By Carlo Carrenho, Contributing Editor
Among the week’s headlines: Spain launches the world’s richest book prize; print sales rose in Sweden in 2025; Russian book prices soar; Bookwire and ElevenLabs strike a deal; and a scandal rocks a prominent manga platform in Japan.The World’s Richest Book Prize Takes Flight in Spain
The world’s largest airport operator, Spain-based Aena has launched the Premio Aena de Narrativa Hispanoamericana, an annual award recognizing the best published work of narrative fiction in Spanish or translated into Spanish from one of Spain’s co-official languages. According to the company, the prize carries €1 million ($1.16 million) purse for the winner and €30,000 ($35,000) for each finalist. A panel of ten cultural journalists from Spain and Latin America will shortlist five finalists from books published in 2025, with the winner to be announced at a gala in Barcelona on April 8. Aena also plans to purchase thousands of copies of the five shortlisted titles for distribution to its employees as well as to schools, libraries, and cultural centers.
Lots of good things coming from Spanish government theses days (Aena is 51% owned by the Spanish government, after all). Only the Nobel Prize in Literature offers an award on a comparable financial scale, although that honor recognizes an author’s body of work rather than a specific title. At €1 million, Aena’s prize is now the largest literary prize in the world for a single published novel, surpassing the Booker Prize at about £50,000 and the Carol Shields Prize at around $150,000. Particularly notable is Aena’s plan to purchase thousands of copies of the shortlisted books, a move that could expand readership for the finalists.
Print Gets a Boost, but Audiobooks Still Run the Show in Sweden
Boktugg.se reports that total book sales in Sweden reached a record SEK 5.54 billion ($603 million) in 2025, citing the annual report from the Swedish Publishers Association and Swedish Booksellers Association. That’s a 6.3% rise from SEK 5.21 billion ($567 million) a year earlier—though it’s a 5.6% decline when adjusted for inflation. According to the article, the 2025 increase closely mirrors a SEK 304 million ($33 million) rise in government subsidies for book purchases by schools. Print books generated 67.6% of revenue but only 33.6% of units sold, while digital subscriptions grew just 4.9%, their slowest pace yet.
Despite print’s recent growth, the Swedish market remains a subscription-driven audiobook market. In 2025, audio accounted for 61.1% of all units sold and 29.7% of total market value, representing 92.2% of digital units and 91.8% of digital revenue. À la carte digital purchases remain marginal: about 98% of digital sales value comes from subscription services, with less than 1% of units sold individually. Meanwhile, at the policy level, the government’s renewed investment in print for schools boosted the market, but it does not signal a reversal of Sweden’s digital strategy. Digital materials remain widely used in Swedish schools.
Kodansha Sends Manga to Roblox
ITmedia Business reports that Japanese publisher Kodansha is bringing its intellectual property to the online gaming platform Roblox, which reaches about 144 million daily users worldwide. Through Roblox’s “Licenses Catalog,” Kodansha is making manga properties available for players creating their own games on the platform, allowing the publisher to control how its IP is deployed and potentially monetize it. Roblox Chief Design Officer Tagu Kato told ITmedia that 57% of revenue earned by Japanese creators on Roblox comes from overseas users, highlighting the global potential of manga content.
Kodansha’s move illustrates a model that other publishing brands could adopt to monetize intellectual property that might otherwise circulate informally in user-generated environments. Platforms like Roblox, which combine gaming, social media, and game development tools, allow young users to build their own experiences using established characters and worlds. With much of the platform’s audience made up of younger players, the approach can introduce book-based brands early and embed them in interactive environments. For publishers, it also underscores the importance of understanding how gaming platforms operate and how they can function as extensions of storytelling ecosystems.
In Russia, Books Cost More, Bookshops Earn Less
Russia’s book market (print and digital, excluding government purchases) reached 131.7 billion rubles ($1.67 billion) in 2025, up 12.3% year-on-year, according to Knizhnaya Industriya, but the growth was driven largely by price increases. Unit sales fell 3% to 229 million copies, down from 233 million the previous year.
Online marketplaces such as Ozon accounted for 23% of overall growth, while digital books increased 25.4%. Physical bookshops were the hardest hit: revenue declined 1.2% to 36.98 billion rubles ($468 million) and unit sales dropped 14.6% to 63 million copies, a 39.4% fall since 2021, with 338 stores closing as operating costs rose 12.6%. In addition, new laws requiring content compliance checks has slowed editorial workflows, while labeling and printing costs have also increased. In physical retail, fiction rose 13.2% and children’s books 3.9%, while educational titles fell 20.1% and non-fiction declined 5.3% for the second consecutive year.
