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While this week’s Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) has been bustling, regional TCM figures from Nielsen BookScan show strong pressures on Scotland’s physical book market in 2012, with spending on books down 12% year on year to £64.8m.
The drop is more than twice of that in England (down 5%), and significantly worse than the fall in Wales and Northern Ireland (both down 7%). Sales in the Border region show the greatest decline, down 16% by value (to £8.1m) and 13% by volume (to 1.2m).
Meanwhile, the regional figures showed the Midlands has seen the smallest drop in value (down 4%) and volume (down 1%) terms this year. Average selling price for the year to date is highest in London, at £8.09, and lowest in the North East of England, at £6.28.
The Nielsen BookScan TCM figures include sales of physical books through high street and online retailers.
Mixed reports from indies suggest the high street may be bearing the brunt of Scotland’s sales decline. Martins the Bookseller in Campbeltown, Argyllshire, recently closed after more than 100 years in business, with owner Efric McNeil saying there had been a “dramatic tail-off” in trade since August 2011, with book sales falling an estimated 15%–20% over that period.
Richard van der Voort, owner of At the Sign of the Dragon in Wigtown, Galloway, said his mail-order sales were down by 11% from April to July this year. “I think the Scottish economy has been hit even harder than the English one in the recession,” he said.
However, Rosamund de la Hey of the Mainstreet Trading Company bookshop in St Boswell’s said contrary to the statistics, her bookshop was actually experiencing a hike in sales, helped by the recent bad weather.
The Scottish Retail Consortium has reported that footfall in Scottish shops fell 8% year on year between May and July, compared to a 2% drop for the UK as a whole.
Publishing Scotland chief executive Marion Sinclair said sales through shops at tourist locations were thought to be up, adding that she had heard from publishers that though it is a “tough year”, Amazon has “taken up some of the slack”. Ofcom last month reported broadband take-up in Scotland rising faster than elsewhere in the UK, up to 68% of homes from 61% a year earlier, which could explain the high-street slump.
Sinclair also pointed to the popularity of literary festivals north of the border, saying: “We have 48 literary festivals in Scotland. Maybe festivals are driving people to buy online or at the event, rather than on the high street.”
Publishers agreed the market for special sales was “thriving”. Mark Buckland, managing director of Glasgow-based independent publisher Cargo, said the number of public sector redundancies in Scotland meant some buying power “has dropped out of the market”, but added: “[A] factor is that there’s a thriving market for people buying books at live events like festivals, or else through online sources such as our website, which means the sales are not counted in the official figures.”
Eight hundred authors are appearing in more than 750 events at this year’s EIBF. Profile Books publicity director Ruth Killick said their author events had sold out. “Afterwards, people were queuing to buy books. There’s a really good vibe there,” she said.