The PA Statistics Yearbook 2014
The PA Statistics Yearbook for 2014 is the central repository of analysis and statistics on the UK’s publishing sector. Our central mission is to highlight the value and role of publishing on behalf of the industry to its external audiences – authors, readers, libraries, educationalists, politicians and the wider media. Having accurate and up-to-date statistics is vital to this.
Highlights:
- Total physical and digital book sales and income from journals remained at £4.3bn
- Total digital books and electronic journal subscriptions up 8% to £1.2bn
- Total physical and digital book sales down 2% to £3.3bn
- Total digital book sales up 11% to £563m
- Total physical book sales down 5% to £2.7bn
- Digital share of combined physical and digital value book sales up to 17%
- Home sales of physical and digital books down 3% to £1.9bn
- Export sales of physical and digital books down 1% to £1.4bn
- Total income from journals up 3% to £1bn
- Gross receipts from rights and coeditions up 8% to £162m
- Share of output on paper from known sources down to 94%
The publishing sector is close to being a bellwether for the wider British economy, or at least it follows closely in its footsteps. We can say without doubt that the recovery is in train, but that we are not yet fully emerged from the tunnel of austerity.
Richard Mollet, Chief Executive of the Publishers Association
Our thanks to Nielsen Book Research, who were responsible for the compilation and analysis of sales data on books and digital products, and Roger Watson, for the data on publishers’ income from rights and coeditions. Many thanks too for the individual contributions of those who have written the annual and sector reviews and the exchange rates appendix, to Nielsen BookScan for providing assistance and data to help in the yearbook’s compilation, and the participants of our various statistics schemes. Finally, thanks for all the help with this project to our Yearbook Production Committee, chaired by Mark Gardiner (Penguin Random House), and to Nicholas Clee, the publication’s consultant editor.