What Ukrainians read, how the war has changed the publishing business, and why Ukrainians need to get rid of “book piracy”
Despite Russia’s military aggression, rocket attacks and power outages, Ukrainian publishers continue to print books and announce the release of new ones. Experts estimate that the publishing market is currently operating at 50% of the level it was before February 24, 2022.
What genres have broken into the reader’s top lists? How do Ukrainians help Russians by downloading books on pirate sites? And why is now the best time to buy the books you really want? Publisher Oleksandr Krasovytskyi spoke about this.
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How did book publishers hold their front?
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian publishers were greatly helped by the “ePidtrymka” programme. The so-called “Covid thousand” could be spent on books, and book lovers took this opportunity. This was the strength reserve that helped to hold on, and in the spring of 2022, publishers began to return to work.
“Even before February 24, 2022, the price of printing materials had risen significantly in the world. After that, the war affected our work. Most book publishers in Ukraine reduced their margins because of this, and this allowed us to slow down the price increase at least a little,” says Krasovitsky.
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Sales leaders
Historical literature of various styles, both fiction and non-fiction or popular science, is in the top sales. Ukrainians read books by Yaroslav Hrytsak, Serhiy Plokhiy, Petro Kraliuk, and Danylo Yanevsky.
Among the leaders are also publications by writers of the twentieth century – emigrants and representatives of the “executed revival”.
“The demand for this literature began to grow in summer 2022, and I am sure that this part of the market will continue to grow,” Krasovytskyi emphasises.
The top three are rounded out by romance novels and detective stories, which are the books that readers use to take a break from the news about the war.
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War and the e-book market
Since February 24, 2022, the demand for officially purchased books in electronic format has tripled. This is primarily because many Ukrainians have moved abroad, and it is impossible to use pirated versions there.
“In Europe, there is a fine for downloading pirated copies, which is imposed on the reader. In Ukraine, unfortunately, it is not the buyer or the provider who is responsible for breaking the law, but some mythical seller of pirated content, who is often located abroad. And this “abroad” is Russia. They just change the file, that’s all. In Ukraine, the e-book market reaches only 10%. To create a high-quality book in an online format, you need to invest $2,000-2,500. And not everyone can afford it, and it is not known (because of pirates) whether the investment will pay off,” the publisher summarises.
According to him, a significant part of our citizens still don’t understand that electronic versions of books have the same value as paper ones. And the sale of any product is the salary of the author who wrote the book and has the opportunity to continue creating, and his family lives on this money.
If we take the segment of readers who have not travelled abroad separately for statistics, the figures remain the same. The power cuts have not affected them: people charge their gadgets, buy an e-book, and then enjoy reading during the blackouts.
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Will book prices rise?
Paper books in Ukraine will become more expensive. There are objective reasons for this: rising raw material costs, the war.
“If you see a bookstore selling books from previous years, don’t hesitate to buy them, otherwise they will cost much more,” advises Krasovytskyi.
Can high book prices bring readers back to libraries? What does the publisher think about library collections? And should Russian-language books be recycled? Watch the full interview with Oleksandr Krasovytskyi for the Dovidka.info project on the SPRAVDI YouTube channel.
