The debate | Are too many books published in Spain?

Books, a quintessential educational and cultural channel, are also a consumer good that supports a growing market: Spaniards are reading more and more (especially women and young people), and the sector's revenue has increased by more than 30% in the last decade, according to data from the publishers' association, which publishes more than 250 titles a day.

Regarding the causes and effects of this huge production, the editorial director of Alfaguara and the literary division of the Penguin Random House Group, Pilar Reyes , and the editor of the Errata Naturae imprint, Rubén Hernández, have divergent opinions.

Abundance in culture is not a problem Pilar Reyes

Luther, in his Table Talks, complained that "the multitude of books is a calamity." Even then, six centuries ago, it was insisted that too much was published. It's a commonplace in the publishing industry, as were the predictions of the death of the paperback with the emergence of the e-book, the disappearance of bookstores with the rise of large e-commerce platforms, or the supposed refusal of young people to read, dragged down by their, alas!, fatal addiction to screens. However, the data show a very different reality.

According to the Ministry of Culture's 2024 reading habits report, for the first time, the percentage of the Spanish population reading books exceeds 65%. Compared to 2017, recreational readers have increased by 5.8 percentage points. The percentage of frequent readers is also growing: it now exceeds 50%, representing an increase of 3.8 points over the same period. But the most encouraging data concerns young people—whom we often imagine trapped in social media—75.3% of Spaniards between the ages of 14 and 24 say they read books in their free time. The number of households with children under six who read aloud to them is also increasing: 78%, compared to 76% the previous year.

The revolution that the internet was supposed to bring to the world of books hasn't so much consisted of replacing the format (paper versus screen), but rather a profound transformation of consumption habits and ways of accessing reading. The 2020 lockdown, brought on by the pandemic, accelerated forces already underway, compressing years of change into just a few months. Many premises we took for granted began to crumble. This situation can be destabilizing, yes, but it's also a source of creativity and renewal. From my perspective, the increase in book publishing responds precisely to the latter.

A first significant development is the increase in online sales of physical books. This has eliminated many of the space limitations imposed by traditional publishing and has allowed not only for a greater circulation of new releases but also for the publication backlist to remain continuously accessible. In Spain, this phenomenon, already common in other countries, has occurred without detriment to bookstores. On the contrary, bookstores have strengthened and consolidated their position as the most important player in ensuring the diversity of the offering and giving a voice to new authors.

On the other hand, the digital ecosystem—and, in particular, social media—has allowed virtually any book to have its showcase. Previously, only a small percentage of published books could hope to be visible through promotional and marketing campaigns that could capture, at least briefly, the attention of a reading community amidst the overwhelming entertainment offerings. Today, readers are also active distributors: they record their discoveries and enthusiasms on social media and share them with other like-minded readers, who in turn act as influencers. Without a doubt, one of the reasons why more books are published today is because more books have the opportunity to be read.

In this context, the role of the editor as arbiter of what should be read has radically changed. Social media and the internet, by facilitating direct access to a vast amount of content, have completely transformed the way we consume written culture. Today's editorial work also consists of listening to these multiple conversations and reflecting them, with professional and selective criteria, in catalogs that cater to different readers: from the most demanding to the most casual. Books are, at the same time, a reflection and a driving force of a changing culture.

In a growing market and in a country where reading is becoming a daily practice, the growth of publishing is justified. More books aren't a problem: an abundance of supply rarely is in any sector, much less in the cultural sector.

Overproduction is a business model Rubén Hernández

Of the approximately 90,000 books published in Spain each year , a third are returned to the shadows of warehouses and probably guillotined. This is called overproduction. But it must be understood with nuances and in a broader context. In this sense, Karl Marx already demonstrated in Capital that overproduction is a phenomenon inherent to capitalism, and that it becomes more present in times, like ours, with runaway growth in economic inequalities, where the wealthy classes become obscenely rich and the middle and poor classes become increasingly precarious. And if the vast majority of society lives on less money, they buy fewer books: underconsumption and overproduction are two sides of the same coin. Let us ask ourselves: which European countries have the best quality of life according to the prestigious AlTi Global Social Progress Index ? Norway and Denmark. And which European countries have the highest reading rates according to Eurostat? Norway and Denmark. The fight against editorial overproduction is therefore a social struggle.

However, if we want to delve into the specific problem of book overproduction in Spain, the first thing to ask is: who produces it? According to the Federation of Publishers, three out of four books are produced by large groups. A good clue to start tracking overproduction… But it's not just about statistics, it's about strategies. Recently, a good friend, an excellent editor at a large group, told me this: he currently publishes 14 titles a year, uttering a laugh and missing out on many hours of his son's childhood. It turns out he's just been told from above that next year he'll have to publish 27. You can imagine how he's going to do it… And this isn't an isolated case. The underlying problem is that, apparently, sales per title are plummeting for the large groups (among other reasons, because less demanding and loyal readers are spending more and more time in front of all kinds of screens). So they seem to be implementing a casino strategy: publish more books, bet on more numbers in roulette, and hope one of them hits the jackpot.

Now, overproduction goes beyond large groups. In fact, it lies at the very heart of the book ecosystem, which is worth understanding. The author writes a book, the publisher publishes it at a price of, say, 10 euros, and sends it to the distributor, who sells it to the bookseller. The latter buys it at a discount of around 35%, from which they make a profit, and pays 6.5 euros to the distributor, who keeps 2 euros and pays the remaining 4.5 euros to the publisher, who then pays the author their share. Everyone covers their expenses and seeks a profit. And what happens to that one book in three that doesn't sell? The bookseller returns it and demands 6.5 euros from the distributor, which the publisher doesn't pay, instead offering them credit. In turn, the distributor demands 4.5 euros from the publisher, which the publisher doesn't pay, thereby incurring a debt. And to repay it, the publisher has no choice but to invest the 4.5 euros they've earned (but owe) in another book, which, upon reaching the bookseller, activates its credit, while the distributor earns another 2 euros. Thus, one out of every three times a book is published, the publisher and bookseller receive debts or credits. The distributor, however, always accumulates real capital. Simplifying a bit, we could say that for the bookseller and the publisher, sales are essential; for the distributor, cash flow is crucial. Does this make distributors the bad guys? Not at all. But it seems that their business model (like that of large groups) is inclined to increase cash flow, and with it, overproduction.

The solution? Of course, it's not simply about publishing fewer books, but rather about increasing the reading community through economic, educational, and cultural measures that address the neoliberal demands that bog down the entire sector. In short, it's a bit like becoming Norwegian or Danish.