PVPF 2024

Even in 2022, the Pandemic Continued to Have an Impact on the Publishing Industry

The publication schedule resumed a more regular pattern when the constraints caused by the epidemic were loosened
on Dec 23, 2022

It can be difficult to recall what other trends, difficulties, and problems the publishing business faced in 2022 given all of the attention that the Department of Justice's successful trial to stop Penguin Random House's acquisition of Simon & Schuster received.

In many respects, the business was still coping with the pandemic's aftereffects last year. One issue was that return-to-office rules were always changing; as soon as a publisher announced intentions to have staff members return for a few days each week, another surge would disrupt those preparations. Additionally, staff at the major publishers were putting up a strong fight against any form of order to come back to work.

Despite some improvements, the supply chain issues that persisted for much of 2021 carried over into 2022. While price rises for printing, paper, and shipping abated in 2022, manufacturing costs remained much higher than 2019 levels, reducing profit margins as the biggest inflation in decades took hold. Although not for a good reason—printers received fewer orders as book sales dropped—the shortage of printing capacity also slightly lessened.

In 2020 and 2021, as the epidemic spread, customers shifted more of their purchasing toward internet businesses and away from physical stores. Over the past few years, due to this transition, Amazon has placed sizable purchases of all products, including books.

Increases in online purchasing halted in 2022 as people started spending more time in shops again, a development that negatively impacted Amazon. Amazon significantly reduced the number of new orders it made over the summer to reduce the quantity of book inventory it had accumulated. Some publishers reported sales reductions of up to 70% with Amazon throughout the summer.

HarperCollins attributed the primary cause of its quarter-ending September 30 sales decline of 11% to the sharp decline in Amazon orders. Some members of the industry speculated that Amazon was losing interest in the book business as a result of the sharp fall in orders from the company and the announcement that the corporation had lost some workers in its Books group. Amazon vehemently refuted these claims. Publishers did indicate that early September saw an improvement in e-tailer orders.

For booksellers, the resurgence of customers at physical storefronts was welcome. While Barnes & Noble started establishing new locations in the year and anticipates opening 30 additional stores in 2023, the ABA recorded a record number of members. After two years of losses, total bookstore sales through October were 7.5% higher than during the same period in 2021 and may reach 2019 levels in 2022. But not all boats rose with the improvement in the retail climate.

All 24 of Amazon's physical bookshops will be shutting down, the company revealed in the spring. After too much hoopla, Amazon inaugurated its first store in November 2015.

The publication schedule resumed a more regular pattern when the constraints caused by the epidemic were loosened. The autumn regional bookseller exhibits in the United States had a strong turnout as people started attending live events again. All of the major international book fairs held physical events as well, however many of them still saw lower foot traffic than before the epidemic due to inflation, the continued Covid threat, and the conflict in Ukraine.

With its Bologna Book Plus program, the Bologna Children's Book Fair expanded its programming to include adult publishing to entice more publishers to its event in March. In April, London followed, with Ukrainian novelist Andrei Kurkov serving as the keynote speaker while the business community debated a total prohibition on cooperating with Russian publishers.

After three years without a face-to-face meeting, the fair, which is regarded as the primary rights-trading platform for books in the English language, witnessed a buzz return to the center of its right. The same thing happened in Frankfurt in October when the center of the right there sold out and many foreign publishers came back, albeit to a more muted event as the impacts of the neighboring war, the ensuing energy crisis, and inflation were felt.

A total of 180,000 individuals attended, which is about half the amount that attended its last pre-pandemic show since some large publishers reduced the size of their exhibitor booths.

The Sharjah International Book Fair, which hosted over 971 publishing companies, literary agencies, and rights experts from 92 countries, was one event that saw growth in 2022. Being the market focus nation in London and the guest of honor in Bologna gave Sharjah a lot of momentum coming into the event.

At the Guadalajara International Book Fair, which took place in Mexico at the end of November, it was also a guest of honor country. After a virtual fair in 2020 and a hybrid event in 2021, the fair resumed operations at full power, attracting about 800,000 visitors—just 3,000 less than in 2019.