Report compiled by Tom Chalmers, Managing Director at IPR Licence

This month we are staying in Europe to look at territories consisting of a wealth of literary talent, much of which has travelled across multiple boundaries and cultures. The Spanish publishing market has generated many headlines over the years but the recent one ‘Spanish police arrest three for illegal book publishing’really underlines some of the lingering concerns of the publishing world in regards to piracy. Police reported that 1,000 published books and 10 computer hard discs were seized from photocopying facilities in Madrid and Seville. Anna Soler-Pont elaborates further on piracy issues but let’s emphasize that it’s certainly not just the Spanish market that is facing these challenges.

Recession Hurts Book Business, Translations

Anna Soler-Pont, Director of the Pontas Agency, looks at consolidation amongst Spanish publishers, a blossoming independent scene and the issues surrounding digital piracy

Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world, just after Mandarin and English, and with more than 500 million speakers around the globe it is a rich and very interesting market. Spain, however, is a European State of 47-million inhabitants where four official languages (Spanish, Catalan, Basque and Galician) co-exist, each with its own publishing activity.

Spain (and especially Barcelona as the publishing capital since centuries ago) still leads the global Spanish language publishing industry. While it is becoming increasingly common and essential to business to divide Spanish language rights between different territories, the major publishing groups (Penguin Random House, Planeta, Ediciones B, …) still have their main offices in Barcelona, from where global operations are conducted. This is also the case for the most important independent publishing houses such as Anagrama, Salamandra or Roca Editorial and for almost all the literary agencies, which are also based in Barcelona.

It’s clear that the recession has hit Spain very seriously. Since 2008, book sales have fallen 30-40% in Spain, and as much as 50% in the cases of the large publishing houses. As the market is shrinking and publishers are downsizing and/or merging — Penguin Random House acquired Santillana Ediciones Generales not long ago —, there are less imprints, less editors and less space for foreign literature. The number of new titles published per year is also decreasing and, similar to other markets, the recession has polarized the publishing industry creating a bigger and bigger gap between large groups and small publishers. Big groups are merging into bigger ones, which means less companies but stronger ones. The surprise and optimism come from the smaller independent publishers (with under 20 titles per year), which are blossoming and are the only ones that have experienced growth in the last year.

Editors now try to focus even more on commercial and local authors (mainly writing in Spanish and Catalan languages) and are less adventurous and less risky on the titles they publish. The market is not allowing too many bets on unknown or very literary authors, so the strategy becomes clear: brand authors that provide a certain amount of sales.

Digital editions and piracy

In 2011, ebooks were 3% of the publishers’ annual revenue in Spain, and more than 5% in 2012 (there are still no official percentages for 2013). Despite these figures, a report of the Piracy Observatory stated that piracy is the main challenge and problem the digital industry faces. It seems that 84% of the digital content acquired or downloaded in Spain comes from piracy sites. The lack of effective laws to prevent this huge amount of piracy generates a constant debate within this industry in Spain, while nobody seems to find a solution for ebooks to become a real business as it is in Germany or the United States. Another problem is VAT, which in Spain is 4% for printed books but remains 21% for eBooks and makes them pricey no matter what

Report compiled by Tom Chalmers, Managing Director at IPR Licence

This month we are staying in Europe to look at territories consisting of a wealth of literary talent, much of which has travelled across multiple boundaries and cultures. The Spanish publishing market has generated many headlines over the years but the recent one ‘Spanish police arrest three for illegal book publishing’really underlines some of the lingering concerns of the publishing world in regards to piracy. Police reported that 1,000 published books and 10 computer hard discs were seized from photocopying facilities in Madrid and Seville. Anna Soler-Pont elaborates further on piracy issues but let’s emphasize that it’s certainly not just the Spanish market that is facing these challenges.

Recession Hurts Book Business, Translations

Anna Soler-Pont of Pontas Agency

Anna Soler-Pont, Director of the Pontas Agency, looks at consolidation amongst Spanish publishers, a blossoming independent scene and the issues surrounding digital piracy

Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world, just after Mandarin and English, and with more than 500 million speakers around the globe it is a rich and very interesting market. Spain, however, is a European State of 47-million inhabitants where four official languages (Spanish, Catalan, Basque and Galician) co-exist, each with its own publishing activity.

Spain (and especially Barcelona as the publishing capital since centuries ago) still leads the global Spanish language publishing industry. While it is becoming increasingly common and essential to business to divide Spanish language rights between different territories, the major publishing groups (Penguin Random House, Planeta, Ediciones B, …) still have their main offices in Barcelona, from where global operations are conducted. This is also the case for the most important independent publishing houses such as Anagrama, Salamandra or Roca Editorial and for almost all the literary agencies, which are also based in Barcelona.

It’s clear that the recession has hit Spain very seriously. Since 2008, book sales have fallen 30-40% in Spain, and as much as 50% in the cases of the large publishing houses. As the market is shrinking and publishers are downsizing and/or merging — Penguin Random House acquired Santillana Ediciones Generales not long ago —, there are less imprints, less editors and less space for foreign literature. The number of new titles published per year is also decreasing and, similar to other markets, the recession has polarized the publishing industry creating a bigger and bigger gap between large groups and small publishers. Big groups are merging into bigger ones, which means less companies but stronger ones. The surprise and optimism come from the smaller independent publishers (with under 20 titles per year), which are blossoming and are the only ones that have experienced growth in the last year.

Editors now try to focus even more on commercial and local authors (mainly writing in Spanish and Catalan languages) and are less adventurous and less risky on the titles they publish. The market is not allowing too many bets on unknown or very literary authors, so the strategy becomes clear: brand authors that provide a certain amount of sales.

Digital editions and piracy

In 2011, ebooks were 3% of the publishers’ annual revenue in Spain, and more than 5% in 2012 (there are still no official percentages for 2013). Despite these figures, a report of the Piracy Observatory stated that piracy is the main challenge and problem the digital industry faces. It seems that 84% of the digital content acquired or downloaded in Spain comes from piracy sites. The lack of effective laws to prevent this huge amount of piracy generates a constant debate within this industry in Spain, while nobody seems to find a solution for ebooks to become a real business as it is in Germany or the United States. Another problem is VAT, which in Spain is 4% for printed books but remains 21% for eBooks and makes them pricey no matter what