Publishing, holds the book sector. Here are the ten best-selling titles of 2023

The book market recorded substantial stability in 2023, to be read in chiaroscuro with respect to the future. Trade publishing sales in Italy in 2023 were in fact equal to 1.697 billion euros at cover price, up 0.8% compared to the previous year (+14.1% on 2019). Copies were 111.85 million, down 0.7% on the previous year (up 12.6% on 2019).

Coinciding with the final day of XLI Specialization Seminar of the Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri School for Booksellers of Venice, theItalian Publishers Association (AIE) publishes the market analysis on trade publishing in 2023, carried out in collaboration with Nielsen BookScan and IE Diritti Editoriali. The trade, or varies, includes printed fiction and non-fiction books, including titles for children and teenagers and excluding school books, purchased in physical and online bookshops and in large-scale distribution.

Book prices rise less than inflation. In 2023 the average cover price of books purchased was 15.17 euros, up 1.5% compared to the previous year. Over the 12 months, inflation was 5.7%. Between 2019 and 2023, the price of books sold grew by 2.6%, against a general price growth of 15.7%. Numbers that demonstrate the reduction in publishers’ profit margins, but also their effort to keep prices low so as not to depress the demand for books and reading in our country.
Bookshops and physical channels in Italy are catching up. Physical bookstores are the first sales channel for books: 54.7% (53.5% in 2022) of the entire trade market passes through them in 2023, more than one percentage point compared to the previous year but 10 points below pre-pandemic values. Online stood at 40.7% (41.9% in 2022), large-scale distribution remained stable at 4.6%.

Ebooks and audiobooks are growing, but Italians prefer paper. In 2023, e-book sales grew by 2.5%, reaching 81 million, and subscriptions for listening to audiobooks by 12%, reaching 28 million. But Italians for the most part continue to prefer paper: ebooks and audiobooks account for only 6% of an overall market (trade in printed copies plus digital) of 1.806 billion.
The year of Italian fiction. If we look at sales by genre, Italian fiction recorded a growth of 7.2% compared to a decline of 3.6% in foreign fiction. Manuals (non-university, i.e. how to do and self help) grows by 4.7%, popular non-fiction by 4.6%, books for children and teenagers by 1%. Specialist non-fiction (-1.7%) and comics (-10.6%, after the boom in 2021-2022) are declining.

The ten best-selling titles in 2023 in Italy

1. Spare – The minorPrince Harry, Mondadori (January 2023)

2. The postmanF. Giannone, North (January 2023)

3. Give me a thousand kissesT. Cole, Always Publishing (giugno 2018)

4. Three bowlsM. Murgia, Mondadori (May 2023)

5. The world in reverse, R. Vannacci, Self-published (August 2023)

6. Intimate lifeN. Ammaniti, Einaudi (January 2023)

7. Come d’ariaA. D’Adamo, Elliot (January 2023)

8. The weapons of lightK. Follett, Mondadori (September 2023)

9. Everything is here for you, F. Volo, Mondadori (November 2023)

10. When we were the masters of the world, A. Cazzullo, HarperCollins Italy (September 2023)

Innocenzo Cipolletta, president of AIE, commented: “In 2023 the market did not do badly, but 2024 will be a difficult challenge due to the lack of some measures to support the demand for books, while the growth in production costs weighs on publishers’ budgets . This is why we ask for an industrial policy for books, which is central to the economic and cultural growth of the country. On the other hand – continues Cipolletta – the good growth of Italian fiction, but I would say more generally of Italian authorship, is the sign of the growing competitiveness of the national publishing industry which therefore presents itself at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, where the ‘Italy is the Guest of Honour, with all it takes to establish itself even more than it does today on international markets.’

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Italy, Europe and the USA comparison

The growth of the trade market in Italy in 2023 (plus 0.8%) is similar to that recorded in France and the United Kingdom (plus 1%), while Germany grows by 2.9%. The USA (October data) fell by 0.2%. If we look instead at the comparison between inflation and book price growth across Europe, according to Eurostat data in 2022 the former was 9% and the latter 3%.
Ricardo Franco Levi, president of the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) commented: “The book confirms itself as the leading European cultural industry. Not only that: six of the top 10 global publishing groups are based on the continent. As an Association, 2024 will see us still committed to the defense of copyright, especially in relation to the regulation of Artificial Intelligence, an area in which the EU is at the forefront. We ask, in particular, for companies that develop Artificial Intelligence tools to be transparent about the data used to train algorithms.”