The UK Lockdown saw a staggering £6.4 billion on books, academic, educational and consumer, during the course of 2020. Sales of consumer books saw the most substantial rise, with a 16% rise in fiction and a 4% rise in non fiction.
Proving an love for the authentic read, print books accounted for £1.7 billion of sales (4%) whilst digital saw a 24% rise with £418 million spent. In addition to fiction and non fiction, audio book sales saw a 37% rise the Publishers Association revealed.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo and The boy, the mole, the fox by Charlie Mackesy were within the bestsellers. In addition to these, there were also some cookbooks such as Pinch of Nom and 7 ways by Jamie Oliver.
The United Kingdoms academic industry had a total income rise of 3% (£3.3bn) but school textbooks fell by a fifth as schools around the country closed.
With schools reopening, along with book stores, there is hope that textbooks will receive the same boost as the rest.
The surge was expected as people turned to books for an escape, a form of comfort and that reading triumphed with adults and children alike. The Chief Executive of the Publishing Association Stephen Lotinga accredited it to people having more time to read.
Authors remain lucky in UK lockdown
When asked about the authors pay, Lotinga said the authors are lucky as they are paid through royalties. This means more authors than ever before have managed to get money. However, the authors that are reliant on a second job to supplement their income haven’t been able to do it meaning they have struggled. The Government support schemes had big holes appear meaning a lot of authors were unable to access them.
Despite the plight of the authors, publishers have seen profits rise thanks to “exceptional sales performance”. The Society of Authors gave £1.3 million between 900 authors with its Authors Contingency Fund in 2020.
The SoA’s Chief Executive Nicola Soloman revealed that, whilst some publishers had donated to the funds, many hadn’t’. There are still many authors applying for a grant through the scheme, with many of the ‘creative’ roles such as writers, illustrators and translators reliant on these.
PA Lotinga confirms that we can not ignore the challenging year that education publishers, smaller publishers and booksellers have faced. The PA is confident that people will be able to share their love of books now phyical events are opening again.
Thank you for reading £6.4bn in book sales in 2020 as lockdown reignited the love of books !
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