According to data from Dun & Bradstreet, cited by BIG Info Monitor, there were 2,200 bookstores operating in Poland at the end of 2023. 95% of these are micro and small businesses, often sole proprietorships. Since 2010, nearly a thousand bookstores have disappeared from the market, primarily the smallest ones. The main reason is the unequal competition created by big entities, including cheap online bookstores. The industry is awaiting comprehensive legislation that would define a book as a cultural good, civilize the market and help it recover from its prolonged crisis.
“The biggest pain point in the book market today is a situation where everyone claims to be underpaid and losing money from engaging with literature. Authors lose the most, publishers claim they can’t afford to pay them. Readers claim that books are too expensive, while in the midst of this situation a few large wholesalers take a significant part of the profit, basically acting as an intermediary. If the state and its institutions do not resolve this, the market will continue to degenerate,” emphasizes Piotr Siemion, a writer and translator and member of the Literary Union, in a conversation with the Newseria Biznes agency.
According to the National Library’s report “The State of Book Reading in Poland in 2023”, 43% of people read at least one book a year. Most book readers make purchases (48%), receive them as gifts, borrow from family and friends (29% each) or from libraries (about 20%). Although Poles read significantly more than in previous years, this does not translate into the number of bookstores operating in the market.
Dun & Bradstreet data, cited by BIG InfoMonitor, shows that at the end of 2023 there were 2,200 bookstores in Poland. 95% of them are micro and small businesses, often single-person businesses. However, it’s not easy for them to stay in the market – on average, a bookstore in Poland closes every three days, most often a small, local one, run by the owner. This means that the bookstore market shrinks by 2-3% each year.
Since 2010, almost a thousand bookstores have disappeared from the market. The growing overdue debt of book sellers, registered in the BIG InfoMonitor and BIK databases, also speaks to the weak condition of the industry. At the end of May of this year, it stood at PLN 14.4 million (an increase of 17% compared to 2021). Book publishers are slightly more indebted – at PLN 14.5 million. Just like bookstores, the smaller and specialized enterprises searching for their niche are in the most difficult situation.
“Small publishing houses are numerous and will continue to be created. However, it’s very difficult to operate in such an asymmetric market, to compete with large wholesalers. Bookstores have to pay rent at the same time, order books, then wait for someone to pay their invoice after half a year. This is one of the most unhealthy sectors of the economy, not just culture,” assesses Piotr Siemion.
Small bookstores are unable to compete with large chains or online bookstores on price. Publishers, cooperating with bookstores with their own sales channel, give them discounts reaching even 50% of the price. As a result, customers can sometimes buy a book online cheaper than a local bookstore can buy it wholesale. As the Literary Union emphasizes, the market prefers a few big players (at the expense of all others: readers, bookstores, publishers, and all those involved in the making of a book: writers, translators, designers, editors, etc.).
“The book market can be regulated. I won’t say it’s easy, but it’s definitely doable. Such initiatives in the parliament have appeared and disappeared in recent years, but that’s also a matter of lobby strength, pressure groups. Scattered authors or dispersed small publishers have much less to say than powerful wholesalers or network sellers. The state has a huge field for intervention here,” the writer believes.
During the debate “Book as a Cultural Good. Why free market mechanisms are not enough” at the co-Congress of culture, experts pointed out that the market is being devastated by distorted competition, price wars and abuse of a dominant position. Targeted interventions (e.g. ministerial programs) work only punctually and shortly. Similarly, low effectiveness is seen in local government programs – preferential rents are burdened with additional costs and do not increase the competitiveness of bookstores in relation to online stores. According to the industry, a systemic change is needed in the form of a book law.
“There is certainly the issue of the demystification of the middleman because a few industrial groups control the margins, i.e. the profit of all others. This is a sick situation that the monopoly office should have already solved, for example by introducing maximum margin rates charged by the intermediary, but these are technical issues. The solutions are within reach,” says Piotr Siemion.
The Literary Union suggests that the book law should include regulation of the cover price and distribution margins, a UOKIK audit related to the abuse of a dominant position by some market entities, 0% VAT on books, a tax relief on book purchases or a culture voucher. As it underlines, changes in the library system are also necessary, including increasing budgets for purchases and for remuneration for borrowing books (PLR – Public Lending Right).
In an open letter the bookselling community sent to politicians and local governments in February, they indicated that a book law is necessary to develop reading and save disappearing bookstores. The goal should be to create conditions for at least one bookstore to exist in every city and town. As the signatories of the letter emphasize, online sales will never replace stationary bookstores, often the only place of culture in a small town. Book laws, regulating this market, operate in countries with a much higher level of reading, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
