Lack of paper: book publishers worry about Christmas sales

Enlarge image

Paper is scarce: will the pile of books get smaller soon?

Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / picture alliance / dpa

The final preparations for the Frankfurt Book Fair are underway in Frankfurt am Main, and many from the industry are happy to be able to meet again.

And yet they are plagued by a concern that an important raw material is in short supply: publishers do not have the paper to print books.

"That is a big problem," said Jonathan Beck, head of the general publishing house at CH Beck, the "Handelsblatt" on Monday.

"With many books we already know that reprints are no longer possible before Christmas," said Beck.

"When the current inventory is sold, there will be supplies next year."

Katrin Jacobsen, production manager at Kiepenheuer & Witsch publishing house, had made a similar statement to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”: Previously you had to wait four to five days for the printing paper, now it could be six to eight weeks - or even longer.

Many publishers therefore decided: »We'll print what we can again before Christmas.

The main thing is that our books are not out of print. "

Impact on book prices possible

The publisher Beck advises taking care of Christmas presents early this year: "I am very much afraid that this year at Christmas, people cannot be sure that they will get every book at short notice."

In the medium term, the shortage of paper will also have an impact on prices, "although not as abruptly as in the case of heating oil or gas."

But “the pressure is there.

It is becoming more and more difficult to calculate a more extensive hardcover for less than 30 euros «.

With a total annual turnover of 520 million euros, CH Beck is one of the largest publishers in Germany.

One of the reasons for the paper shortage is that in the corona crisis, many companies saved themselves newspaper advertisements, which reduced the number of sheets. "Accordingly, there was less waste paper," quoted the "Handelsblatt" Gregor Andreas Geiger, spokesman for the paper industry association. The prices for waste paper, the most important raw material in today's paper production, rose accordingly.

Within a year, the paper industry was confronted with cellulose price increases of 60 to 100 percent, which are then passed on to the printing companies via the paper trade, quoted the industry journal »Buchreport« Peter Schlürmann, Head of Reel / Publishing at the paper wholesaler Inapa Germany. In his 39 years in the paper industry, this has never happened on this scale. He emphasizes that, in addition to special corona effects, the reasons also include a longer-term structural adjustment in the industry.

The alternative of reading books in digital form is not particularly noticeable in publishers' sales records.

According to the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the share of sales of e-books in the public book market rose from 7.5 percent in the first half of 2020 to 7.9 percent in the first six months of 2021. Readers apparently continue to appreciate the expensive paper.

feb / AFP