How big is global publishing? And why would we care to find out? The first BookMap report on publishing in a bird’s eye perspective.
The newly released first BookMap report, “How Big Is Global Publishing?”, provides surprising insights, based on data from around 20 countries worldwide.
Consumers spend around 122 billion euros on books and publications across the six continents. Two thirds of the money are earned by publishers in just six countries: The USA, China, Germany, the United Kingdom – the world’s biggest exporter of books -, Japan and France. India, with a population of 1.3 billion, and France, with a comparably modest 67 million, each add a similar 3 percent to global publishing, in terms of money spent by consumers.
As hundreds of millions of additional people in Asia, the Middle East, or Latin America are now gaining modest middle-class incomes, and therefore share rising aspirations for education, access to knowledge as well as entertainment, conventional wisdom would expect that this is a golden age for an expanding business of books. Not quite so.
In an overview over the past decade, 2007 to 2016, this report portrays an indeed changing global industry, which is truly expanding however in only a few countries like China. The leading English language markets in the US and UK could recuperate from some of the shockwaves of economic turmoil, digital upheaval and changing consumer behavior. But in their vast majority the book industry is strained.
This study maps global publishing, brings a wealth of data, and introduces fresh perspective in the analysis of market drivers and trends.
“How Big Is Global Publishing?” can be downloaded free of charge at www.BookMap.org
The free report introduces BookMap, a new non-profit initiative for research about international publishing markets.
