Encuesta

(en la Feria de Frankfurt; el destacado es mío)
Survey

Just before the Frankfurt Book Fair 2007 the organisers of the Frankfurt Book Fair have conducted a major survey of book industry professionals, asking respondents to identify the challenges and threats facing the industry, and to predict emerging trends and areas of growth.

Publishers, retailers, agents and librarians from all over the world were surveyed via electronic newsletter. Over 1,300 responded from 86 countries. Nearly half of the them were of a senior, CEO or Director level.
They were representative of the book trade as a whole, with professions ranging from editorial (20 per cent), marketing and PR (13 per cent), rights management (10 per cent), sales (9 per cent), booksellers (8 per cent), literary agents (5 per cent), librarians (4 per cent) and scouts (1 per cent).

With digitalisation one of the key topics of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2007 was identified as the overriding priority and the single most important challenge facing the industry.

Question one

What is the most important challenge currently facing the book industry?
(Some respondents chose more than one answer)

• Digitisation 53%
• Globalisation 24%
• Rights issues, eg European Exclusivity 15%
• User-generated content 22%

Question two

Which is the biggest threat to the publishing industry today?
(Some respondents chose more than one answer)

• Censorship 7%
• Competition from other media and sources of entertainment 50%
• Conglomeration 15%
• Literacy levels 17%
• Piracy 23%
• Over-publishing 31%


Question three

Which market is likely to commercially dominate in the coming decade?
(Some respondents chose more than one answer)

• Africa 2%
• Asia 23%
• Australasia 2%
• China 29%
• Europe 36%
• India 14%
• Middle East 1%
• North America 32%
• South America 2%

Question four

Who is currently driving the industry?
(Some respondents chose more than one answer)

• Agents 11%
• Authors 8%
• Customers 22%
• Marketeers 31%
• Publishers 37%
• Retailers 20%


Question five

Which of the following will be obsolete in fifty years time?

• The editor 6%
• The electronic reader 10.5%
• The High Street bookseller 23%
• The publisher 4%
• The printed book 11%
• None of the above 55.5%


Question six

Which of the following do you see as a major area of growth in coming years?
(Some respondents chose more than one answer)

• Audiobooks 41%
• Biography 8%
• Books in translation 27%
• Children’s literature 17%
• Commercial fiction 15%
• E-books 44%
• Educational publishing 27%
• Graphic novels and comics 18%
• Literary fiction 10%
• Poetry 3%