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The German book market ended 2020 down by 2.3% across all channels in value and 5.3% in volume after being hit by two Covid lockdowns, the second of which began in mid-December during the height of the Christmas season, when sales were on the brink of breaking even year-on-year.
A pre-Christmas bonanza had raised hopes that a difficult year could still end on a positive note. According to Media Control, by the end of November the drop in sales had been cut to -1.8%, down from -13% for the four months to April. The first two weeks in December saw customers flocking to bookshops in huge droves with overall sales up 45% in the first two weeks of December.
But once the December lockdown started, book sales, especially in the high street, plummeted. Brick-and-mortar bookstores ended December down 19.6% by value and the year with a decline of 8.7%. Across all channels, including book chains and independent bookstores as well as e-commerce and other retailers such as travel and department stores, and December sales were down 5.1%.
Among the bestselling books of the holiday season were Barack Obama’s blockbuster memoir Ein verhei√üenes Land (Penguin Verlag). Despite the hefty price tag of ‚Ǩ42 (£38), the 1,000-page hardback has been sitting atop the bestseller lists since it was published in mid-November and continues to fly off the shelves. Many booksellers also reported strong demand for the English-language original, with the UK edition selling around the six-figure mark.
Year-on-year children’s books and YA were the only category to report growth with sales up 4.7% across all channels. Fiction and popular non-fiction were down 1.6% and 1.3% for the year respectively.
While “enthusiasm for reading has been high and demand for books was strong for most of the year”, according Karin Schmidt-Friderichs who heads the German trade association B√∂rsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the mood among the industry today is one of deep anxiety. Following the extension of the current lockdown from 10th January to at least the end of the month, Schmidt-Friderichs calls the prospects for publishers and booksellers “uncertain” and expects 2021 to start with a “massive” decline in sales.
Brick-and-mortar booksellers are especially worried because the prolonged lockdown will further accelerate the dramatic changes in the distribution structure seen in 2020, with sales shifting from the high street to online. Not all of those went to Amazon, though. Many booksellers had used the spring lockdown to thoroughly update their online activities, either by improving their own online shops or using the personalised white label shops offered by large book wholesalers such as Libri and KNV.