Member-only story
Unexpected Effects of the Pandemic on the Publishing Industry
The COVID-19 crunch
Books Sales Are Up
Not much good can come out of a global pandemic, but if you look for a silver lining, you might take comfort from the fact that book sales are up.
In the early stages of the pandemic, Publisher’s Weekly noted that unit sales of print books sales in the “outdoor skill” category were up 74% from 2019. Other categories were spiking too. Medical history books, many focused on the 1918 flu epidemic increased by 71%. With kids home from school, demand increased for educational workbooks, games, and activities — 42% more than last year. Literary fiction was up 10%.
From June to mid-August of this year, print book sales were up 12% from the quarter before.
Great news for writers and booksellers, right?
Not necessarily.
Think of Scholastic Books whose primary focus was on selling books at Book Fairs on school campuses. That kind of operation has been obliterated by COVID-19.
The pandemic changed everything, and like other industries, the publishing industry was dramatically affected.
Book Publication Schedules
Remember the nursery rhyme “The House That Jack Built?” In the old verse, one event leads to another: the rat ate the grain, the cat ate the rat, the dog ate the cat…You get the idea.
In a similar domino effect during the early months of the pandemic, retailers were forced to close. Publishers pushed back publication dates since they couldn’t sell books when stores weren’t open. Printers couldn’t get revenue from books that weren’t being printed, and several went bankrupt…You get the idea.
James Daunt, the newly installed CEO of Barnes & Noble said this:
“The very functions of the literary world have been put in an induced coma…There’s going to be a barren period when all the books that were to be published now and over the next few months are going to be shunted forward into the calendar. Fewer books will see the light of day.”
Most publishers pushed back the Spring 2020 releases due to the pandemic, and now all…
