Italy is the sixth publishing house in the world, equaling its position again this year and recording clear improvements compared to 2019. On the European continent, it is instead in fourth place
Italy also equaled its position in 2022, confirming itself as the sixth publishing house in the world. In the previous year, in fact, they were bought in the country 13 million of books more compared to 2019; specifically, we see the sale of 1.671 billion euros of books at cover price, an increase compared to the copies sold three years ago. What’s new this year is that it’s not just the sales of best sellers that are moving, growth has included the entire editorial marketand more or less homogeneously. In fact, among the books that had the most success during the year we see areas such as manuals for the home (247%), Italian love novels (+194%), Italian chick lit (+184%), comics for the 10- 13 years old (+64%), leisure quizzes (+61%), foreign romance novels (+49%) and tourist guides (+48%).
Riccardo Franco Levipresident of the Italian Publishers Association, commented positively on the result obtained, maintaining however that the challenges for the world of Italian publishing remain just around the corner.
Italian publishing is holding and consolidating compared to pre-pandemic, but it has to face new challenges… In the face of double-digit inflation weighing on family budgets, publishers have kept cover prices stable, but cost growth of paper and energy drastically reduces margins, putting the most fragile operators in the supply chain, such as small publishers and independent bookshops, in crisis. These are problems that must be addressed now that the Government and Parliament are preparing to discuss a new system law for the book.
Publishing: data from around the world
Italy is positioned as sixth publisher in the world, preceded by the USA, China, Germany, the United Kingdom and France; in Europe the country is positioned instead at quarto place. The current average selling price of books is 14,84 €, equal to that of 2021 but lower than the sale price in 2019; on the other hand, published eBooks decreased by 29% and with a decrease in earnings of 79 million (-8%). The physical libraries recover from the pandemic, closing the year with €889 million in sales; especially the chain bookshops are growing. Audiobooks, on the other hand, increased by +4.2%, thanks above all to the implementation of current listening platforms and the creation of new services such as Bookbeat.