Russian Market Focus

I have never been to an international book fair before. Maybe that's why the London Book Fair one made such a strong impression on me. I admire the organisation of this event although I must admit that on the first day, it was a bit hard for me to get to know how everything works. The two main highlights of the fair were the Russian Market and Digital publishing.

I attended only few talks focused on Russia but they were enough to break some stereotypes about book publishing in Russia. I liked one of the talks in particular. The speakers were famous publishers in Russia and they shared some market data and insight about the book industry. Many are skeptical about the idea of making profit from e-books in Russia mainly due to piracy. The talk refuted the idea that piracy is widely spread. The copyright protection laws are very strict and yes, they are enforced. So anyone who breaches the copyright laws faces 6 years in prison. E-books are becoming more popular. Market data of a famous publisher in Moscow shows that e-book sales increased by 300% since they first came out on the market.

So how spread are e-books in Russia? One publisher answered that they are about 3% of the book market. In my observation, e-books are not as spread in the Eastern European market because local publishers are concerned about piracy and its effect on e-book and print book sales.

Filed under: Book Fairs • Friendship • E-books