Books published in Malta reached an all-time high this year, exceeding the 1,000 mark for the first time ever, the National Book Council announced.

But the rise does not necessarily imply that the dwindling industry has not been hard hit by the pandemic.

In a tweet, council chairman Mark Camilleri referred to a graph showing the number of locally published books over the last two decades rising four-fold from around 250 publications in 2000 to 1,000 this year and having experienced a “breakout” in 2013 and a “leg-up” in the last year.

The full data will be published in next year’s annual report, Camilleri said, describing it as “my favourite chart”.

Incomplete picture

But positive as it may be, it may not paint the complete picture, according to Merlin Publishers director Chris Gruppetta.

The local agent for ISBNs, the National Book Council would know exactly how many of these are issued yearly, but publications could also include pamphlets, leaflets, e-books and new editions of already existing books.

Technically, every single printed item needs to apply for an ISBN, a unique international barcode of sorts, which is now also free of charge, Gruppetta explained.

This means that the rising number of local publications could also include new editions of existing textbooks, for example, which would all require a new ISBN.

Gruppetta said that of the ISBNs Merlin Publishers applied for this year, 34 were new books – down by half over the previous year – and even reprints had dwindled to three.

“We have just applied to the council for 40 ISBNs, but they are all for e-books, meaning just a new medium and format and no new publications,” Gruppetta said.

The figures could also give “false reassurance” at a time of unprecedented decline in the sale of locally published books, he said, with COVID-19 being of no help, shutting down bookshops and school libraries when the virus broke out.

It could be that people were reading more, but they were reading less Maltese books

They do not include the print run of each book, as Merlin Publishers has gone from printing 5,000 copies 20 years ago to between 300 and 500 today.

While more unique ISBNs are being issued, this, therefore, does not necessarily translate into books sold.

Merlin Publishers’ “massive best-seller” this year, Kristina Chetcuti’s Amazing Maltese Women, sold out 1,000 copies in two months and another 1,000 have been reprinted.

“But that is the best we have done,” Gruppetta said to highlight the reality of the industry.

“The fact that 1,000 new titles have been published also ‘hides’ that fewer people are reading local books” – an undisputed fact among publishers, according to Gruppetta.

As to increases over the years, he put the publishing of more books down to the fact that less were being printed and sold.

In the past, with sales of 5,000 copies, only 10 books needed to be published to generate the necessary revenue.

But with a print run of 500, 10 times as many titles were required.

It cannot be said, therefore, that COVID-19 necessarily got the creative juices flowing in the local book industry: publishing was down drastically in the period of semi-lockdown between March and June at Merlin Publishers, with only two titles simply because they had been previously committed to.

It is true that people read more due to added downtime, but the “mystery” is that this was not reflected in the sale of Maltese books, he said.

“It could be that people were reading more, but they were reading less Maltese books,” Gruppetta insisted, with bookshop purchases from Merlin dropping “quite significantly” by 15 per cent... and 90 per cent of shelf space dedicated to foreign books anyway.

“Sales crashed, with shops closed,” Gruppetta said. And the small team put all its efforts into hands-on online selling, packing boxes and posting.

Meanwhile, the Malta Book Council has been “enormously helpful”, putting its money where its mouth is with cash injections for all publishers through four “emergency purchases” since the pandemic, helping them to retain staff and keep going.

The council is a public association of publishers and writers that caters for the Maltese book industry, while striving to encourage reading and promote the book as a medium of communication in all its formats.

It promotes the interests of the book industry’s stakeholders, organises the Malta Book Festival and the National Book Prize among other events.