The U.K. witnessed a strong holiday book market. Citing Nielsen BookScan figures, the Bookseller reported that £83.3 million (about $102.4 million) worth of print books "were sold in the run up to Christmas--the highest since 2007. The strong Christmas also indicates that sales in the U.K. print book market in 2016 were up for a second year in a row." For the first 51 weeks of 2016, "192 million print books were sold for £1.56 billion [about $1.9 billion], already 5.1% up in value on 2015's 52 week total and 2.5% up in volume with a week in hand."
 |
|
| Tim Godfray | |
In his end-of-year note, Booksellers Association CEO Tim Godfray predicted the "possibility" of more openings than closures in 2017, adding: "If we can achieve this, we will create a win win for booksellers, publishers and authors. We hope publishers can think of ways to encourage especially new bookshop openings.... There will be lots of uncertainties next year, particularly caused by the Brexit discussions. The graph for booksellers is starting to move up, after a very difficult period."
He also observed: "Being a forecaster seems to be even tougher than being a bookseller these days! Thank heavens so many of the former were wide of the mark when predicting the death of the physical bookshop and the demise of the printed books. I know that there are a few more critical days to go before the year-end, but I have been hugely heartened by the anecdotal sales' reports from our members in the U.K. and Ireland. Consumers do appear to be coming back to the printed book and to bookshops."
Godfray concluded optimistically: "Three cheers for our members, who have worked so hard. But they have been helped by very many publishers and authors. I hope that you can look back and take the view that you too have had a good year."