3. Characteristics of the market

The size of the Polish book market in value.


The value of the Polish book market has been slowly growing during the past few years and according to data obtained from Polska Biblioteka Narodowa (Polish National Library) it is now estimated to 662 mln euro.


The size of the Polish book market in volume. 


The number of books sold each year in Poland follows an upward trend. However, in 2005 and 2009 a slight decrease has occured.

As the data collected above in the form of table and diagram shows, the number of published titles, first editions and voulme of issue (in millions of copies) have been growing, except for 2006 when a slight decrease has been noticed. In the same time the average volume of issue (in number of copies) has been falling down from year to year.

 
Data concerning fictional writing shows big differences in number of copies sold between publications for adults and these for children and youth. These differences are also visible in the number of published titles and average issue size, althoug on a slightly smaller scale.







The share of revenue in some book categories has been growing while in others has been decreasing over the years. However, the 3 categories with most revenue, that is to say school books, scientific and professional books and fiction books, remain the same.

Book prices.


Over the past few years book process have increased only slightly (the downward trend in euro starting in 2008 is only due to the raise of Polish Złoty vs. the European currency). Nevertheless, many readers feel that books are expensive. At the same time, the supply of so-called cheap books is huge. In recent years the market of low-cost publications has increased due to attaching books to newspapers and magazines.

Book readers.


Most Poles do not read at all.
As many as 56% of Poles do not look in any books, even cookbooks and dictionaries. 46% do not read even shorter texts such as articles or stories. Even the best educated don’t read books.
The results of readership surveys for the year 2010, conducted by the National Libbrary and TNS OBOP, do not raise the spirit. We should be particularly concerned that as many as 20% of people with higher education – that is, those who teach us, cure, build our houses and bridges – don’t read, and therefore don’t raise and don’t update their professional qualifications.
This year's survey shows that readership in our country is still at a very low level. Only 44% of respondents declared to have a contact with at least one book in 2010 (including guides, albums, books available the Internet).
For the first time respondents were asked whether they read the text of more than three-page in the previous month. It wasn’t refered only to traditional paper publishing, but also online articles and texts on computer screens. Result: more than half failed to reach the third page. This exposes the myth of  the modernizing power the internet: one third of its users read only short messages. 


Those who do read, choose mostly romances (18%) and crime novels (15%), then encyclopaedias, dictionaries and manuals (14%), letters, memoirs and biographies (11%), science fiction and fantasy (11%) followed by books for youth and children (10%) and school books (10%).

Book purchasers.

In 2008 (no data from 2009 and 2010 is available for free at the moment) 23% of  respondents declared book purchasing, that is buying at least one book a year. It was the lowest  number of purchases recorded to date. This decline proceeded steadily (from 37% of buyers in 2002 and 2004, through 33% in 2006 to 23% in 2008) and took in the recent period almost all social categories, except the youngest (10-percent increase in purchases among students buying school manuals), the oldest (who buy less frequently, but at a constant high level) and the residents of largest cities, with population of more than500-thousand people. In the countryside, there were no major differences (between the years 2006 and 2008 the share of buyers has decreased by 4 percentage points). The largest declines occurred in the small towns (about 21 percentage points) and in the age group of 40-49 years (about 19 ​​percentage points)In the recent period the decrease occured mainly in the group of buyers age 5 to 11 years old (from 10% in 2006 to 4% in 2008). The percentage of those who buy 12 or more books per year stayed at the same level.
In 2008, the purchasers - unlike readers  chose in the first place encyclopaedias, dictionaries and manuals (23%), followed by school books and mandatory readings (15%), romances (13%), letters, memmoirs and biographies (11%) and books for youth and children and (10%). Somewhat less attention was devoted to crime novels (9%), science fiction and fantasy (8%). Religiuos books were bought very rarely (5%), as well as professional and technical positions (4%) and essays (2%). In general, non-fiction books were purchased by more respondents than belles-lettres (45%).

Main market competitors.

The distribution market share is as follows:


Bookshops - 40%

Bookclubs & mail-order sales - 25%
Internet - 13%
Supermarkets - 12%
Kiosks - 7%
Door to door sales - 3% 

In 2009 these were the largest publishing houses:


WSiP Publishing Groupwsip.com.pl
Nowa Era – NowaEra.pl
Wolters Kluwer Polska – WoltersKluwer.pl
PWN Publishing Group – PWN.pl
Reader’s Digest – Digest.com.pl
Świat Książki – SwiatKsiazki.pl
Grupa Edukacyjnamac.pl
Pearson Central Europe – Longman.pl
Wiedza i Praktykawip.pl
Znak – Znak.com.pl

While the position of the biggest publishers is strong, the distribution sector is less stable.There is still not enough investment in the bookselling business. As a result, there is no large and strong network of bookshops, except for Empik and Merlin. Most of bookshops are small, private, family-owned firms and there are far too many of them - about 3 thousands. 

The main Polish bookselling networks are the following: 

Empik: The largest bookselling network in the country, which  130 stops in major Polish cities. It offers around 50000 titles. Since 2005 the company has been selling books also on the Internet at www.empik.com (offering  more than 2.4 millions of titles).
Matras: network dedicated to both wholesale and retail. Has 103 bookshops in 72 cities across the country. www.matras.pl
Dom Książki: Almost the only retail distributor of books in the years 1950-1989. It now has 130 bookshops, which total turnover is comparable to the one of the Matras network. www.domksiazki.pl
Książnica Polska: operates in the north-eastern Poland offering wholesale and retail. The company has 20 bookstores in 13 cities. www.ksiaznica.pl
Nova: operates in south-eastern Poland, where it sells both wholesale and retail. Has 24 bookstores in fourteen cities. www.nova.rzeszow.pl
HDS: Their 200 points of sales operate under different brands (InMedio,Relay, Virgin, Paragraph), mainly in railway stations. Most shops from 200 to 500 titles have on offer. www.hds.pl