Sales up for kids' books in 2008 in UK
06.04.09 Caroline Horn reporting in The Bookseller

Underlying sales of children’s books have bucked the economic trend with sales up slightly in 2008. Excluding Harry Potter, children’s book sales grew by 2% in 2008 in both volume and value taking 2008 sales to £376m (£369m) representing 79m books sold (77.5m).

The children’s market now represents around 24.6% of total book sales in volume terms.The longer-term trends are also good for children’s books, with sales up by 12% in volume and 15% in value between 2004 and 2008, although the average price paid for a book has risen by just by 3% to £4.79 (£4.66).

Purchases of children’s books through the internet trebled between 2004 and 2008 from 2.5m units to 8.1m units. Today, nearly one in four children’s books is bought through either the internet or a supermarket compared to one in 10 five years ago.

However, purchases of adult and children’s books via the chains fell 3% in volume and 6% in value from 2007 to 2008.

There is some good news for independents where, despite a 6% decline in volume sales in the last five years, an increase in prices paid has resulted in a 14% value growth in that sector.Most of the growth in the children’s market has come through sales for the younger end of the market (nought to five years) with purchases of children’s books for older children down by 13–15% in the five years to 2008.

Despite the decline in books for older children, spend on children’s fiction rose by 5% (excluding Harry Potter sales) in 2008 compared to 2007, and by 18% in the five years to 2008. Children’s genres that have shown volume growth in 2008 include general fiction, early learning, picture books, annuals, SFF and adventure/mystery with the strongest-performing genres character fiction, annuals and adventure/mystery fiction.

There has also been a volume increase in gift purchasing between 2004 and 2008 of 28% in volume to 45m units (35m), with the value rising at a similar rate.

Mike Richards, head of marketing and publicity at Egmont Press, who spoke at the BML annual conference, warned that, behind the year on year growth, there is an overall “downward trend” in book purchasing.

BML’s figures show a decline in the proportion of 12 to 79-year-olds buying books in each of the last three years from over 61% in 2004 to 57% in 2008. Richards said, “Beyond the year on year comparisons, where have all the book buyers gone?”