More decline for Italian publishing
Bad news for italian publishing. The new report of the AIE (Italian Publishers Association) has come out, showing sales figures from January to October 2024. The data show a drop, not huge, but still significant, in sales of miscellaneous books, i.e. all categories except school books. The numbers? 1.685 million fewer books, or -2.1% compared to the same period in 2023. Obviously, this figure is closely linked to that of expenditure, which dropped by 12.646 million, corresponding to -1.1% compared to 2023.
Why sales are falling
It is impossible to identify a single factor that explains this decline. However, there are multiple elements that must be taken into account when talking about italian publishing. First of all, the recipients of the book product are casual, or ‘weak’ readers, as they are called.
This means that in Italy the culture of frequent reading is not consolidated, but is based on occasional purchases and reading, which are therefore affected by ‘exceptional’ factors. An example? During the pandemic period, the market, both digital and paper, grew a lot due to forced immobility and increased leisure time.
The positive effects lasted even longer, but gradually began to weaken, until the trend was reversed. A direct consequence of this type of market is the fact that the Italian book industry is not based on demand, but on supply. As is also the case for the film industry, the presence (or absence) of blockbuster titles strongly conditions the sales market.
In 2024, no books that are considered real bestsellers came out, and this is evidenced by the fact that the top ten bestselling books saw an eight million euro drop in expenditure compared to 2023 (600,000 fewer copies).
Then there are other reasons, and one is certainly the reduced purchasing power of families, who do not consider books as basic necessities. Also contributing to this was the end of funding for the so-called 18app culture bonus, which gave young people EUR 500 to spend on cultural products and accounted for almost a tenth of all sales in general.
How are the different genres
The IEA’s analysis also shows the fluctuations affecting the different literary genres. In addition to the general decline, the net decrease in sales of comics, which had accounted for an important part of the total market in recent years, stands out. Children’s books, manuals and non-fiction also fell and the growth in Italian (and also foreign) fiction was not enough to compensate for this decline.
Analysing fiction in more detail, the most significant growth was in the fantasy genre, with an increase of 26% (around one million more sales than in 2023).
Who was most affected
One sector that was greatly affected by this case was libraries. Yes, because a major part of the sales is represented by the purchases of libraries, which increase and renew their holdings. During the pandemic, in 2020, a special fund of EUR 30 million per year was introduced by the government for precisely these purchases, on the condition that libraries obtain most of their supplies from retailers in their area.
This financing ended this year and the impact was particularly significant. An important note: this figure is not in the IEA report and does not affect the drop in sales discussed so far. The reason? Library purchases are counted separately, but if they were included in the overall figure, the drop would be even more pronounced. This shows, therefore, that the situation, including this sector, is more serious than expected.
The drop in sales affected all production circuits to some extent, both large and smaller publishing houses. However, it was the latter that suffered the most from the negative wave (between -5.7% and -9.4%), while the larger ones (with a turnover of more than EUR 5 million) contracted by less than 1%.
In short, a not very comforting picture: both the structural weaknesses of the system and the current economic situation do not bode well for 2026.