The high increase in market value alongside a decline in copies sold suggests book-price inflation may be running well above Russia’s official 2025 inflation rate of 5.6%. At the same time, publishers and booksellers are no doubt feeling the impact of complying with government censorship-related regulations on content, which, in addition to being an unacceptable restriction on the freedom to read and the freedom to publish, is clearly diverting time and money away from publishing and marketing. The contrast between rising fiction sales and the sharp decline in educational titles also raises the question of whether readers are increasingly turning to fiction as a form of escapism.
Down Under, Books Still Sell
According to Books+Publishing, citing data from NielsenIQ BookData, Australia’s book market grew 3.2% in value and 1.4% in volume in 2025, reaching A$1.3 billion ($913 million) across 70 million units sold. Half of the publishers surveyed reported strong Christmas sales, with fiction performing particularly well. Hachette Australia sales director Lillian Kovats told the publication that 2025 was “a great Christmas for fiction,” with romantasy titles, BookTok-driven picks, and cozy coloring books among the strongest performers. Looking ahead, publishers expect continued growth in audiobooks and graphic novels, while economic pressures may affect supply chains for imported titles.
While the figures are encouraging for Australia’s publishing sector, inflation tempers the headline growth. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, inflation reached 3.8% in 2025, effectively offsetting the reported 3.2% increase in market value. Still, the 1.4% rise in unit sales suggests genuine demand growth in a year when several major global markets struggled. The expectation of continued expansion in audiobooks is also notable, particularly as Spotify and Audible intensify their competition in the Australian market.
Manga Platform Scandal Hits Shogakukan
As reported by Polygon, Japanese publisher Shogakukan is facing a growing scandal involving its Manga One digital reading platform, after editors knowingly rehired two convicted sex offenders under pseudonyms. Following criticism of the company’s initial apology, Shogakukan has since issued a second statement acknowledging “a grave incident” and announcing the formation of an investigative committee and potential disciplinary measures. Still, several prominent authors have reportedly withdrawn their works from the Manga One platform.
Even under the principle of presumed innocence, the use of a pseudonym to shield an accused author is simply unacceptable. We can only now expect the publisher to follow through on its pledge to impose disciplinary measures and to ensure that similar situations do not occur again.
Buscalibre Enters the Ring with Amazon
Chile’s online bookseller Buscalibre, described by El Cronista as Latin America’s largest Spanish-language book marketplace, plans to expand its catalog from eight million to 15 million titles as it scales across the region. El Cronista reports that the company already surpasses major retailers such as Gandhi in Mexico and Panamericana in Colombia in revenue, and in Mexico it now lists more titles than Amazon. Regional director Juan Jose Daza Gomez told reporters the company is investing roughly $1.5 million each in Mexico and Colombia, about $2 million in Chile, and up to $1 million in smaller markets, targeting logistics, marketing, and partnerships with independent and antiquarian bookshops. A central element of the plan is to support secondhand booksellers by providing cataloging technology and using their stores as delivery points.
Competition in bookselling is always healthy, particularly when a regional player is prepared to compete with Amazon. Buscalibre’s focus on secondhand bookshops is notable. At the same time, the investment levels outlined so far appear relatively modest, especially considering how much Amazon has strengthened its logistics and delivery services in Mexico. Even so, a closely matched contest with Amazon—something like a balanced lucha libre match—can only benefit the market.
Bonnier’s Audiobook Bet Pays Off
Sweden’s Bonnier Books increased profitability in 2025, even as revenue dipped slightly. According to Bonnier Group’s reports, the division reported revenues of 8,181 MSEK ($891M), down from 8,392 MSEK ($914M) the previous year. Adjusted for currency effects and divestments, underlying publishing revenue remained stable. Strong gross margins were reported across key publishers including Bonnier Norsk Forlag in Norway, Bonnierförlagen in Sweden, and Bonnier Media Deutschland in Germany. Online bookseller Adlibris saw revenue rise 4%, boosted by a 34% jump in Swedish public-sector book sales. And audiobook streaming platform BookBeat grew revenue by 15%.
