The 2024 German market, while seeing a stabilization in ebook and audiobook markets, saw entrenched shortcomings in literacy continue.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

See also:
Rights Roundup: Germany’s International Rights Sales Rose 2.2 Percent in 2024
Frankfurter Buchmesse Looks to Expand Book-to-Screen Programming
Ulli Lust Wins the €25,000 German Nonfiction Prize
Frankfurter Buchmesse Opens Its Ticket Sales for October
Germany: At the Börsenverein’s ‘Kongress’: Three Presidents Onstage
France saw a 2.6-Percent Drop in Rights Contracts in 2024

Young Buyers vs. Youth Literacy

Young consumers and audio sales are credited with driving German book-industry sales growth of 1.8 percent in 2024, according to the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, by comparison to market performance in 2023.

This, as you may recall, is also the annual report in which the industry reports on how it sees the first half of the new year, in this case 2025—at this point being called “subdued, and down by 3.3 percent compared to the first half of 2024.”

The points of context that the Börsenverein’s leadership is stressing are that the industry “is concerned about the precarious state of reading literacy, incomplete attempts at regulation in the field of generative AI, and urgently needed measures to reduce bureaucracy.”

In a news conference near the end of last week, Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, who chairs the organization, said, “The book market is successfully holding its own in tense times. Whether in novels, nonfiction, children’s and young-adult books, or textbooks, the book industry offers orientation, background information, and perspectives in the face of the challenges and complexity of the world with well-founded content and exciting stories.

“The positive development in the book market is driven by the enthusiasm for books among young people between 16 and 29 years old, for whom the industry offers attractive and tailored offers.

“More than half the books sold” in Germany “are now backlist titles, i.e., books published a year or more before purchase—a sign of the long-term stability of the market and the timeless relevance of the content. In addition, the audio sector continues to boom, boosted by digital sales channels.”

The Stubborn Dilemma: Youth Enthusiasm and Literacy

Not surprisingly, Schmidt-Friderichs has placed special emphasis on the finding that youngsters’ interest in books is a factor. This is a finding that might cheer many markets.

“One in four children is left out because they lack sufficient reading skills. And the effects of this educational crisis continue: According to the current PIAAC study, one in five adults living in Germany reads at the level of a 10-year-old child or worse.”Karin Schmidt-Friderichs

And yet, in the corresponding report to this one a year ago,  Publishing Perspectives wrote of “two aspects of the German market that seem to stand in opposition to each other: While the book business sees that encouraging trend of  younger consumers’ interest in books, German educators and the book industry have for years been struggling to address what the Börsenverein now refers to as “a massive deficit in reading skills” among students.”

This is still the case. Schmidt-Friderichs quite logically says she sees the “continued enthusiasm of young readers to be cause for optimism for the future of reading” and the industry. And yet, this dichotomy—of increasing youth interest and serious levels of illiteracy—is still in place, and the Börsenverein isn’t letting up on its drive to address lagging reading skills.

Schmidt-Friderichs says, “There is great interest in books, but we only reach those who are able to read functionally.

“One in four children is left out because they lack sufficient reading skills. And the effects of this educational crisis continue: According to the current PIAAC study, one in five adults living in Germany reads at the level of a 10-year-old child or worse.

Politicians are standing by, yet this country urgently needs an effective and comprehensive strategy to promote reading.”

Consumer Confidence and Unresolved AI Challenges

In comments from Peter Kraus vom Cleff, the Börsenverein’s managing director, we hear signals that political and economic challenges are growing, both on the national and international level.

“The cultural and creative industries,” he says, “are a significant economic factor in Germany—and the book market, measured by content sales, is the largest market segment.

“However, the economic impact of the global situation, with its wars and crises, is also being felt in the book industry. Consumer confidence remains weak, and the propensity to save is high. This is also reflected in the subdued half-year results for 2025. However, the traditionally strong second half of the year is still to come.”

“At the political level, key issues for the industry regarding generative AI remain unresolved, such as how to deal with the millions of copyright infringements in the training of AI models, the spread of fake news, or the necessary transparency for consumers regarding the use of AI.”Peter Kraus vom Cleff

Kraus vom Cleff also picks up on the tirelessly discussed issues around artificial intelligence, calling it a “central topic in the industry. Publishers, bookstores, and logistics companies,” he says, “are intensively exploring possible applications of AI, for example, to simplify business processes. However, at the political level, key issues for the industry regarding generative AI remain unresolved, such as how to deal with the millions of copyright infringements in the training of AI models, the spread of fake news, or the necessary transparency for consumers regarding the use of AI.

“Policymakers must create clear rules here and curb the power of digital oligopolies, which not only steal content on a massive scale but also increasingly influence opinion-forming and policy.

