2018 Book Market in Turkey Report
The Growth Rate of Book Production in Turkey Has Decreased
According to 2018 production data, 410,641,305 books in total were produced and sold. The total book production announced by YAYFED (Federation of Publishing Professional Associations), which distributes and sells bandrol, increased by 0.71% compared to the previous year and decreased compared to the segments. In 2015-2016 inventory, the total number of printed bandrol increased by 5.23%. After 2016, such increase did not iterate in the number of bandrol: in 2016- 2017 and 2017-2018 inventories the increments couldn’t reach even 1%, which were 0,89% and 0,71% respectively. According to the latest announcement made by TUIK, the population of Turkey is 82.003.882. In this case, the number of books per person decreased from 7,76 to 7,08 from 2017 to 2018.
In 2018, number of books, both purchased by the Ministry of National Education (MNE) in the private sector and printed in MNE’s own printing house is 168.192.641 in total. The number of books produced in 2018 has reached to 580,956,504 of which 2,122,558 books were produced for Open University.
Educational Publishing Has Increased Despite All Prohibitions
Supplementary materials and exam preparation books continue to hold leadership in the industry with a share of 52,45% in total book production with an increase 5,866,277 units- 2.80%. In 2018 totla of production was 215,370,387 despite all the barriers and omissions of the MNE.
Decline in Trade Publishing in Turkey
Trade publishing, which is composed of non-fiction, fiction and children and young adult publishing, accounted for 34.21% of the total production, with 140.477.335 book production in 2018, with a decrease of 2.83% when compared to 2017. While the adult non-fiction books decreased by 4.04% compared to the previous year, they accounted for 18.14% of the total book production. Adult fiction books with a 1.41% decline compared to the previous year, accounted for 6.02% of the total production. Children and youth books were not able to maintain production growth at the beginning of the year which was around 20% and with 1.42% decline, accounted 10.50% of total production. The production of all kinds of religious publications is the most increasing segment of publishing with an increase of 5,21% compared to the previous year and constitutes 10,82% of the production. Imported publications are the segment with the highest decrease of 11.77% compared to the previous year and has a share of 1.44%.
Not Even One Academic Book Corresponds Per Student
According to the one-year bandrol data, the total academic book production is 4.461.008 units. In contrast to boast about more than two hundred universities and nearly 4 million students, not even one academic book corresponds per student. These figures are a result of illegal photocopying. Unfortunately, the total number of academic publications accounted for 1.09% of the total book production, while it decreased by 6.19% compared to 2017 production.
The Number of New Books Has Reached to 67,135
In 2017, 60,335 new titles were produced in Turkey. According to the information received from the ISBN Agency affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 67,135 new titles were produced in 2018. There is an increase of 11.27% in the overall total. The total number of title is 61.257 in printed format. These figures are the success of independent publishing, which puts Turkey in the 6th place in the world ranking according to the data of IPA (International Publishers Association).
Size of the Retail Book Market Has Reached to 6,965 Million TRY in 2018
Turkey publishing retail market size in 2018, showed a 20.21% increase compared to 2017 at current prices. With this increase, compensation of the loss in educational publications due to the change of examination system in 2017 and the relation between the book prices and the fluctuations in exchange rates were clarifıed. When we look at inflation-free prices, we find that there is not actually an increase in the industry size.
