GfK Entertainment and Nielsen BookData have presented their global report for the first eight months of the year, prior to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair.

GfK Entertainment and Nielsen BookData have presented their global report for the first eight months of the year, prior to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. The data shows rising revenues in fiction, while sales of non-fiction books are declining in many regions. The TikTok community BookTok is playing an increasingly important role.

London/Baden-Baden, 15 October 2024 – The global book market in 2024 is facing a challenging environment. This is demonstrated by the joint report from GfK Entertainment and Nielsen BookData for the months of January to August. While the fiction segment saw increased revenues in 14 of the 16 territories surveyed, and children’s and young adult books also showed growth in nine regions, non-fiction struggled. Only five countries reported growth in this segment, which also impacted the overall market. Revenue grew overall in only six of the 16 territories, while this was also true in terms of unit sales.

Revenue range change: +18.3% in India and -9.3% in New Zealand

Spanish and Portuguese-speaking book markets have had an especially good year so far. Countries like Mexico (+16.1%), Spain (+12.3%), Brazil (+9.5%), and Portugal (+9.0%) all saw increased overall revenues. India’s revenue achieved +18.3% growth, although its total volume was relatively modest compared with some of the larger markets tracked with 27 million books sold. In contrast, France (-0.6%) and the UK (-0.8%), by far the largest book markets in the survey with 191 million and 116 million books sold respectively, recorded slight declines in revenue terms, with the official guest of honour at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair Italy managing to maintain a relatively flat change year on year at -0.1%. New Zealand saw the largest drop with a decline of -9.3% year-on-year.

Prices rising more slowly

Another finding of the report showed price increases are less steep than in previous years. Although average prices continue to rise in 12 of the surveyed territories, such as in the UK by 1.9% to £9.02, 12 regions are seeing lower price increases or even falling prices compared to the previous year. This includes Ireland (-1.0% to €12.57) and the Netherlands (-1.0% to €16.30).

 TikTok continues to boost sales especially in crime, fantasy, and romance

Among the fiction genres seeing the most growth are crime and thriller novels, whose sales are up in three-quarters of the surveyed countries. Revenue gains in the crime and thriller sector range from +3% in Wallonia to +56% in Portugal. Science fiction and fantasy books are performing even better, showing double-digit growth rates across the board. Romance novels are also trending. The TikTok community BookTok plays a key role in driving these and many fiction genres, bringing attention to
authors such as Freida McFadden (The Housemaid series), Rebecca Yarros (The Empyrean series), and Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us/It Starts with Us).

James Clear’s Atomic Habits is a worldwide bestseller

The decline in non-fiction can partly be attributed to the absence of top titles like Prince Harry’s biography Spare, which sold in huge volumes in many territories last year. Nonetheless, 2024 still boasts some global bestsellers in this category. One notable example is James Clear’s step-by-step manual Atomic Habits, which was among the top five bestselling non-fiction books in 13 territories. However, many segments, including the travel sector, which was enjoying a rebound post-pandemic, are in decline. History books and lifestyle guides are continuing to perform relatively well.

The results, together with the press release and additional information, can be downloaded at www.nielsenbook.co.uk/press-room/ and www.gfk-entertainment.com.

About survey

The survey is based on print book point-of-sale data from January to August 2024 for Australia, Belgium (Flanders/Wallonia), Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK

About GfK Entertainment

GfK Entertainment is a supplier of charts and market research data to the Books, Games, Music, and Video industries. It works closely with the relevant industry bodies and currently carries out market research in over 30 countries. For more information, visit: gfk-entertainment.com.

About Nielsen BookData

Nielsen BookData provides a range of services to the book industry internationally, aiding the discovery and purchase, distribution and sales measurement of books. Nielsen BookData is responsible for the ISBN and SAN Agencies for UK & Ireland as well as providing search and discovery services for booksellers and libraries. Its Research services provide retail sales analysis for both print and e-books alongside research from the Books and Consumers Survey. For publishers Nielsen BookData offers a range of services from assigning an ISBN to a book to adding metadata to its database and providing promotional tools to help market books. The company is wholly owned by NIQ. For more information, visit nielsenbook.co.uk.