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Book Publishing Market Report 2011
Key Note Publications Ltd, April 2011, Pages: 107
This Key Note Market Report examines the UK book publishing market. The UK book market is made up of the consumer books, academic and professional books, and school and English language titles segments. Consumer books are the greatest contributor to the market in terms of value, followed by the academic and professional sector. In 2010, Key Note estimated that the UK book market was worth £3.38bn; the value of the total market has been in decline since 2008, although has remained fairly resilient during the recession.
The industry is dominated by a number of large publishing groups including Pearson PLC, Reed Elsevier, Hachette UK, Random House UK and HarperCollins UK. A number of these companies specialise in specific sectors of the book market — e.g. academic and professional titles — while the most dominant publishers of consumer books, estimated to account for 72.5% of the market, are considered to be Random House, Pearson (owner of Penguin) and Hachette. Other companies maximise sales through exports; both Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press accumulate the majority of their revenue in this way. A much larger volume of books is exported from the UK than imported, mainly due to the global reach of the English language and English language editions. Books which are imported into the UK are most likely to be academic and professional titles.
There are many factors currently affecting the UK book market; the rise of e-books has witnessed some depression in traditional book sales, while discounting practices are greatly affecting the potential value of the market. In 2010, Nielsen BookScan revealed retailers had discounted around £600m from the cover price of books, with the average price being reduced by 26%. This issue has been ongoing over the last decade, as retailers — particularly supermarkets — are constantly lowering pricing points to sell a higher volume of stock. This leads to further competition for independent booksellers, who are unable to compete with drastic price reductions offered by larger rivals.
Despite a recent decline in the total value of book sales, the market is forecast to see some recovery in the forthcoming years. Factors including the launch of an annual ‘World Book Night’, and a record number of university students populating the academic market, could help to revive the fortunes of the market. However, the success of the e-book market remains unclear; whether it will benefit the book industry or force it to further decline remains to be seen. It is forecast that the UK book market will increase by a steady 6.5% over the forthcoming 5 years, resulting in an estimated value of £3.60bn by 2015.
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