The book of book 2025 opens in Turin, but the climate for Italian publishing is not the most serene. The data released by the Italian Editori Association speak of crisis in the first three months of the year, with the market that lost 810 thousand copies, equal to almost 12 million euros less than 2024. A negative trend that risks clouded the enthusiasm of the Italian publishers Fair.
Thanks to the cut of the culture bonus, the online trade crisis and the reduction of funds to libraries, the publishing machine is slowing down. So while the book between events and round tables is celebrated at the Lingotto, the operators in the sector ask structural policies and more realistic data.
Less books sold and less readers
According to the AIE, the first quarter of 2025 recorded a drop of 3.4% to copies and value. The worrying data is that of the copies, that is 810 thousand books less sold compared to the same period of 2024. Economic loss is estimated in 11.9 million euros.
But the negative trend is not new, in fact already 2024 had closed with a 1.5% decrease in value, for a total of 23.2 million euros less. If there were no 18app cuts and funds for libraries, according to the AIE the market would have even grown by 2.5%.
BONUS CULTURE FRANDIO: the side effect
The replacement of 18app with the youth card card and the merit card made the more difficultaccess to funds by the eighteen -year -olds. The less guys buy books and the more tiring is the supply for libraries, private in 2024 of 30 million euros.
The result is over 62 million euros of missed salesespecially for small publishers. However, the damage appears double, not only for a fewer number of new readers, but also because of the economic resistance of the editorial chain.
Slight recovery bookcases, but the online collapses
If on the one hand the independent and chain bookstores have earned 8.8 million euros, e-commerce has lost 26.3 million. The Amazon giant seems to no longer invest in the catalog, especially penalizing long -lasting titles and minor publishers.
The result is greater Sales concentration on a few titles And large groups, while the small publishers arrange with an average drop of 9.3% among those who invoice less than 5 million a year.
Which genres resist?
Among the few positive signals, there is the fate on the fiction. In fact, Italian narrative resists and grows by 3.2%, while the foreign one of 0.9%. But the rest suffers:
- Specialist non -fiction drops by -5.1%;
- Comics descends by -5.5%;
- Manualistic drops by -4.1%;
- Children and teenagers drops -0.8%.
In the Top 10 of the sales dominate Italian novels, but the best -selling book of 2024 surprises: it is an essay.
The publishers think about the future
While the hall opens with the enthusiasm of thousands of visitors, the operators in the sector are divided. The one is also concerned Reading among the very young. A UK research (HarperCollins-Nielsen) showed that only 32% of children between 5 and 10 years read for pleasure, while 60% of parents read for educational duty, not out of passion. And if reading is a habit that is transmitted by imitation, the future of reading risks being compromised.
The European Accessibility ACT in force from June 2025 will change the rules of the game for publishing. The next few months will be decisive: the publishing houses will have to adapt to the new rules to guarantee content accessible also to people with disabilities.
Meanwhile, the Salone offers a look at the future with initiatives such as “Reading in the dark”, meetings on romance, editorial accessibility and the international market. But to relaunch the book in Italy it also serves other, such as the recovery of public investments and a vision that you look beyond the Turin days.
