In 2015, for the first time in four years, sales of printed books once again rose slightly, by 0.4 per cent, from 2.748 billion pounds to 2.760 billion pounds. By contrast, at the same time and for the first time in seven years, digital sales (e-books, audio downloads, online subscriptions) decreased by 2 per cent, from 563 million pounds to 554 million pounds. In addition to the United Kingdom, THE MARKETS Global Publishing Summit, the conference to kick off the Frankfurt Book Fair, will also put the spotlight on six other book markets in 2016 – Brazil, Flanders & the Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Spain, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.
On October 18, 2016, important publishers, strategists and industry experts from these countries will present their markets and offer analyses, visions, professional contacts and personal tips. The one-day conference is organised by the Frankfurt Book Fair in cooperation with the US trade magazine Publishing Perspectives.
The United Kingdom's book market, known to be the world’s fifth largest book market (after the USA, China, Germany and Japan), is maintaining its position. In 2015, total sales in the British book and publishing industry rose from 3.311 to 3.314 billion pounds. At 17 percent, the digital sector's share remains unchanged from the previous year. In terms of categories, academic/reference books hold the lead with 32 per cent, followed by children's books (24 per cent) and textbooks (17 per cent).
These figures were published in early May 2016 in The UK Publishers Association's Statistics Yearbook 2015. It is worth noting that the figures for digital sales only include traditional publishers, and not the growing self-publishing market. In fact, according to Nielsen Book UK, self-published e-books have a 22 percent share in the digital book market (2014: 16 per cent).
In 2015, domestic sales (print and digital) rose by 3 per cent to 1.893 billion pounds. The largest jumps in sales were seen in non-fiction/reference books (+9 per cent) and textbooks (+13 per cent). Fiction sales were also up slightly, by 1.6 per cent over 2014. With revenues of 1.42 billion pounds and a quota of 43 per cent, the United Kingdom is the world champion in book exports. Education, science and ELT (English Language Training) account for the lion's share – namely, two-thirds – of this. The share of digital products remained at 15 percent, and Europe continues to be by far the most important target market, followed by the regions South Asia and Middle East/North Africa.
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