the culmination of months of lobbying and consultation between Publishing Ireland and the Man Booker Prize Foundation.

The mood in the room at the conference at the Radisson Blu at Dublin Airport was further lifted with the news that Irish indie press New Island Books had landed a place on the £10,000 Desmond Elliott Prize longlist with its title One Star Awake by Andrew Meehan. General manager of the press, Mariel Deegan, explained: “I got a call in January or February to ask if the book was being published in the UK. I said it is available in the UK, published from Ireland. Then they went away and then came back and said ‘we are calling it in’. It wasn’t clear before whether they would accept books from Irish publishers, but now the organisers have said they will more actively pursue submissions from Irish publishers. I think it’s great.”

Colgan, also of History Press Ireland, agreed there was a bullish atmosphere about the book trade in Ireland at the moment. “The economy is going really well. It was coming from such a low point in 2013, it is probably still recovering to an extent. In 2017 volume sales were up in Ireland for the year when they were down in the UK and that was coming on the back of an already strong year of sales thanks to the 1916 Rising commemorations.”

However, he expressed fears the progress could all be scuppered if a hard border comes in between Ireland and Northern Ireland as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. While the issue is still a matter of speculation, with nothing confirmed by the British government, most people The Bookseller spoke at the conference felt a tariff on goods traded across the border was inevitable.

“If a hard border does come in it is going to cause absolute chaos, it was going to be disastrous,” said Colgan. “It would have an instant impact on the economy, which will become so unsettled. Tariffs would be a complete killer. I fear it will have wider implications for the stability too, and no one wants to see a return to The Troubles.”

The Irish Book Trade Conference also saw economist Jim Power present a report into the economic contribution of the Irish bookselling sector, revealing that bookshops contribute a total of €132m to the economy, as reported on Friday (23rd March). Altogether 234 bricks-and-mortar shops in Ireland produce a turnover of €98m a year, employ 3,233 people in full time jobs (directly and indirectly), and pay a total of €32.3m in gross wages, the report found.

Other speakers at the conference included fitness expert and Penguin Random House author Karl Henry, Martin Doyle of the Irish Times, Hachette Ireland’s Ciara Doorley, Conor Hackett, a publisher’s agent, and Gutter Bookshop owner Bob Johnston interview Children’s Book Ireland’s Jenny Murray about its “Bold Girls” project.