German book market - figures, facts and trends
German book market
In international comparisons the German book market ranks as the third biggest world wide with sales of 9.3 billion euro (2006). There are normally 1 million titles available at all times and every year about 70,000 new titles are published. About 30% of them are fiction and 70% non fiction although the attention of readers is more drawn to fictional texts.
Reference: http://www.goethe.de/wis/buv/dos/dbb2/en122050.htm
Pictures © Frankfurter Buchmesse, 2007
Translations
Of these new books about 7 % are translations from other languages into German, two thirds from English, the remaining third from other - mostly European - languages like French, Spanish, Swedish or Italian. But there are also books from German authors whose rights are sold to foreign publishers. Children and youth literature is here the most popular and China and Korea seem to be the markets most interested in German literature. Current German authors reach mostly nationwide fame rather than international one. Their books tend to get translated into other languages, but only translations into English would mean international recognition which happens rarely. Recent examples are the best-selling The Swarm by Frank Schätzing and in the case of youth literature the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke or Kai Meyer’s Wave Walkers trilogy.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swarm_%28novel%29
http://www.corneliafunkefans.com/
http://www.corneliafunke.de/en/index.html
http://www.kaimeyer.com/index_e.html
Book price binding
In Germany every book is set a certain price (between 7 and 10 euros for paperbacks) by the publisher. All book shops, chains and online shops offer the book for this fixed price from which they aren’t allowed to change. There are two reasons behind this. On the one hand the fixed price implies the service of ordering a book that a shop doesn’t have in store for free. On the other hand high selling books finance others with small editions so that both can have an equally low price.
Reference: http://www.goethe.de/wis/buv/dos/dbb2/en122050.htm
Reading behaviour
In fiction the most popular genre is murder mysteries and thriller, both German as well as translations, especially from Scandinavian countries. These are closely followed by novels featuring historical persons and stories. Fantasy is most popular among children and young adults and most of it is translated from English. There’s also a growing audience for English and other literature in the original language which was strongly favoured by the publishing of the last two Harry Potter books. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the highest selling book in English with 400,000 copies for Germany on the first day.
Book awards
There’s only one national German book award, the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis (German youth literature award). The Deutsche Buchpreis (German book award) is awarded since 2005 by the Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels (German Booksellers and Publishers Association) at the book fair in Frankfurt. Apart from these there are many local book awards for youth and adult literature, for example the Corine in Bavaria.
Book fairs
Germany has two big annual book fairs. The better known is the Frankfurt Book Fair that takes place every year in early October. It has been organized by the Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels (German Booksellers and Publishers Association) since 1949, looking back at 500 years of tradition. It’s the world biggest book fair with about 7000 exhibitors from over 100 countries. Every year there’s also one country or region invited as guest of honour to present its culture and literature to an international audience - last year’s guest was India, this year’s Katalonia, next year’s Turkey. The fair is intended for professionals including publishers, booksellers, librarians and authors, but is opened for public audience during the last few days. The second important book fair takes place in Leipzig every March but is much smaller with about 2200 exhibitors.
The Frankfurt Book Fair:
Picture© Frankfurter Buchmesse, 2007
Links:
http://www.buchmesse.de/en/portal.php
http://www.leipziger-buchmesse.de/
http://www.boersenverein.de/
In international comparisons the German book market ranks as the third biggest world wide with sales of 9.3 billion euro (2006). There are normally 1 million titles available at all times and every year about 70,000 new titles are published. About 30% of them are fiction and 70% non fiction although the attention of readers is more drawn to fictional texts.
Reference: http://www.goethe.de/wis/buv/dos/dbb2/en122050.htm
Pictures © Frankfurter Buchmesse, 2007
Translations
Of these new books about 7 % are translations from other languages into German, two thirds from English, the remaining third from other - mostly European - languages like French, Spanish, Swedish or Italian. But there are also books from German authors whose rights are sold to foreign publishers. Children and youth literature is here the most popular and China and Korea seem to be the markets most interested in German literature. Current German authors reach mostly nationwide fame rather than international one. Their books tend to get translated into other languages, but only translations into English would mean international recognition which happens rarely. Recent examples are the best-selling The Swarm by Frank Schätzing and in the case of youth literature the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke or Kai Meyer’s Wave Walkers trilogy.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swarm_%28novel%29
http://www.corneliafunkefans.com/
http://www.corneliafunke.de/en/index.html
http://www.kaimeyer.com/index_e.html
Book price binding
In Germany every book is set a certain price (between 7 and 10 euros for paperbacks) by the publisher. All book shops, chains and online shops offer the book for this fixed price from which they aren’t allowed to change. There are two reasons behind this. On the one hand the fixed price implies the service of ordering a book that a shop doesn’t have in store for free. On the other hand high selling books finance others with small editions so that both can have an equally low price.
Reference: http://www.goethe.de/wis/buv/dos/dbb2/en122050.htm
Reading behaviour
In fiction the most popular genre is murder mysteries and thriller, both German as well as translations, especially from Scandinavian countries. These are closely followed by novels featuring historical persons and stories. Fantasy is most popular among children and young adults and most of it is translated from English. There’s also a growing audience for English and other literature in the original language which was strongly favoured by the publishing of the last two Harry Potter books. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the highest selling book in English with 400,000 copies for Germany on the first day.
Book awards
There’s only one national German book award, the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis (German youth literature award). The Deutsche Buchpreis (German book award) is awarded since 2005 by the Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels (German Booksellers and Publishers Association) at the book fair in Frankfurt. Apart from these there are many local book awards for youth and adult literature, for example the Corine in Bavaria.
Book fairs
Germany has two big annual book fairs. The better known is the Frankfurt Book Fair that takes place every year in early October. It has been organized by the Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels (German Booksellers and Publishers Association) since 1949, looking back at 500 years of tradition. It’s the world biggest book fair with about 7000 exhibitors from over 100 countries. Every year there’s also one country or region invited as guest of honour to present its culture and literature to an international audience - last year’s guest was India, this year’s Katalonia, next year’s Turkey. The fair is intended for professionals including publishers, booksellers, librarians and authors, but is opened for public audience during the last few days. The second important book fair takes place in Leipzig every March but is much smaller with about 2200 exhibitors.
The Frankfurt Book Fair:
Picture© Frankfurter Buchmesse, 2007
Links:
http://www.buchmesse.de/en/portal.php
http://www.leipziger-buchmesse.de/
http://www.boersenverein.de/