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Online pushes books in Germany

09.07.08 Anja Sieg

Germans publishers sales through online retailers grew by 21% in 2007, according to market figures put out by the German trade association. The growth helped the German book industry come back from almost three years in the doldrums to deliver record figures in 2007 with sales up 3.4% to €9.6bn (£7.6bn).

The performance, as measured by the Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels, beat the previous high of €9,42bn (£7,5bn) achieved in 2000. Gottfried Honnefelder, president of the association, said: "Despite all predictions to the contrary books are still the predominant medium."

The rapid growth in online book sales resulted in sales of €853m (£676m), and a market share of 8.9%. High street booksellers remained the largest sales channel with growth of 2.1% to €5,1bn (£4bn), giving them a market share of 53.6%. Market leaders Thalia and DBH accounted for 20% of total book sales in Germany.

German publishers put out 96,479 new titles with a total print run of more than 980m in 2007, 1.9% more than in 2006. This was well ahead of the French, who published 75,000 new titles in 2007, but behind UK publishers' output of 115,522.

In terms of sales, while fiction had a difficult time with its market share falling just under 2%  to 30.4%, children’s books increased their share from 13% to 15%, due to the run away success of both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Cornelia Funke’s latest bestseller Tintentod (Ink Death).

Traditionally translated books feature strongly in Germany. After a couple of quiet years the rights market has bounced back strongly with the number of translated titles rising 6.7% to 6,160, of which more than two thirds were translated from English.

But the rights business is no longer a one-way-street. According to the Börsenverein 9,225 rights contracts were signed in 2007, an increase of 4.5%. Over the last ten years the number has more than doubled, thanks notably to a lively rights business with Eastern European countries, primarily Poland and the Czech Republic. Children's books (21.4%), Self-help (13.9%) and fiction (12.6%) have been strongest in demand.

Retail Anja Sieg online Germany Global

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