Book sales rebound as ‘Kindle crisis’ fades
There’s nothing quite like strolling through a bookstore, running your hands along the hard, smooth spines of freshly printed books.
Book lovers were devastated by the closure of many bricks-andmortar bookstores throughout the country in 2013 as businesses struggled to catch up to consumer demand for online book sales and e-books.
But they can now rejoice as the industry reached its highest level of sales in four years.
An industry report by PwC and Copyright Licensing New Zealand released on Monday shows publishing has rebounded after a dire 2013 and 2014.
The report suggests that sales via physical stores grew by almost 25 per cent between 2014 and 2015.
Copyright Licensing NZ chief executive Paula Browning said: ‘‘As a book lover it’s reassuring to see that our publishing industry continues to thrive and grow.
‘‘Readers now have access to books in either print or digital formats and the investment that our authors and publishers have made in digital distribution is starting to pay off,’’ she said.
The work of authors and publishing contributed $397 million to the economy last year, with sales from bookstores accounting for almost 60 per cent ($234m). E-book sales accounted for almost 7 per cent ($29m).
Educational publishing sales have remained the same but it is expected the sale of New Zealand educational resources will grow.
A constant challenge for creative industries in New Zealand was capturing data from sales on overseas websites, Browning said.
Despite a rise in online sales, Wellington’s Unity bookstore coowner Tilly Lloyd said the pastime of strolling around a bookstore would never die.
‘‘The staff and the book go together, which create a charismatic kind of thing. Going to a bookshop has never been just about going for a book because you’re in an environment of ideas. They’ve never lost meaning.’’
Lloyd said Unity never felt the Kindle crisis because the store caught on to the trend of online sales and e-books.
But there would always be a use for physical books, she said. Lloyd has just finished helping a woman who wanted a New Zealand gardening reference book. It was taking her too long to search every individual plant online.
‘‘Books package information in ways that Google has never been able to achieve.’’
Books aren’t just a handy resource, Lloyd said, they’re also ‘‘unbelievably beautiful’’.