The worst may be over for European publishers, after falling sales resulting from the 2008 financial crash and uncertainty that came with e-books
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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The new year is off to a strong start for US trade book publishers, owing to the cable news frenzy over Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
In Europe, final sales data for 2016 released this week by the Federation of European Publishers showed total annual sales for reporting FEP members at approximately €22.3 billion (US$28.21 billion), the same level as 2015. FEP also reported that sales of e-books now represent 6% of overall sales for traditional publishers.
“The FEP’s deputy director and economist Enrico Turrin told reporters that the general feeling is that the worst is over for European publishers, referring to years of falling sales resulting from the 2008 financial crash as well as the uncertainty that came with the introduction of e-books,” Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer, reports.
“Turrin says that the five largest European markets – Germany, UK, France, Spain and Italy – all reported increases in publishers’ turnover in 2016,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.