Sales of English-language books are on the rise in Portugal, worrying publishers

Sales of English-language books are rising in Portugal, up 33% in this first quarter compared to the same period last year, a phenomenon largely driven by TikTok, which worries Portuguese publishers.

According to an article published Tuesday by Publishers Weekly, sales of English-language books are rising across Europe at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, with the social network TikTok one of the main factors driving the trend, leading to the growth. 3% of market volume in 2023 in Portugal.

This value is confirmed by the president of the Portuguese Association of Publishers and Booksellers (APEL), Pedro Sobral, who, based on data from the consulting company Gfk, clarified to Lusa that the import of books (consisting almost exclusively of books in English) represents 3% of the market value, which means an increase of approximately by 25% compared to 2022.

In the first quarter of this year alone, sales of books in English have already increased by about 33% compared to the same period last year, Pedro Sobral emphasized.

However, the Gfk panel does not measure book sales in “online” channels and in stores such as Amazon, which have a very significant weight, in addition to the fact that they only cover about 87% of the bookstore market, so many sales were left out of this count. .

Taking this factor into account, calculations extrapolated by APEL show that an English book is currently worth between 5% and 8% of the total value of the Portuguese market.

As in Europe, this trend appears mainly in the fiction category, although it can also be found in non-fiction.

According to Pedro Sobral, the TikTok effect is one of the main driving forces behind this phenomenon, “since it makes international games popular and often even before they are released,” but it is not the only one.

Direct online access, allowing immediate purchase upon discovery of the book, also plays a “very important role” here, so “the size of the English book sold outside the Gfk panel is quite significant,” the person in charge noted.

Another factor to consider is price, since generally books published in the United Kingdom or United States “have infinitely large circulations because they cover gigantic domestic markets, but they also have an export effect to other countries.”

This “creates huge economies of scale, allowing lower prices and which, due to the vastness of the global market they cover, are soon launched in different formats with different prices, always significantly lower than those of the Portuguese editions.”

Moreover, the time that passes from the original edition to the Portuguese edition, which takes into account the time of translation, review and distribution, is enough to justify the fact that some readers prefer to buy the original rather than wait for the Portuguese edition.

Faced with this scenario, “Portuguese publishers are quite concerned,” since sales of many titles in the Portuguese edition are already lower than in the same English-language edition, threatening “the viability of many editorial projects,” he warned the APEL president. .

The situation becomes even more worrying when one considers the fact that the “vast majority” of Portuguese readers prefer the Portuguese edition to the original if it is available with the same speed and at similar prices, he added.

However, regarding price, Pedro Sobral explained that “Portuguese publishers have nothing to contend with” because it is an economy of scale that is completely impossible to compete with or match the price of the English-language market.

“Naturally, the editors have worked hard to shorten the original version and the Portuguese version to close this gap and thus lose as few readers as possible, but much more is needed given this very worrying situation,” he said.

In addition to this, “global “players” such as Amazon do not comply with the Fixed Price Law, unfairly competing with Portuguese “online” booksellers and booksellers, and given the small size of the market, measures must be taken even in the Fixed Price Law. as has already happened in countries like France,” he added.

While acknowledging that the emergence of new generations in Portugal with such absolute mastery of the English language is “very positive”, Pedro Sobral, however, warned of the possibility that the Portuguese language will face a “very important challenge in its future” and stated that the protection of the Portuguese language should be a priority, supporting Portuguese writers, editors and booksellers.

“If it is naturally necessary to continue to invest in the English language, whether in school or higher education, or in the existence of books in English, it is also true that it is necessary to create public policies to protect and promote the Portuguese language. supporting writers, editors and Portuguese booksellers and, above all, books in Portuguese,” he said.