Book sales in the first half of 2019 decreased by 0.4 per cent in SEK compared to the same period in the previous year, according to a new report from the Swedish Bookstore Association and the Swedish Publishers Association.
The number of copies sold increased slightly due to sales in digital services, but fewer physical copies were sold.
Digital subscription services such as Bookbeat, Nextory and Storytel increase by 25.3 percent in SEK, while hardcover books, pocketbooks and other formats are declining, both in the internet bookstore and the physical bookstore.
“It is clear that the industry is undergoing a thorough digitalisation. The positive in the latest statistics is that more numbers of books are consumed as digital subscription services grow. The alarming thing is that overall revenues are declining, ”says report author Erik Wikberg, a researcher at Stockholm School of Economics, in a press release.