Book sales set for new record: Almost £1 BILLION has been spent on books already this year
Thanks to the internet and streaming services, we have plenty of ways to fill our leisure time.
But Britain is still a nation of bookworms – almost £1billion has been spent already this year on paperbacks and hardbacks.
Reading surged in popularity during the pandemic when people were stuck at home, and the trend is showing little sign of wearing off.
Colleen Hoover’s novel It Ends With Us has boomed in popularity as Britons took to reading in lockdown
Sales are up slightly on the record-breaking 2021 and there are hopes that the spree will continue.
We had shelled out £945 million on 113 million books by August 13, according to the industry tracker Nielsen.
Non-fiction sales are lagging behind last year – dropping nine per cent – as Britons seize paperbacks to take on what for many will be their first summer holiday since Covid struck.
Current bestsellers including the romance It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover and Richard Osman’s second book, The Man Who Died Twice.
The TV presenter’s first book, The Thursday Murder Club, is also still flying off the shelves.
Sales of Where The Crawdads Sing by first-time author Delia Owens are rocketing thanks to a film adaptation of the thriller.
While an estimated two-thirds of people in the UK read in their spare time, industry insiders worried that the introduction of e-readers such as Kindles a decade ago would kill off the print industry.
But book sales soared in the UK during the pandemic to their highest levels since 2012.
Last year people forked out a record £1.82 billion as they sought comfort in reading.
The Publishers Association said the UK industry’s total income hit a record high of £6.7 billion.
The social media platform TikTok – a favourite with so-called ‘Gen Zers’ – is also helping younger readers discover books and has been identified as a key driver of print sales.
Richard Osman’s The Man Who Died Twice is very popular and the TV presenter’s first book, The Thursday Murder Club, is also still flying off the shelves
A newfound love for audiobooks has also outlasted the pandemic, figures from Audible show.
Profits at the UK arm of the Amazon-owned audiobook seller rose by 60 per cent to £19million in 2021 as listener numbers jumped.
Audiobooks and podcasts flourished during lockdowns alongside streamlining services such as Netflix.
While many subscription services have seen customers cancel amid the cost-of-living crisis, it is not clear if Audible is suffering the same fate.
Audible Limited’s accounts, released on Companies House, showed revenues rose 14 per cent to £214million last year.
As well as offering books to customers and subscribers, Audible also makes its own podcast and original series.
Presenters include comedian-turned-author Graham Norton, who hosts The Graham Norton Book Club, and Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, who have a podcast called T*tting Around.
Audible was set up in 1997 in New Jersey and was snapped up by Amazon in a deal worth around £250million in 2008.
It publishes books and spoken word in 46 languages.
