Friday 13 May 2016

Book sales up, digital sales down


New figures released today by The Publishers Association shows that the UK publishing industry is in good health with total sales or book and journal publishing up to £4.4bn in 2015. The figures also revealed the UK’s love affair with the printed book is far from over as for the first time since the invention of the ebook, overall physical book sales increased while digital sales decreased.
Highlights of the research include:
  • Sales of physical books from publishers increased for the first time in four years while digital sales fell for the first time since The PA started collecting figures
  • There was particularly strong growth in sales of physical non-fiction/reference books which saw sales increase by 9% to £759m
  • School books sales were up overall by 9% to £319m with growth in physical and digital both home and abroad.
  • Audiobook downloads had another good year with 29% growth in 2015.
Commenting, The Publishers Association Chief Executive, Stephen Lotinga, said:
“These figures show that the UK publishing industry continues to go from strength to strength and the UK’s love for print is far from over. Digital continues to be an incredibly important part of the industry, but it would appear there remains a special place in the consumer’s heart for the aesthetic pleasure that printed books can bring. At a time when the Government is looking for world leading sectors to drive growth in the UK economy, they could do a lot worse than look to the success of our publishing industry.”
Image: Cassia Beck

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