Irish Book Market Continues To Crash
Nielsen Bookscan figures for the first eight weeks of the year show continued declines in Irish book sales.
According to the research company’s latest figures for the eight weeks of 2012 to the end of February, the value of sales in the Irish market hit has declined by 17.2% to €14.7 million while the volume has dropped 15.9% to 1.4m in comparison to the equivalent period of 2011.
Non-fiction has had the hardest fall with Non-Fiction sees a decline of 18.4% to €7.8m while fiction has year-to-date sales of €3.9m, a decline of 15.1%. Children’s books are not immune either and sales for that category are down 17.5% to €2.9m.
Bookshops need to be proactive to survive the digital publishing revolution. No one wants to see the demise of the local bookshop even those who have eagerly engaged with ebooks. Bookshops are in prime place to sell ebooks on their own sites and use the synergies of local readership and atmospheric milieu to cross fertilise readerships.
[...] Irish publishing won’t be celebrating that much though. It’s struggling at the moment, suffering its worst eight weeks for a long time at the beginning of 2012. The full article is here. [...]