“In view of the ongoing cost pressure and excessive bureaucracy, we also call on the new federal government to abolish bureaucratic monstrosities, including by simplifying the EU Deforestation Regulation in a practical way. Furthermore, structural support for publishers must finally be introduced to sustainably ensure diversity in the book market.”

Key Points in the Data From 2024

Total sales: The German book industry generated total sales of €9.88 billion (US$11.6 billion) in 2024 as opposed to 2023’s €9.71 billion.

Sales channels: Both brick-and-mortar bookstores, still the largest sales channel for books, and online booksellers increased their sales. Physical bookstore sales grew by 0.6 percent to €4.08 billion compared to 2023 (US$4.8 billion). Retail booksellers excluding e-commerce accounted for 41.3 percent of total industry sales.

Online book sales, of which about half are accounted for by brick-and-mortar bookstores, rose by 4.4 percent to €2.51 billion. “This means that 25.4 percent of the total market sales were generated online in 2024.”

 

Sectors and genres: Fiction, children’s books and young-adult (YA) books, as well as educational books and nonfiction reported positive results in Germany in 2024– both in the short- and long-term.

• Fiction, the largest segment with a 36.6-percent share of sales, recorded a sales increase of 4.3 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year. Compared to 2019, it grew by 22.3 percent.
• Children’s books and YA increased their sales by 0.6 percent compared to 2023 and by 8.8 percent over the five-year period. These two product categories also include new adult titles, which are in high demand among the young target group.
• Nonfiction books achieved a sales increase of 8.1 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year, and compared to 2019: +3.8 percent.
• The educational book sector grew by 3.8 percent, compared to 2019: +6.3 percent.

Backlist titles: More than half the books sold in Germany in 2024—57 percent—were backlist titles (published more than 12 months prior to sale). This share has increased in recent years. In 2014, it was 48 percent, and new releases still accounted for 52 percent of sales.

First editions: The number of first editions published in Germany continues to decline, and publishers are strategically focusing their title planning based on target group and needs analyses.

• In 2024, 58,346 new titles were published, 3.1 percent fewer than in 2023 (60,230).
• The number of translations into German, however, remained stable at the previous year’s level, at 8,756, as opposed to 2023’s 8,760.
• The share of translated titles in all new publications thus rose slightly from 14.5 to 15.0 percent.

Sales of international rights: As we reported in our Rights Roundup of Friday (July 11), Germany’s license sales increased by 2.2 percent in 2024 after two years of decline. German publishers sold 6,669 book rights contracts abroad last year, compared to 6,527 contracts in 2023.

• The most important buyers were China, Italy, and the Czech Republic.
• Children’s and young adult books remain the most important product group in the book content licensing business: they account for 38.9 percent of all contracts, followed by fiction with 23.2 percent.

Germany’s ebook and audiobook business, according to the new report, “has stabilized. Their share of the consumer market excluding textbooks and reference books remained unchanged at 6.1 percent in 2024. Ebook sales increased by 2.2 percent. Audiobooks continue to show more movement.”

Sales of ebooks reportedly increased by 49.6 percent compared to sales in 2019, most recently by 7.3 percent from 2023 to 2024.

Digital distribution—meaning download and streaming capacity—is seen as responsible for this growth in Germany as in other world markets, the move away from physical audiobook media such as CDs:

• 49.2 percent of audio sales now come from downloads; 43.4 percent from streaming; and only 7.4 percent from CDs.
• Streaming has seen the strongest sales growth since 2019, at 226.9 percent.
• Downloads increased by 77.8 percent over the same period, while audiobook CDs lost 71.3 percent.

The number of book buyers in Germany fell by 2.0 percent in 2024, as opposed to their level in 2023. This did not, however, apply to buyers aged 16 to 29. That’s the young-buyers group that the Börsenverein is pointing out as a bright spot on the economic landscape. Among 16- to 19-year-olds, the number of book buyers increased by 9.6 percent in 2024, and among 20- to 29-year-olds by 7.7 percent. This also increases the buyer reach among these age groups, suggesting that around one-third of people in this age group in Germany are buying books.

Sourcing

As each year, the newly released figures encompass backlist and new-release sales, price, and revenue trends for the first half of this year, as well, from the Media Control retail panel. Audiobook trends are based on Media Control’s Audiobook Compass in collaboration with the Börsenverein’s Audiobook Interest Group. Buyer numbers (total audience market by age group, as well as ebooks and digital audiobooks) and data on ebook market trends come from the YouGov Consumer Panel Media & Entertainment.

All other figures are based on surveys and calculations conducted by the Publishers and Booksellers Association.

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More from Publishing Perspectives on the German book market is here and more on international industry statistics is here. More on bookstores is here and more on bookselling is here.