Global Book Market 2024 shaped by strong fiction, declining non-fiction and slower price increases

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.

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.

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