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A number of independent publishers spoken to by The Bookseller have reported an uplift in print sales this year, despite the difficulties of lockdown. However, others have said the pandemic has taken its toll on sales, while bulk returns from Bertrams post-administration have complicated the picture.
Nielsen has confirmed an overall 18% rise in the volume of print sales through its UK TCM between 15th June and 11th July, compared with the same time frame last year. The global market research company reported the sale of 14.6 million books for £126.2m in the four week period.
Laura Waddell, publishing director at Dublin-based Tramp Press, confirmed the indie had seen a “small uplift in direct website sales of print books” in the last few months, adding the press had managed to carry on “more or less as usual” despite the pinch of bookshop closures. “The support of indie booksellers and events teams is particularly important to us, so it has been a difficult few months with customers unable to browse physically,” she said.
However, Sara Hunt, founder and publisher at Manchester’s Saraband, said it was “more difficult than usual to make sense of our overall figures since lockdown, because we've been getting a mix of healthy new sales with hefty returns from titles that were distributed immediately before lockdown, and the fallout from Bertrams."
She said some titles had performed "surprisingly well, which is great to see", but that no overall pattern was obvious yet. Saraband usually banks on robust summer sales of adult non-fiction, including titles on nature, tourism and heritage. “This year some of those titles have suffered, [but] on the other hand, some particular subjects are up, for instance, cycling, and environment and climate change." she said.
“In fiction, like the Nielsen findings we can't see much difference overall from last year. We've found that booksellers we speak to regularly are more supportive than ever of independent publishers when they can find a local market for particular books, which is great,” she added.
Michael Schmidt, managing director of Carcanet, said the poetry press’ print sales had been roughly maintained, with growth in certain areas, despite closed bookshops. “Our experience is that 2020 is level pegging with 2019, which given the Covid issue means that probably, relatively, print is doing better. The area where we are experiencing a little boom is PN Review, our bi-monthly journal, which has experienced a strong growth in readership, or subscribership. There we could talk not unrealistically of a 20% growth.”
Sam Jordison, Galley Beggar co-founder, said the Norwich-based press’ existing titles “seem to be doing well”, and he was having to reprint some to cater for demand. “We’ve seen really exciting order numbers for our hardback release in August, Mordew by Alex Pheby,” he said.
“Things seem really healthy to us and we're mighty glad. And also delighted for the shops that have re-opened. They still must need an awful lot of custom. The [statistic] doesn't yet make up for all those weeks when they were selling 100% fewer books, so I really hope people keep on buying.”
Not all publishers are experiencing similar market conditions however. “We started the year out strong—our first quarter sales by value were up 30.5% from 2019," said Alice Hamilton-Cox, sales executive at Sandstone Press. “This quarter’s print sales are not in line with the Nielsen report—however, in the second quarter last year, we were successfully capitalising on our Man Booker International 2019 win with Celestial Bodies so it is difficult to compare fairly.”
Karen Sullivan, founder and publisher at Orenda, said it was too early for her to assess the impact of Bertrams' returned titles, but felt that the statistical rise in print sales was not applicable to her press. "In terms of print sales being up 20%, that certainly isn't the case for us. We took a big hit when lockdown began, and although, after the initial 'de-prioritisation of books' our online (in particular, Amazon) sales are strong, our sales team was furloughed and the closure of the wholesalers definitely disrupted the supply chain," she said.
"We published two books in April, both strong authors, and sales were disappointing. We moved our May and June titles, and sales and pre-orders are looking promising for these titles, in their new publication months, but I don't think we are seeing the numbers we did last year."
Diane Slaney, publisher at Nottingham's Candlestick Press, is dependent on sales of physical poetry pamphlets, and said the pandemic had severely reduced sales. Like Orenda, she didn't feel that Nielsen's optimistic print results were reflective of her experience, and is feeling the effect of Bertrams turmoil. "With all our varied stockists initially closed, and now only slowly re-opening, we’re looking at a 20% sales decrease for the first six months of the year," she said.
"This sales reduction coupled with the significant Bertrams bad debt affecting cashflow has been a double whammy, so we’ve been trying to manage both of those things with a reduced publishing schedule and reduction of expenses. Unfortunately our titles don’t translate to digital versions as the whole concept revolves around receiving something lovely and tactile in the post as a gift, so we need to see if there’s more we can do online to provide a buffer against future disaster."
Candlestick still has stock at Bertrams warehouse, but has not received any returns as of yet. "We don’t seem to be getting any stock returned, although the whole situation is very confused and the information we’ve been given unreliable, so it’s hard to know for sure. I hope we’re at rock bottom with it now and that the worst of the news has passed so we can dust ourselves off and move forward with more optimism," she added.
Kevin Duffy, co-founder of Bluemoose Books, felt that large publishers with well-known writers were doing well, and responsible for the statistics, but suggested that high street performance, and exposure for newer authors was in decline. "Our sales are up 10% and these sales are driven by direct sales from the website," he said. "High street bookshop sales are down on last year. Bigger publishers, with their 'named' authors are doing very well but Indies are seeing their new titles being squeezed off the bookshelves by the bigger discounts as Christmas seems to have started early."
Most publishers are interested to break down the statistics from Nielsen’s report. Welsh press Seren confirmed its website sales “are still double year on year” but felt it may be behind its English counterparts in print sales as bookshops re-opened later.
Mick Felton, publisher at the Brigend-based press, said: “The best description of print through the trade for us is ‘steady’. Looking at the lists of bestsellers and the reports of what bookshops mention as selling it feels like the increased sales may be based on the usual (or expected) suspects.
"Certainly the anecdotal evidence that customers aren’t browsing but know what they want to purchase plays to titles from the bigger publishers. It would be interesting to see some detail behind the headline figures. I’d say we’re up on a variety of online sellers, but I can’t tell with any accuracy for bricks and mortar."
Like Hunt, Felton said the Bertrams situation “has probably been an issue for some publishers” and confirmed the press was seeing returns on a daily basis, which was a contributing factor to a depression in sales. "I rather hoped that the return of stock from Bertrams would stop once Gardners had bought the business and assets, but the administrators seem intent on clearing the Bertrams warehouse," he said.
Echoing the concerns of other presses, Hamilton-Cox added: “Our greatest fear, for trade reasons as well as more general concerns, is of a return or second wave that might necessitate a second lockdown.”