Trade publishing sales grow by 16% in Italy

Trade publishing sales in Italy grew by 16% in 2021 according to research by the Italian Publishers Association (AIE), with audiobooks and online bookshops continuing to boom.

The data showed trade publishers made €1.7bn (£1.4bn) last year and sold 115.6 million copies, 18 million more than in 2020.

Ricardo Franco Levi, president of the AIE, said: “The data confirm our September forecasts: Italian publishing has been able to react to the pandemic and, also thanks to the public support policies implemented by the government and parliament, closes 2021 registering significant growth, after an already satisfactory 2020.

“These numbers are very good, also compared to the levels of performance of the other countries in Europe, but the future is not without unknowns. On the positive side, there is the confirmation of the public support measures and the wait for the new law for the book industry. But the paper emergency, in terms of prices and availability, and the heavy impact of piracy remains. Furthermore, certain sectors, such as art and tourism publishing, are still suffering greatly from the effects of the pandemic.”

The AIE said production is growing, with 85,551 new print releases in 2021, up 22.9% compared to the previous year. E-books fell to 49,313, down 5.6% compared to the previous year, but up 1.1% compared to 2019.

The audiobook boom continues, and is now valued at €1.8bn (£1.5bn), up 14%. Online bookshops are also still growing, with sales rising to €739.9m (£615.8m) from €633m (£526.8m) the year before, while physical bookshops are beginning to recover, having lost almost €200m (£166.5m) in sales in 2020, making €876m (£729.2m) in 2021. 

AIE data showed that the market is distributed over an increasing number of titles, with the 50 bestselling titles only accounting for 5.4% of the market at cover value and 4.5% in terms of copies. Growth was uniform across all genres, but comics performed "exceptionally" with sales increasing by 134% to 11 million copies in 2021. 

However, the average price of books sold is falling, averaging €14.72 in 2021, down 2.4% compared to the previous year. The AIE said this is also due to the effect of sales of manga and comics.