Two and a half years after the start of the pandemic, with fewer setbacks due to the closure of physical points of sale, the publishing industry in the sector of the sale of printed books to the final public in Mexico has recovered, but has not yet reached the ideal levels.
Although the numbers in practical terms have improved when compared to 2021, a year that was favoring the sector according to the progress of the vaccination campaigns, and with 2020, the darkest year in the industry that left a gap of more or less -20%, the conditions have not yet come to fruition.
According to Nielsen Bookscan Mexico, an agency with an estimated coverage of 80% of the points of sale in the country, with figures compiled until the end of week 26 of 2022, that is, until July 2, and shared with this newspaper, in the first half of the year, 9 million 108 thousand 691 printed copies have been sold, which represents an increase of 19.7% in the sale of physical books compared to the same period last year.
And according to figures reported by this newspaper in previous editions, compared to 2020, those little more than nine million copies sold until July 2 represent an estimated 37% in favor.
turnover grows
Now, in terms of value, the sale of physical books, in the sector that Nielsen manages to survey until the first half of the year, has reached 2,316 million 563 thousand 871 pesos, which represents an increase of 27.5% compared to economic income for the sale of physical books during the first half of 2021.
On the other hand, the six-monthly turnover of this year compared to the same period of 2020 is evidence of an increase of 46%. It is necessary to remember that it was precisely in the first half of 2020 when the most difficult weeks for the industry occurred, with the closure of bookstores and points of sale due to the epidemiological red light.
The fact that the recovery for billing until the middle of 2022 compared to the same period of 2021 is 27.5%, while the recovery for the sale of units is lower (19.7%), suggests that there has been an increase in the price of books to the end user.
The reader does not resent it: RELI
In the July 13 edition, the director of the Grano de Sal label, Olmo Balam Juárez, shared with this newspaper that the scarcity of paper and an increase of between 20 and 30% in the cost of printing services, in the middle of a storm that persists and in which prices are constantly adjusted, have forced some publishers to increase the price of the book or to reduce the forecast of novelties, among other measures still in crisis.
But, how much have the adjustments in the price of the printed book impacted the links that can suffer the most, such as neighborhood bookstores?
Consulted on the subject, the president of the Network of Independent Bookstores (RELI), Claudia Bautista, estimates that 40% of publishers in the country have adjusted their prices upwards and have sent their updated cost lists to booksellers.
“But we also see that although the prices of some publishers have risen, they have published works of a more general economic scope,” he shares, with much simpler editions, paperbacks and other alternatives that allow costs to be lowered. This is the case of Ediciones Akal México, he exemplifies, which in this context has launched children’s editions that allow copies of up to 100 pesos to be placed on the market when on average their general interest books, with Humanities topics, range from 500 pesos. “That is to say, they do raise their prices on the one hand, but they release collections that are much more accessible and for audiences they were not targeting.”
However, acknowledges the spokeswoman for independent booksellers, at this time for the final reader the increase in the price of those books that have increased has not weighed so much. In other words, “in general terms, we have seen a recovery in sales compared to last year, not to mention the ancestor. People are feeling safer to go to places and choose books”.
But he points out that this recovery has not been the lifesaver that was anticipated at this point in the circumstances, much less for neighborhood vendors. “We have not had this bonanza that is talked about so much. We do not participate in such a drastic rise, to begin with because independent bookstores have zero or minimal participation in markets such as digital”. He reasons that things are still far from stabilizing for the book production chain.
