The PA Publishing Yearbook 2018

The resilience of publishing over the last five years has been remarkable. In the face of intense competition – both in the retail environment and for consumer’s time and money – the industry has thrived, cementing its place as one of the UK’s true export stars. That marked resilience is seen throughout this year’s PA Publishing Yearbook 2018 figures, with total publishing income over £6bn and export income making up 59% (£3.5bn) of that.

Highlights:

• Total digital book sales up 5% to £653m
• Total print book sales down 5% to £2.9bn
• Total consumer audiobook sales income up 43% to £69m
• Total non-fiction/reference up 1% to £954m
• Total journal sales income up 4% to £2bn
• Total journal export income up 3% to £1.8bn

We are operating in times of unprecedented uncertainty for UK businesses and in some places the 2018 Yearbook figures do demonstrate that starker reality.

Stephen Lotinga, Chief Executive of the Publishers Association

Our thanks go to Nielsen Book Research, which has been responsible for the compilation and analysis of the Yearbook data. Many thanks too to the participants of our various statistics schemes. The separate consumer polling detailed in ‘The year in reading’ section was conducted by Kantar Media.