Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt is the country’s best-selling book of 2023 while overall market revenue rose for the 9th year in a row. However, the growth was due to the sale of English language books and e‑books.
According to just-released figures, Netherlands residents bought 43 million books across all formats, which is the largest number of books sold since 2012. The increase in sales is entirely due to foreign-language books, primarily in English, as Dutch-language book sales decreased.
“It is encouraging to see that more books have been sold in the Netherlands for the fourth year in a row and that turnover is even growing for the ninth year in a row,” said Eveline Aendekerk, Director of the Collective Propaganda of the Dutch Book Foundation (CPNB). “Especially because this year we see that fewer books have been sold in other countries like France, England, America and Germany.”
The slight 0.1% rise in sales is due to the sale of English language books and e‑books, as the sale of Dutch language books fell by 0.3 percent. The CPNB reports that sales of Dutch fiction have fallen 15% over the past five years, as one in five books now bought in the Netherlands is in a language other than Dutch.
It’s also emerged that young adult books in English have become increasingly popular with teenagers and those in their 20s in a country that shows the highest proficiency in English among non-native English speakers. The overall value of the Dutch book market last year reached 685 million euros (742 million dollars).
Atlas, The Story of Pa Salt (De zeven zussen. Atlas) the last installment in the “Seven Sisters” series by the late Lucinda Riley and her son Harry Whittaker, was the best-selling book of 2023, according to the CPNB, selling 362,000 copies in Dutch. Hoe overleef ik alles wat ik niemand vertel? (How Do I Survive Everything I Don’t Tell Anyone?, untranslated) by Dutch writer Francine Oomen took the second spot, as it sold 139,000 copies. The second runner-up De Camino (The Camino, unstranslated), a Dutch thriller by Anya Niewierra, sold 113,000 copies. De Camino was also the most sought-after library book in the country, as it was loaned out 47,000 times last year.
In the near future, the CPNB aims to ensure that “Dutch people will visit their favorite bookstore or library at least once a year for a book.”
Globally, Lessons In Chemistry, a 2022 release by Bonnie Garmus, was the best-selling novel, having sold an estimated four million books over the past year, according to Wordsrated. The US, China, UK, Germany, and Japan were the top five book-buying countries, accounting for nearly two-thirds of global book sales. Book sales revenue was estimated to have generated 78 billion dollars last year, a 2.5% increase over 2022.
