Israeli Publishing Figures – 2021

The National Library of Israel has presented the annual Israeli "Book Report" for the year 2021, which points to a resurgence in the Israeli book market following the COVID crisis

Highlights:

• In the year 2021, 7,344 books were published in Israel. This represents an increase in comparison with 2020 (when the industry was heavily impacted by the COVID crisis), but still a drop in comparison with the record figures of 2018 and 2019.
• For the first time – female authors released more books of Hebrew prose & poetry than male authors.
• In the past year, 447 biographies & autobiographies were published, primarily by independent publishing houses. 72% of the biographies were written about men, and only 28% about women.
• There were 381 releases in the "Instructional Books" category, most of them dedicated to self-empowerment, relationships and family life, as well as methods for earning money…
• 74 books were published in 2021 dealing directly with the COVID pandemic.
• We note a continuing increase in the release of digital books (ebooks) - 982 digital books were deposited at the National Library of Israel, in addition to printed books.

As it has every year ahead of Hebrew Book Week, the National Library of Israel has presented the Israeli publishing figures for the past year. This year, a resurgence in the book market was evident, bouncing back from the COVID-related slump that heavily impacted the previous year's publishing figures. During 2021, 7,344 printed books were published in Israel in addition to 982 digital books. This represents an increase in comparison with the previous year when only 6,487 books were published, but still less than the record figures of 2018 and 2019, when over 8000 books were published in each year. These figures do not include final papers written in academic contexts, academic journals, magazines or press articles.

The figures in the Library's annual report are based on books that arrived at the Library as a result of the "Legal Deposit" law, which requires anyone who publishes more than 50 copies of a book to bring the book to the National Library of Israel. While there are many people who print less than 50 copies of their books and still deposit copies at the National Library, there are also independent publishers who do not and therefore the actual numbers of books published in Israel is greater than the figures that appear in the report.

The vast majority of the books published in Israel were released in Hebrew – 91.4%

4.8% were published in English

Arabic – 2.2%

Russian – 0.6%

Other languages – 1%

In terms of subject matter, most categories of books have not seen major changes in publishing figures over the years, but certain long-term trends and shifts have been noted. For example, for the past few years we have seen an ongoing decrease in the amount of books and releases in the "Israeli Society and History" category. This drop is mainly due to the fact that this category includes research publications and reports by various government bodies. Increasingly, these kinds of publications are being published online and therefore their printed distribution has gone from 11% two years ago to 7% in the past year. Another interesting trend is the ongoing increase in the amount of biographies being published, particularly biographies dedicated to non-public figures.