In other words, just as in many western markets, inflation is delivering a false image of rising revenues.
Nattakorn Vuttichaipornkul, Vice-President of Internal Affairs at PUBAT (Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand) reported a modest decrease in book sales during the first half of the year. The reduction in consumer purchasing power, attributed to the stagnant economy, has led people to postpone buying new books.
This trend is reflected in the data provided by Theerapat Charoensuk, a member of PUBAT’s executive committee, which shows a 10% drop in new book titles with ISBNs compared to the same period last year.
Sales trends from national book fairs in 2023 and 2024 indicate that comic books and light novels are leading the market, followed by novels, literature, and how-to books. Interestingly, the sales of textbooks have declined as people turn to video platforms like YouTube for learning.
However, there has been a notable rise in the popularity of “boys’ love” or yaoi novels, which now represent over 10% of overall book sales. This trend has also sparked a growing demand for “girls’ love” novels.
PUBAT has seen a significant increase in membership, growing from 288 members during the pandemic to 485 members currently. This growth includes many small publishers focusing on niche markets such as crime fiction, Chinese historical novels, boys’ love and girls’ love fiction, and finance and investment books. These niche markets often feature higher-priced books.
The book subscription model is gaining traction, with readers frequently paying tokens to unlock chapters on reading app platforms. Some authors are also choosing to publish their work online first before transitioning to print. But comparisons with western self-publishing do not hold up. The biggest by far digital reading platform Ookbee is not Thailand’s answer to the Kindle store, and this reflects the way digital reading has evolved along parallel paths in the east and west.
Despite the economic challenges, Thais are reading more, averaging 113 minutes per person daily. A survey conducted by PUBAT and Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Psychology found that seniors read the most, preferring e-books for their adjustable text size and read-aloud features, while the working-age group reads the least due to work commitments. The top five book genres are comics, novels, psychology, self-help, and Dhamma (Buddhists beliefs).
The book industry had its highest market value of approximately 25 billion baht in 2014, which dropped to about 12 billion baht in 2020 due to the decline in newspaper and magazine sales. By 2023, the market value recovered to around 17 billion baht ($480 million), likely due to a 30% increase in book prices post-COVID.
In other words, just as in many western markets, inflation is delivering a false image of rising revenues.
This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.
