The Catalans buy their books in independent bookstores, while the people of Madrid do so in large chains. This differential fact is one of the most surprising data that was announced yesterday at the Forum Edita, in Barcelona, where the book sector analyzes itself and pools its experiences and knowledge, with contributions this year from various publishers, experts, consultants, authors and politicians.
Ignacio López, head of market intelligence at GfK, was in charge of presenting the data handled by his company on the book market in Spain, which, by the way, "we estimate that it will grow or fall by 1% at the end of the year in relation to in 2021”, data that is actually positive considering that last year it had risen by 23.5% and, as is known, the economic crisis threatens the stability of households. It is striking, however, that books "have not been affected by inflation", which is rampant in other economic sectors, since the average price of a book today is 15.37 euros (13 cents less than in 2021 and 7 more than in 2020).
López explained that, in Spain, people mainly buy their books in large chains and stores (that is, in stores such as Casa del Libro, Fnac, El Corte Inglés or Amazon), 51% of total sales, according to the figures for 2022. 40% do so in bookstores (that is, independent calls) and 7% in hypermarkets.
However, in Catalonia... bookstores are the favorite point of sale for buyers, 55% of whom go to them, 42% who go to chains and 3% to hypermarkets. Madrid shows an opposite behavior: 64% buy in large chains, only 30% in bookstores and 5% in hypermarkets. As the price of books is the same by law, the only thing that could explain the differences between these communities, beyond customs, is that in Madrid there is freedom of business hours, which favors the big fish over the small one.
Another comparison that López made is the different impact that Sant Jordi and the Madrid Book Fair have, the two most important events with a direct (and enormous) impact on sales. In its last edition, in one week, Sant Jordi had a turnover of 20.6 million euros, which represented 48% of the total number of books sold in Spain. In three weeks, Feria de Madrid had a turnover of 11.8 million euros, that is, 26% of total sales in Spain.
Regarding the weight of each community in sales, in 2022 it is Madrid that heads the ranking, with 23%, followed by Catalonia (22%).
There are three big blocks in book sales in Spain this year, almost on par. Non-fiction dominates, with 31% of sales, closely followed by fiction with 29% and children's-youth with 28%.
Turnover grew with the pandemic, a trend that was repeated last year, with a 16.6% increase compared to 2019, according to GfK data. The ten best-selling books account for 2.6% of sales in 2022, four tenths less than in 2021, which means that "diversity rises", in the words of López.
Patrici Tixis, co-director of the Forum and president of the Gremi d'Editors -which organizes the event together with the Universitat Pompeu Fabra-, welcomed the announced construction of the great state library in Barcelona, but regretted that "there has been no opinion of the sector, to go beyond the usual uses in a center of these characteristics”. His message was heard live by the director of the Department of Culture of the Barcelona City Council, the deputy mayor Jordi Martí, while the Minister Natàlia Garriga and the Minister Miquel Iceta sent messages by video.
German consultant Rüdiger Wischenbart explained how the ten largest publishing groups in the world dominate the market thanks to their size and the greater amount of funds they can dedicate to research. Against them, he proposed the "Scandinavian model", more based on proximity to the reader and multiformats.
Likewise, the genre that is growing the most in Spain is comics, which already account for 8% of sales, which marks a growth of 25%. That is why one of the round tables was dedicated to the rise, above all, of graphic novels and manga. the editors Emilio Bernárdez (La Cúpula), Andreu Giménez (Planeta), Óscar Valiente (Norma) and Alejandro M. Viturtia (Panini) confirmed that the bookstore has replaced the kiosk and the book format has replaced the magazine of yesteryear.
For his part, the philosopher Javier Gomá explained to the journalist Sergio Vila-Sanjuán, co-director of the event with Tixis and Javier Aparicio Maydeu, his interest in “the material conditions in which creators work, how writers make a living, which It is basic to understand the work of Tolstoy or Kafka, for example”. He called for someone to one day write "a history of culture from that point of view." He also considered that modern culture, "daughter of romanticism that rewards transgression, has hit rock bottom", so that "while the novel of the XIX and XX reflects the confrontation of the individual with society, the novel of the future will reflect the commitment of the individual with society.
