The book market in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation went down by 0.3% in 2023 to €264.8 million, the Belgian Publishers Association, Adeb, and book professionals association Pilen said on Wednesday.
Although this was higher than in 2020, there was a considerable decline in the number of copies sold, especially since the average book price increased by 5.1% to €13 per copy.
Adeb and Pilen highlighted the significance of inflation, which exceeded 10% in Belgium in 2022-2023. As a result, while the 0.3% decline might seem slight, it “represents a substantial fall in constant euros for all players in the sector,” they noted.
Bookstores registered a 2.9% increase in turnover but online sales on resale sites and purchases in mega-culture stores or bookstore chains slid by over 3%.
Bookstores' revenue amounted to €104.1 million, driven by an uptick in copies sold and the average selling price within the 'general literature' segment. This sub-sector emerged as the top seller (€61.4 million), replacing comic books, which suffered a 1.2% depreciation, ending the year on €60.1 million.
Three types of publications saw their sales plummet significantly: practical books (-9.2%), children’s books (-7.1%) and technical humanities works (-2.8%). On the other hand, schoolbooks witnessed a 6.3% surge.
Last year, publishers' turnover reached €327 million (+1.5%). However, given inflation, this result equates to a “very significant” fall in profit margins, Adeb warns, “especially since production costs saw increases of between 30% and 100% during this period.”
