(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 27 - Publishing varies in Italy in 2022 (printed fiction and non-fiction books purchased in physical bookshops, online and large-scale retail trade) sold 1.671 billion euros of books at cover price, for 112, 6 million copies, slightly down on the previous year with -2.3% in value and -2.4% in copies, but still sharp growth compared to 2019 with +13.1% in value and +13.3% copies.
In 2022, Italians bought 13 million more books than in 2019. This according to market data created by AIE in collaboration with Nielsen BookScan, presented on 27 January in Venice, on the final day of the XL Specialization Seminar of the Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri School for Booksellers .
According to the research, Italy is confirmed as the sixth publishing house in the world after the USA, China, Germany, the UK and France and the fourth in Europe.
In 2022 the audiobook market grew, going from 24 million euros (value of subscriptions) in 2021 to 25 in 2022, +4.2%.
While that of ebooks dropped from 86 million euros to 79, with a drop of 8%.
The value of the miscellaneous market grows to 1.775 billion (-2.5% on 2021) if we also take into account audiobooks and e-books.
Physical bookstores are growing after the collapse suffered in 2020, which close the year with 889 million euros in sales, (+ 1% compared to the previous year).
A growth that has mainly affected the chain bookstores that have benefited from the end of the lockdown.
Online is down with sales down by 5% to 705 million and large-scale distribution with -10% to 77 million.
The first purchasing channel are the physical bookstores whose market share grows to 53.2%, followed by online with 42.2% and large-scale distribution is reduced to 4.6%.
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