For the first time in four years there is a noticeable increase by 0.9 percent in turnover on the German book market which is mainly dominated by small and medium-sized entities (SME). Book merchants, publishers and whole salers recorded a turnover of 9.2 billion Euros last year. Also in 2006 signs point to another increase. »Back in 2004 there were already signs of an upswing«, says Claudia Paul, press spokeswoman of the Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels in an interview with the news agency Pressetext.de. »Last autumn there was quite a book boom. In addition there are currently many broadcasting stations presenting books«.
With an increase of 13.7 percent to a volume of 1.03 billion Euros the mail-order book trade (⇒ Wikipedia) registered the strongest growth. This boom is due to the online business the turnover of which has increased by a quarter to reach 633 million Euros. However, whereas some years ago sales went up by leaps and bounds, the gradient of the growth path has become less steep in recent years. “We think that sales over the Internet will settle down at between 10 and 15 percent of the overall volume”, says Mrs Paul. For the time being, however, these figures are still far from being reached, since the major marketing channel still is the traditional retail book trade (⇒ Wikipedia). Although this segment slightly shrunk by 0.9 percent recently, it still reaches a turnover of 5.02 billion Euros. 