"The publishing market is in an impressive moment." Rarely is such an exhaustive opinion heard from the cultural world, but the figures smile to the world of books and in what way:

sales have grown by 44% in the first half of 2021

compared to last year, the sector has emerged very strengthened of the pandemic and will reach

1,100 million in turnover

this year, something that improves the figures of 2011, which until now was the best record of the last decade. In the words of Íñigo Palao, a Gfk consultant and one of the guests at the Edita Forum held this week in Barcelona:

"2021 is being a historic year".

The pandemic has made the reader return to the book: we have more time, we spend it more at home and after the

streaming

binge

that occurred in many homes during confinement, "the pleasure of reading has been rediscovered," explains the expert . In addition, during the months of closure and strong mobility restrictions, the writers continued to write, unlike the shootings, which came to a standstill.

It is not only that the publishing sector has recovered what was lost in the pandemic (a figure around 89 million euros), it is that even comparing the sales of what we have in 2021 with respect to the pre-covid of 2019, the book market grows:

invoices 17% more than two years ago.

The trend is not exclusive to Spain.

The situation in Central Europe is also "buoyant".

If in Spain the market has grown by 44% compared to 2020, in France it has grown by 43.4%, in Italy by 36.9%, in Belgium by 25% and in Portugal by 18.8%.

The writer and co-director of the Edita Forum, Sergio Vila-Sanjuan, this Tuesday in Barcelona.Quique GarciaEFE

Spanish publishers have released more titles so far this year: 15,277 in the first half (compared to 10,905 in 2020 and 14,798 in 2019) and bookstores have exceeded their 2019 turnover. By genre,

the comic is the one that more has grown this year (56%)

and although department stores have reorganized and returned to pre-pandemic numbers,

online book sales have increased

, going from 23% to 34% so far this year. 2021

.

Catalonia is the autonomous community where the most books are sold, 22% of the total in all of Spain.

Palao attributes it to the weight of bookstores (55% of books are sold in them compared to 40% in the rest of Spain) and phenomena such as

Sant Jordi, which this year was also "crazy", with more than 46 million billing

in a week.

The trend, Palao points out, is to export the phenomenon to the rest of Spain, as has been done with

black friday

or

single day.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Catalonia

  • Barcelona

  • Coronavirus

  • France

  • Italy

  • Belgium

  • Portugal

  • Covid 19

  • culture

  • literature

  • book Fair

  • Madrid

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