Book sales in Portugal increased by 35% compared to 2021 data and prices also rose
Book sales in Portugal grew by more than 35% in the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2021, corresponding to revenue of 34.9 million euros, revealed this Friday the Portuguese Association of Publishers and Booksellers.
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According to data provided by Gfk, an independent entity that counts auditoriums and book sales throughout the year, in the first quarter of 2022, there were 2,589,810 books, which represents a series of over 35.2% of sales, compared to the first three months of 2021.
The Associação Portuguesa de Livros e Livros Salvados (APEL) saved, however, that these numbers were drawn compared to a period of confinement, in which it was impossible to buy books at the publisher’s points of sale, due to the end of delivery dates.
In terms of value, the book market received a total of 34,907,072 euros at the beginning of this year, which means a financial increase of over 43.6% compared to the same period last year.
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The average price of the book also contributed to this, which rose 6.1% to 13.48 euros.
In these first three months of the year, 2,633 new books entered the market.
Regarding points of sale, 68% of books sold in the first quarter were sold by bookstores, while only 32% were sold by hypermarkets. This is also reflected in sales figures, as 78.2% of the total (27,297,330 euros) went to bookstores and 21.8% (7,609,742 euros) to hypermarkets.
By category, the best-selling books were non-fiction (35%), at an average price of 16.29 euros, corresponding to 42.3% of the total amount raised.
The second most sold genre was children’s, with a weight of 33.5% in total sales, an average price of 9.98 euros per book, and an estimated value corresponding to 24.8% of the total.
Fiction books, sales represent 28.4% of the overall ‘cake’ and provide 31.2% of the total financial income. The average price at which these books were sold was 15.24 euros.
The representative genre is less/exclusive, which sells advertisements with 3.1% in average number of units, with 08% of the final calculated value, with these publications having been around 38 euros.
Previous data from Gfk, revealed last March, already had a growing trend of the free market in Portugal.
According to the consultant, in 2021, book sales in Portugal grew 16.6% compared to 2020, which put the country the most among those that rose, in the nine countries covered by a study on the evolution of the book market Germany, Belgium (Flanders, Wallonia), Brazil, Spain, France, Holland, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland.
This study also already shows a trend in relation to the chosen genres, which these data revealed today to confirm.
A “negligible proportion” of the global sales in the market was due to the ‘boom’ of the projected band, mainly of sleeves and’manhwa‘, which proves to be “unstoppable” and had one of the biggest sales peaks in Portugal.
Two years in a row marked by the pandemic reflected in the choice of titles by non-fiction as well, having selected a significant increase in the demand for guides and books of health books, advice on subjects related to life, psychology and themes and themes .
In two-thirds of the countries analyzed, children’s books recorded even greater increases than the book market as a whole. Portugal was one of those cases, with a revenue increase of more than 21% in this literary segment.