The publishing sector in France experienced a contraction in 2022, its turnover falling by 5.4% after a very favorable year 2021, indicated the professional organization of the sector, this June 30. “The comparison is based on a year 2021 of exceptional and almost extraordinary growth”, underlined the National Publishing Union (SNE) in its annual report on the economic activity of publishers.
While the publishing market exceeded 3 billion euros for the first time in 2021 (at 3.079 billion), it fell back to 2.911 billion euros in 2022. “If we compare 2022 to 2019, a year pre-pandemic reference, the book market is growing by 3.7% in value and 3.1% in volume,” said the SNE.
Faced with a market that promised to be more difficult, publishers were cautious. First, the price of books only increased by 1.5% in 2022, while that of goods in France jumped by 5.9%. Then, the number of new releases fell by 2.9% (to 38,743) and printed copies by 3.1% (to 536.9 million).
In turnover, the year was difficult for school books (-8.9%), practical books (-8.6%), children’s literature (-8.2%), and less good than a “historically high” year 2021 for comics and manga (-4.2%), which represent 17.7% of the market. The number one segment, literature (21.6% of the market), saw its sales resist better, with a decline of only 2.7%.
“The Nobel Prize awarded to Annie Ernaux for all of her work has boosted the novel department, as have the novelties of the headliners (Joël Dicker, Pierre Lemaitre, etc.) or those of former winners of literary prizes” , according to the NES.
The figures come from “a survey carried out on a sample of around 150 houses (representing nearly 500 editorial brands)”, recalled the SNE. However, the publishers are working on the development of a tool that will allow day-to-day sales monitoring, which could be operational in 2024.
The SNE, during its annual general meeting, said it had also discussed at length its work to protect copyright, threatened among other things by the collection of content protected by artificial intelligence (AI) editing tools.
“More than ever, while the law is undermined by piracy, exceptions or AI, the work of the Syndicate for its defense remains essential”, writes the SNE in its activity report.
