Federation of European Publishers (FEP) Releases European Book Publishing Statistics 2015

From the Federation of European Publishers (FEP):

Figures on the overall economic significance of the publishing industry refer to net publishers’ turnover, i.e. the publishers’ total revenues from the sales of books, not the total market for books (margin of booksellers or other retailers). They also do not account for revenues in terms of selling rights for translation, audiovisual adaptation, etc. In some cases, only data on market value was available; in such cases, average discount rates were applied to calculate an approximation of net turnover. Figures were rounded conservatively.
The total annual sales revenue of book publishers of the EU and the EEA in 2015 was approximately € 22.3 billion [approx. $24 billion/USD], according to the survey conducted by FEP. This represents a small increase from the last estimate of € 22 billion for 2014, the result of a mixed picture, with several markets recording a lower turnover than the previous year, but also a number of others confirming previous positive trends or reverting downwards tendencies. It is also to be noted that exchange rate effects contributed significantly to the positive result. The largest markets in terms of publishers’ turnover in 2015 were Germany, the UK, France, Spain and Italy.
Total market value is estimated at 36-38 billion €.
A total of about 575,000 new titles were issued by publishers in 2015. The figure was taken from different sources, some of which included new editions or non-commercial titles, and was accordingly rounded conservatively. There was therefore a significant increase in the title output from the previous survey. European publishers held a total of about 22 million different titles in stock (of which more than 4 million in digital format), the countries reporting the largest availability being the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain; this figure, ever-increasing, has been spiked by the surge in digital publishing (in different formats), the digitisation of back catalogues, the growth of print-on-demand services and the surge in self-published titles (mainly in the UK). The countries reporting the largest new titles output were the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

More Data in the Complete FEP Announcement

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