Particularly striking is the performance of BookBeat, whose 15% revenue growth coincided with a sharp profitability turnaround—from almost no profit the previous year to roughly $8 million. Adlibris’ revenue growth is also closely tied to public policy: government funding for book purchases for schools has boosted institutional sales, and a large share of those transactions flows through the Adlibris platform, which supplies both online orders and school distribution.
Bookwire and ElevenLabs Want to Turn Ebooks into Instant Audio
German digital aggregator Bookwire has signed a partnership with ElevenLabs to make ebooks from its publisher clients’ catalogs available for dynamic AI narration through ElevenLabs’ platform and ElevenReader app. Bookwire will enable selected titles to be delivered as AI-narrated audio in more than a dozen languages. According to the release, the partnership is intended to create new digital revenue opportunities for publishers while expanding global access to audio content.
The most notable element is the connection established between Bookwire’s traditionally published ebook catalogs and ElevenLabs’ ElevenReader platform. Unlike conventional audiobook distribution, ElevenReader does not rely on audio files, but instead generate narration directly from the ebook. The technology recalls Amazon’s Kindle Text-to-Speech feature introduced in 2009, which faced industry pushback over whether automated narration effectively constituted an audiobook and therefore raised rights issues. At the time, publishers were allowed to opt out, and most did. On its face, this partnership raises a similar question: will publishers embrace ebooks being converted into spoken audio in-app, without a separate audio edition? If so, it’s an approach that could significantly disrupt the traditional audiobook model built around dedicated files.
Audible Adds a Budget Plan
Audible has introduced a lower-priced Standard membership tier across six markets—the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, and France. In the U.S., the plan costs $8.99 per month and provides access to one audiobook per month, available only while the membership remains active, along with unlimited listening from a curated catalogue that includes a selection of Audible Originals and nearly 200 of the most popular titles previously available on Wondery+. Early testing in the UK and Australia produced a double-digit increase in new sign-ups.
Competition in digital audio appears to be a factor behind the move, as Audible responds to Spotify’s growing presence in English-language audiobook markets. Whether the expanded tiered strategy will succeed remains to be seen, although the distinction between the two subscription options (Audible’s existing Premium tier remains at $14.95 per month) may still feel somewhat complex for many consumers, who might prefer a more straightforward offer.
What Else Caught My Eye
A cocktail crash. On Wednesday, March 11, there will be a real cocktail crash at the London Book Fair, as three of the fair’s best receptions all happen at the same time: The Croatian reception (stand 5E100) and the famous Caipirinha Hour (stand 1D108) both kick off at 5 p.m., while the Japan networking party (stand 1E109) starts a little earlier at 4 p.m. So perhaps the sensible strategy is to begin with sake to get things moving. And if you can’t make the Japanese party on Wednesday, there is another one on Tuesday at 4 p.m. as well. In any case, if you’re at the London Book Fair and are a fan of sake, cachaça, or Plavac Mali, you won’t go thirsty.
A given. Children with immigrant backgrounds were Norway’s most avid young readers in 2025, according to BOK365. Among those aged 9–12, 68% read print weekly versus 55% overall, and 83% borrowed at least one book from a library.
A K-Fellowship. The Literature Translation Institute of Korea has opened applications for its 2026 K-Literature Fellowship in Seoul. The program runs September 7–10 in the world-famous Gangnam district, with airfare and accommodation provided. Applications close April 3.
A strategy. She Will Remain by Rene Karabash, translated by Izidora Angel, has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Croatian publisher Sandorf released the novel directly in English to reach global readers—an approach that paid off when the entire print run sold out within two days of the announcement.
A snapshot. A new youth-reading survey across Ibero-America by the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) finds that 57.9% of respondents aged 10–22 consider themselves readers, while only 8.5% say they do not read at all. Print remains the preferred format (80.9%), though 90.2% also read digitally—and 63.5% report accessing illegal downloads.
A livestream. China’s Zhejiang Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House generated ¥3.12 million ($452,000) in six hours selling a repackaged edition of Wild Horses Running Free by Shen Shixi. The signed, 30,000-copy gift-box edition sold out across video platforms including Douyin (TikTok), reports China Publishing Today.
The writer of this column once wrote to AENA to complain about a canceled flight and was surprised by the quality of the service—and by the official decision he received that forced the airline to compensate him. He has also been trying hard to understand Roblox, asking his teenage kids about it. He hopes to succeed someday. By the way, those same kids continue to use digital resources alongside print books in the Swedish school system. Finally, he is looking for a drink that mixes sake, cachaça and Plavac Mali.