John Green stars as booksellers report strong 2014

Roy Keane pips Brian O’Driscoll at the post

Irish publishers had a relatively good year in 2014, increasing sales by roughly 10 per cent in a market that was broadly static. Photograph: Dave Meehan

Thu Jan 15 2015 - 11:17

Irish publishers had a relatively good year in 2014, increasing sales by roughly 10 per cent in a market that was broadly static. The rate of decline in the market also slowed considerably in comparison to 2013, according to a new report by the data analysis firm Nielsen. The overall sales figures for the Irish consumer market were €106.4million, or 9.6 million units, representing a 0.2 per cent rise in value and a 0.6 per cent decline in volume.

The Nielsen BookScan Irish Consumer Market report cites a “vast improvement” on the 2013 figures, which were down 14 per cent and 15.8 per cent respectively. The average price of a book in Ireland also rose marginally in 2014 from €11 to €11.09.

Children's literature and young adult genres helped to buoy the overall figures, with sales rising by 11 per cent last year. Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series, the Minecraft series and David Walliams's Awful Auntie were the top earners for the genre, which saw a "remarkable turnaround" from 2013. Fiction sales were up 10.3 per cent, following a decline of 17.8 per cent in 2013. Non-fiction titles in the genre moved from -12.8 per cent to 27.8 per cent growth over the same period.

"After some very tough years for Irish bookshops it's encouraging to see sales stabilise for the first time in several years," says Bob Johnston, chairman of the Irish branch of the Bookseller's Association. "The children and young adult genres have been particularly strong, showing that parents and kids are still choosing printed books. Teen author John Green has done especially well this year off the back of a film adaptation of his book, The Fault in Our Stars."

Non-fiction titles ranked highly in 2014's most popular titles, with The Second Half by Roddy Doyle and Roy Keane taking first place at 54,764 copies, closely followed by Brian O'Driscoll's autobiography The Test, ghostwritten by Limerick Leader editor Alan English. Both titles each grossed over €1million in sales.

Most popular fiction

There were no surprises in the adult fiction market, with two editions of The Fault in Our Stars, the crossover novel by American author John Green, combining to volume sales of 63,781. Second place was Keeping Up with the Kalashnikovs by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly at 25,431 copies. Both titles ranked in the Top 10 of 2014, alongside Graham Norton's memoir The Life and Loves of a He-Devil and Marian Keyes's popular fiction novel The Woman Who Stole My Life. The O'Carroll-Kelly series has had a Top 10 title for five years running. Adult fiction overall saw a drop of 2 per cent in sales compared to 2013.

Michael McLoughlin, managing director of Penguin Ireland, who published Keeping up with Kalashnikovs and The Test, says the overall figures are encouraging for the industry: "If you take the small rise in value and decline in volume, the figures are effectively flat. Up until June sales were down 6-7 per cent from 2013, so this is a really good result for the market in the second half of the year. Generally there's a lag in books, but I'd been concerned that the market was out of step with the improvements in the overall economy. Two years on, I'd be hopeful this is the start of it."

The Irish figures are in line with the results for the UK market, which also saw an easing in the decline of sales. The Irish market fared marginally better however, with the overall UK value sales down 1.3 per cent year-on-year and volume sales down by 1.9 per cent.

The top publisher group of 2014 in Ireland was the UK's Penguin Random House Group (incorporating Penguin Ireland and Transworld Ireland) with value sales of €25.1m, representing a market share of 23.5 per cent. The top publisher of Irish-published books was Gill and Macmillan, with value sales of almost €4m. Irish published titles were worth €25.3m or 23.8 per cent of the overall market, up from 21.2 per cent in 2013. Irish publishers were up 12.6 per cent in value and 8.2 per cent in volume over the same period.

“The fact that the Irish market has shown an increase in sales of Irish titles is fantastic,” says Lisa Coen, co-founder of independent publisher Tramp Press. “While the rising tide probably lifts all boats, it’s incongruous to put behemoths like Penguin Random House and Hachette next to indie publishers. The publishers we admire, like Graywolf Press and Galley Beggar Press, wouldn’t make much of a dent in statistics, but their cultural impact is felt in the success of authors like Eula Biss, Kevin Barry and Eimear McBride. The good news for our type of publishing is the growth that small indies are seeing.”

Future of the industry

Independent booksellers are also feeling positive about the future of the industry. Maria Dickenson, managing director of Dubray Books, says the physical book trade looks to be recovering after an extended period of decline. “It has been a very challenging five years between the recession and the impact of ebooks, but things are definitely levelling out. Most Irish retailers saw increases during the key Christmas period, which bodes well.”

Does that mean the threat of digital books is waning? “Ebooks have impacted heavily on mass market fiction sales and also on certain reference areas,” she says. “But evidence from the US indicates that sales have plateaued so what remains of the market is all to play for. There is a new emphasis on books as gifts, and also as beautiful objects. YA and children’s books are very buoyant, which is promising. There is exciting publishing in this area, and younger readers are proving surprisingly resistant to digital devices.”

Anna Carey, author of the young adult series Rebecca, says that people realise a book is a relatively cheap form of rewarding entertainment. "We're constantly being told that young people are unable to read anything longer than a Buzzfeed post," she says. "So it's good to see proof of what all authors who regularly talk to students in schools and libraries already know: there's still a big appetite for books out there. And if people are interested in books as teenagers, we can be fairly sure they're going to keep reading as they grow older."

Top 10 titles of 2014 (Ireland)

1 The Second Half, by Roy Keane & Roddy Doyle (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) 54,800 sales

2 The Test: My Autobiography, by Brian O'Driscoll (Penguin Ireland) 53,900

3 The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, (Penguin) 40,900

4 The Long Haul:Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney (Puffin) 34,900

5 Awful Auntie, by David Walliams (HarperCollins) 38,000

6 Keeping Up w ith the Kalashnikovs, by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (Penguin) 25,400

7 Guinness World Records 2015 (Guinness Publisher) 24,100

8 The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green (Penguin) 22,900

9 The Life and Loves of a He Devil: A Memoir, by Graham Norton (Hodder & Stoughton) 18,400

10 The Woman Who Stole My Life, by Marian Keyes (Michael Joseph) 18,100

Top 10 titles of 2014 (UK)