South Africa three-year overview:

For the period: week’s 1 – 52 (2014, 2015 and 2016) Excluding School and Academic

Years 2014 to 2016 were extremely challenging years in the South African book trade. We experienced closure of businesses, take overs and amalgamations but what is left at 2016 shows us resilient management and the ability to endure in difficult times. Herewith a brief summary of the past three years in the general book trade.

Market Share Top 5 publishing houses by value
Our top 5 Publishing Houses are Penguin Random House (Pty) Ltd, Jonathan Ball Publishers SA, Christian Art Distributors, Pan Macmillan South Africa and NB Publishers.

The total market share of these top 5 publishing houses over the past three years is as follows:

2014: 64.22%;
2015: 63.92%;
2016: 63.72%

There was an increase in the number of unique ISBNs sold, but also a decrease in the total quantities sold, as well as an increase in the overall average selling price over the past three years.

Top 5 Authors per Category Combining years 2016, 2015 and 2014 Excluding School and Academic

Adult Fiction:
Deon Meyer is our bestselling author in this genre leading with 154,891 copies sold at a value of R37, 107,068 followed by Wilbur Smith very close to him with 151,540 copies sold at a value of R32, 842,400. The third position is taken by James Patterson, 142,651 copies sold, value R23,491,298 ; fourth position Danielle Steel, 108,487 copies sold, value R17,598,101; fifth position Nora Roberts 108,253 copies sold, value R17,501,402.

Adult Non-Fiction:
Nobody else than prof Tim Noakes is taking the number one bestseller position here, 193,054 copies sold at a value of R55,193,981. There is a big leap in value from the number one position to the second position with Joyce Meyer in position two, copies sold 165,719, value R 26,007,746. The third position is
taken by Zelda la Grange, copies sold 89,622, value R23,421,715; fourth position Stormie Omartien, copies sold 129,245, value R14,676,061; fifth position Ine Reynierse, copies sold 60,502, value R12,060,459

Children’s Fiction:
Jeff Kinney leads the pack with his Diary of a Wimpy kid series, selling 181,307 copies, totaling R32,192,228, fifty percent more than Roald Dahl in second position with a quantity of 72,831 for a total of R14,240,577. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books come in 3rd position with 59,861 copies at R13, 673,058. Fourth position with only 1 ISBN sold is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by JK Rowling, in collaboration with others, selling 46,002 copies at a total of R13, 419,920. Rick Riordan takes 5th position selling 67,403 copies at a value of R12, 289,479

Children’s Non Fiction:
Roger Priddy takes the first position selling a quantity of 151,306 copies at R12, 032,141. Short on his heels, due to a higher average selling price, is Julia Donaldson selling 87,275 copies at a value of R11, 971,546. Third position belongs to Dr Suess with 40,361 copies sold worth R5, 828,351. Carolyn Larsen takes 4th position with a quantity of 36,843 at a total value of R3, 066,415. Ab Mojang is in fifth position with 16,504 copies sold at a value of R2, 603,585.

Market share of unique ISBNs selling through the panel
In the combined measured period, 512,152 unique ISBNs were sold through the total panel. Although there is a great emphasis on bestsellers in the market the total top 100 represents only 8.54% of total value of R4, 232,690,912 for the combined measured period. However, the biggest percentage sales happened from position 1001–5000, namely 22.78%. Position 1–50,000 delivered 82.89% of value for the combined measured period.

Impact of seasonal sales (Christmas period)
In 2014 the November and December sales represented 24.40% of total quantity of books sold through the panel (8 932 619 units sold ).
In 2015 the November and December sales represented 22.24% of total quantity of books sold through the panel (10,555,369 units sold), against 23.68% of total quantity of books sold through the panel (9 848 549units sold) in 2016.

The total value of books sold in November and December 2014 was R315 784 264 (25.19%) out of a total value for the measured period of R1 253 487 853.
The total value of books sold in November and December 2015 was R367, 847,551 (24.85%) out of the total value for the measured period of R1, 480,203,463. The total value of books sold in 2016 measured period was R1,498,999,597 of which R379,110,839 was sold in November and December (25.29%).

In conclusion. Although there was an uptake in overall revenue for 2016, fewer titles were sold at higher recommended retail prices. The question is whether, in our current economical climate, the public is seeing books as a luxury item or whether they are simply finding books elsewhere. We look forward to providing you with continued statistical insights that will help your business excel in 2017.

Freda van Wyk
CEO: SAPnet