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Book Publishing Market Report 2005
Key Note Publications Ltd, March 2005
This report looks at book publishing and its UK market. The book market in the UK is the second largest by value, in Europe and is the strongest EU market in terms of market growth. In 2004, it is estimated to have grown faster than the US market. This report looks principally at the market for UK publishers' books in the UK, which comprises three sectors: consumer books; academic and professional books; school books.
It is estimated that the value of retail book sales in 2004 was £3.98bn, which represents a 3.2% increase on 2003. Around two-thirds of the market is represented for by consumer sales. 2004 was somewhat disappointing after the exceptionally good year experienced in 2003. UK retailers in every sector, including bookselling, experienced a poor Christmas season. Some booksellers have complained that there have been not enough bestsellers in 2004. For example, there have not been any more books about Princess Diana, such as the autobiography of Paul Burrell in 2003, A Royal Duty, in which he focuses on his life with Diana, and nothing to succeed Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which was a runaway success in 2003. The first of these was predicted to sell well, but the latter's success was unexpected. The chance to back a winning book is one of the things that makes publishing an exciting industry for those inside it.
The industry is characterised by a handful of global conglomerates, such as Reed Elsevier Group PLC, Pearson PLC, The Random House Group Ltd and Harper Collins Publishers Ltd. These are major international companies. A major development was the acquisition of Hodder Headline from WH Smith by the French publisher Hachette Filipacchi in 2004. This marks the further internationalisation of UK publishing, i.e. there is a greater foreign ownership of UK publishing. Hachette already owned Orion (which owned Weidenfeld & Nicholson), so it has become the UK's second-largest consumer book publisher. Macmillan and Random House are both owned by German companies. The other major publishers are Blackwell and the university presses of Oxford and Cambridge.
The percentage of adults who buy books is gradually rising, yet around half the UK population rarely buys a book. Heavy book buyers — those who buy ten or more books per year — represent an important part of the publishers' customer base. Book buying is spread across all age ranges, but there is a slightly higher propensity to buy books among those aged around 25 to 55 than among other groups.
Publishers are still looking for ways to increase the UK market. In order to do this they are trying to work more closely with the booksellers, but change will take place slowly. Pricing remains an important issue; not just the question of price cuts and the power of the supermarkets, but whether prices should be printed on books at all. We are forecasting that the total book market will increase in value by around 10.4% between 2005 and 2009. A higher market growth looks unlikely.
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