Happy New Year?

For the local publishing world, the turn of the year means above all new challenges.

Lack of paper, energy costs, reluctance to buy – all of this is pushing sales down.

Many publishers are therefore forced to raise prices again.

"In view of the long-term pleasure that you buy with it, a book is still a very inexpensive investment," the German Press Agency quotes the general manager of the German Book Trade Association, Peter Kraus vom Cleff.

But until shortly before the final sprint in the Christmas business, the industry figures were not very encouraging.

Across all sales channels, sales fell by 4.6 percent in the first eleven months compared to the year before the pandemic, 2019.

Sandra Kegel

Responsible editor for the feuilleton.

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The fact that sales nevertheless grew by half a percent is due to the increase in book prices that publishers have already made in recent months.

However, they were far from able to compensate for the cost increases, as Kraus vom Cleff reports.

According to the “Börsenblatt”, the average book price rose significantly: by 4.9 percent overall and by 5.9 percent in fiction.

Children's and youth books in particular became significantly more expensive, read-aloud books by seventeen percent and picture books by thirteen percent.

As in the previous year, the decisive cost factor is the increased price of paper.

Paper is becoming scarce, among other things, because, according to the German Printing and Media Association, many manufacturers have now switched to cardboard.

Due to these and the increased printing costs, the publishers had to cope with cost increases of a good fifty percent last year.

For 2023, they expect additional spending of up to thirty percent.

In addition to publishers, bookstores are also struggling.

In stationary retail, sales by the end of November 2022 fell by eleven percent compared to the time before Corona.

Despite higher prices, sales fell by 5.9 percent.

It is therefore not surprising that the mood at the turn of the year was "clouded", according to a survey by the German Printing and Media Association.

In view of the existential needs, a reduction in value added tax for books to zero percent has previously been called for, which would help large companies more than small ones.

It is now becoming clear once again that the book market was already in crisis before the pandemic.

Especially since the lack of paper is compounded by inflation, which is currently preventing quite a few buyers from visiting their bookstores.

They would find books there,

they shed light not only on the toxic nature of inflation, but also on what individuals can do about it.

Giving up books cannot be the answer.