Now everyone is writing and publishing books (while the number of readers is declining). Between writers and impromptu online publishers, or publishing houses that regularly charge to publish, “we are flooded with a quantity of useless books,” moreover difficult to recognize and choose. For example, 30 percent of published books do not sell a copy, or at most sell one, and so it is time “for publishers to get their act together: we are now in the age of the absurd.” Not even 35,000 books, of all those released in 2022, sold 10 copies. In any case, booksellers will also have to “roll up their sleeves, keep up to date, pay attention to current issues” and still take advantage of the opportunities offered by online.
As Nomisma notes based on Istat data, publishing houses in Italy have declined from 5,491 in 2012 to 4,623 in 2021 with the largest decline recorded between 2012 and 2015 (-13.2 percent). Emilia-Romagna’s trend is “consistent” with the national trend, managing overall to maintain its 8 percent share of the Italian total. In fact, book production has been growing steadily since 2016, with the only exception of a decline in 2020. After a boom in 2019, with 86,475 works published, book production grew further in 2021, marking a +4.3 percent increase over 2019. Looking at the evolution of the number of bookstores in Italy, 2015 stands out and 2019 as years of ” significant negative downturns (with 3,158 and 3,175 bookstores, respectively), while 2020 and 2021 stand out as years of recovery.”
Once again, Nomisma notes, beginning in 2021 there is an increase in paper book sales (in value), a legacy linked to the rediscovery of reading during the pandemic that apparently will not be lost even in 2022, reaching 1.67 billion euros in sales. On the other hand, the composition of the purchasing channels changes: if in the year of the lockdown the contribution of online had increased, in 2022 there was a rebound of ‘physical’, which had already returned to growth in 2021. Overall, however, over the past 11 yearsi the number of Italian readers, your research confirmsdeclined from 46.8 percent in 2010 to 40.8 percent in 2021. Also declining is the number of readers in Emilia-Romagna, which although still registering a higher share than the Italian average (51.5 percent in 2010 and 46.4 percent in 2021).
It then emerges how one reader out of two in the last year has read between two and five books, preferring mainly detective stories (chosen by 58 percent of readers) and thrillers (52 percent). Books are purchased because of interest in the subject matter (indicated by 58% of Emilia-Romagna readers), followed by interest in the author (56%) and the captivating plot (43%).
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