EIBF launches a flagship report providing in-depth insights into the pandemic impacts on the bookselling sector in 2020
Behind us is an unprecedented year that completely turned our lives around – from stopping our social gatherings and closing many businesses for weeks on end, to facilitating a big swing to digital services. The book industry as a whole faced a substantial impact: cancelled trade fairs, seized supply chains, and frozen rights sales. Booksellers, as many of their retail counterparts, were forced to shut their doors – resulting in drastically reduced sales numbers.
To analyse the global bookselling trends in 2020 and start understanding the wide-ranging impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic on the industry, the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) carried out a survey among its members and partners in March 2021. The national booksellers associations from seventeen countries responded to our written questionnaire, shedding light on challenges booksellers had faced since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020.
This report collates insights into the bookselling industry of 2020, analysing the impacts of national policy responses to the pandemic, exploring the total sales numbers for the past year, and highlighting public and private initiatives launched to help the sector sustainably develop going forward.