P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY®

Special Report 2011

Publishing in RUSSIA
A young and aggressive market focused on
more cross-cultural exchanges and
closer ties with the global publishing community
 Publishing in Russia 2011

are concentrated in two cities: Moscow

Broadening its presence abroad while and St. Petersburg. One can easily meet
85% of the industry players just in Mos-
transforming its domestic infrastructure cow and take an 80-minute plane ride or
a three-and-a-half-hour fast train to St.
Petersburg to see the rest. No multiple
city–hopping itineraries required.
In Russia, a print run tends to cover

The Dynamic Russian the whole lifespan of a title and indicates

the success of a title (or author). Publish-
ers usually do not keep any inventory,

Book Market preferring instead to push all onto

shelves. Reprinting is a new concept now
that print run has come down and pub-
lishing has become more demand-based.
Here is a country where cloth-bound
By Teri Tan children’s books are more common than
those in paperback. There lies the snob
appeal, as paperbacks are perceived to
Talk about transformation. In a span of 20 years, the Russian cater for the lower-income brackets.
These unique characteristics have pro-
book market has made a 180-degree shift, from state-owned duced some challenges along with oppor-
publishing and distribution to privately held (except for a few tunities within the industry. And no one
knows better, or can offer clearer observa-
exceptions) and increasingly client driven. Every component tions, than the insiders.
of its book market was created overnight, after state-owned Andrew Nurnberg, of the eponymous
rights agency (the first to set up shop in
publishing and the infrastructure supporting distribution and Moscow), says, “Smaller publishers have
retailing collapsed. been having a tough time trying to keep
ahead of the game, not least

S
because the large companies
uch transformation have deep pockets when it comes
has resulted in sev- to author advances. Yet some of
eral characteristics these publishers, by virtue of
unique to the mar- having a smaller output, have
ket. For instance, been able to invest time, energy,
one will find huge and marketing resources to good
publishing conglomerates pro- effect. For example, they have
ducing a staggering number of begun to invite international
publications in a single day. authors to Russia for promo-
Eksmo and AST, the two behe- tional tours. The quality of their
moths that control nearly 45% translations is improving, as are
of the market, have published jacket designs and overall pro-
more than 600 titles per month duction. But the Russian pub-
in recent years—something lishing industry is suffering
On display at Moscow Dom Knigi are translated titles including
that is unheard of in the rest of from poor distribution—in fact,
COVER PHOTO © ISTOCKPHOTO / MIKIE 11

Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, Mary Higgins Clark’s I

the world. Heard That Song Before, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, Jack
some distributors even got into
Big publishers have also Kerouac’s On the Road, and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed. financial difficulties—as well as
integrated vertical chains that from high production costs and
may include wholesaling, bricks-and- vices and online distribution. These ser- low retail prices. Russian readers, how-
mortar bookselling, online retailing, and vices are in turn offered to smaller pub- ever, have been privileged to be able to
digital content aggregation. Growth in lishers. buy cheap books, and it is a true pleasure
the e-book segment, meanwhile, has It is also worth noting that, for a coun- to see bookshops filled with readers pur-
some branching out into digitization ser- try so vast, publishing and distribution chasing five or six books at a time.”
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M 1
 Publishing in Russia 2011
Sergey Kondratov, publishing veteran
and chairman of Terra Publishing,
laments the limited range of works by
contemporary Russian authors and
poets. He also says, “There are few pro-
fessional houses capable of producing
high-quality titles. Currently, many
publishers are focusing on the children’s
segment, but many titles are hastily put
together, duplicated and offered in doz-
ens of versions, and there are few illus-
trated editions for teenage readers.”
(Incidentally, professionalism in pub-
lishing is the goal of the Printing Arts
department of Moscow State University.
The rector, Professor Alexander Tsy-
ganenko, launched the country’s first
master’s degree in publishing in partner-
ship with Oxford Brookes University
last year.)
E-books and online bookstores, Kon-
dratov adds, “are the modern facets of the
book industry, and both have been hap-
pening in Russia for quite some time.
But despite this fervor for digital titles,
libraries—no matter how technologi-
cally advanced—should continue to
stock print books.” Victor Fedorov, pres-
ident of the Russian State Library—the
third largest in the world with 43 mil-
lion items—shares that sentiment. He
and his team have continued to archive
print titles and expand the collection
while digitizing selected collections and
working with Google Books.
Foreign publishers’ reluctance to
include digital rights in the contract is a
problem faced by many, not least CEO
Arkady Vitrouk of Azbooka-Atticus,
where translations have enjoyed big suc-
cess. “This arises primarily because for-
eign publishers find it very difficult to
set the price for digital rights for our
market. Consequently, many titles
quickly became available in digital for-
mat through pirate Web sites after we
release the print edition. It is ironic
because this confirms that the demand
for e-books is there, and unless we offer a
reasonably priced supply, we cannot
stop—or at least reduce—digital piracy.”
At the same time, he bemoans the low
e-book prices in the Russian market. “In
a way, it destroys good content. Pricing,
2 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
I believe, should be commensurate with sellers hit millions of copies, while for-
the quality of a book. There is a definite eign titles make up less than 13% of all
need for some adjustment in the e-book titles published in 2010, we fully
market.” expect to see increased rights activity
In view of the need to close the loop- with the West and Asia in the near
holes, encourage reading, and promote future,” adds v-p Alexandra Shipetina
Russian literature abroad, several organi- (also v-p of Centrepolygraph), who will
zations have been hard at work to push be traveling to the Beijing Interna-
that agenda. tional Book Fair this August with
The most important and aggressive is other RBU delegates, and working on
the Federal Agency of Press and Mass events for the 2012 BookExpo Amer-
Communications (FAPMC). It is respon- ica. Meanwhile, government funds for
sible for implementing new technolo- reading promotions and antipiracy
gies, promoting reading, and providing campaigns are on their way to RBU.
a regulatory framework for the industry. The seven-year-old Mikhail Prokho-
Its goals are also to promote Russian lit- rov Foundation is a privately funded
erature and forge closer links with the organization aggressively promoting
rest of the publishing world. Deputy contemporary Russian literature and
head Vladimir Grigoriev, one of the thought to the world. Irina Prokho-
founders of the prestigious Russian Big rova, cofounder and chairperson of the
Book Prize, is a key driver in the cam- expert board (as well as publisher/edi-
paign to put Russia on the global pub- tor of NLO, or New Literary Observer),
lishing map because, as he has said, says, “Our Transcript program is an
“Russian literature should know no international grant competition, in
boundaries.” which we provide translation sup-
Next comes the Russian Book Union port—in any foreign language—for
(RBU). It represents the whole book Russian fiction and nonfiction titles.”
community, encompassing the publish- Among the 31 authors supported by
ing, printing, library, and educational Transcript last year were Victor Zhi-
sectors. Keeping its 200 full (and 1,500 vov (Languages and Culture in Russia in
associate) members abreast of develop- the 18th Century), V. Voinovich (The
ments pertinent to the industry is the Displaced Person), and Leo Klein (The
organization’s main focus. Less known Phenomenon of Soviet Archaeology). Tran-
but no less important is RBU’s relief pro- script, launched two years ago with a
gram to help provincial bookstores cope budget of $400,000 annually, accepts
with high rents and competition from applications year-round. So far, more
retail chains that are selling more profit- than 530 have been processed, of
able goods. Last year, which 102 have been
RBU, with support from granted. “Selections are
FAPMC, managed to per- made four times a year
suade the customs depart- with the final decision
ment to maintain tax based on four main crite-
relief on imported paper ria: total rights fee and
meant for the book pub- translation cost, quality
lishing industry. of translation, impor-
Promotion of Russian tance of the author or
literature abroad is not title, and publisher’s
yet on RBU’s agenda, but reputation.”
it is working on more The foundation also
events to promote coop- established the NOSE
eration between Russia (New Prose) literary prize
and the international Alexandra Shipetina, v-p of the in honor of 19th-century
publishing community. Russian Book Union (as well novelist Nikolai Gogol on
“Since our national best- as v-p of Centrepolygraph) the 200th anniversary of
 Debut books are published by GLAS, a continuing series of
contemporary Russian writing in English translation, the most
comprehensive English-language source on Russian letters today.
www.glas.msk.su
Ordering information:
UK: Centr al Books/Inpress www.inpressbooks.co.uk
USA: Consortium Book Sales and Distribution www.cbsd.com
orderentry@perseusbooks.com
 Publishing in Russia 2011
his birth. The abbreviation is also the
name of Gogol’s most famous novella.
Last year’s winner, Vladimir Sorokin (for
Snowstorm), has long been considered a
leading contemporary Russian writer.
He has two other books available in Eng-
lish: The Queue and Ice.
As for the foundation’s focus on the
Krasnoyarsk region, Prokhorova
explains, “This region is often called
‘miniature Russia,’ because its economic,
demographic, and sociocultural charac-
teristics are highly representative of the
whole country. Launching our activities
there is in line with our regional/local
approach. In the past three years, by
leveraging our Krasnoyarsk know-how,
we have rapidly expanded our activities
to the Ural, far eastern, and central
regions. We are set to introduce more
contemporary Russian voices to readers
around the world.”
Another organization—a fixture at
major book events—is Academia Ros-
Two friends. One Jar.
The Universe’s DNA.
What could possibly
go wrong?
FINDERS KEEPERS
A novel by Russ Colchamiro
“A strong debut from a very
imaginative writer.” —Publishers Weekly
Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/eRIGUs
3 Finger Prints: http://bit.ly/9HzqQT
3 Finger Prints Publishing 2010
Paperback $13.99 USA
(301p) ISBN: 978-0-9794801-4-0
4 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
RUSS_1/6V.indd 1 2/10/11 2:17 PM
sica, which is focused on
promoting cultural and
intellectual links between
Russia and the English-
speaking world. “After
three successful years of
presenting Russian
authors at the Books from
Russia stand at London
Book Fair and BEA, Aca- Svetlana Adjoubei, director of
demia Rossica and the Academia Rossica
Russian Federal Agency
for Mass Communication have
launched a two-year programme,” says
Academia director Svetlana Adjoubei,
“promoting contemporary Russia lit-
erature in the English-speaking world.
Beginning with the Russia Market
Focus at the London Book Fair, the
programme continues with the Global
Market Forum: Russia at the 2012
Book Expo America.” This programme
is supported by the launch of the trans-
lation grants provided by the Russkiy
Mir Foundation and coordinated by
Academia Rossica.
“Our organization facilitates rela-
tionships between writers, literary
agents, publishers and translators,”
Adjoubei continues. “The translation
grant, for instance, is another way of
encouraging publishers to translate
Russian works. Information about
Russian writers and agents, sample
translations, and a selection of Russian
titles in various languages will be
available from the Russian stand.
“British and American readers mostly
know 19th-century classic Russian writ-
ers, maybe a handful of those from the
20th century, but at most one or two
contemporary writers. Our aim is to
present the range of contemporary Rus-
sian literature, including detective sto-
ries, thrillers, sci-fi, biographies, and
historical fiction. This is a unique oppor- 2012 Book Expo America should be on
tunity for the English-speaking world to
meet such bestselling novelists as Boris
Akunin, Polina Dashkova, Dmitry
Glukhovsky, Sergei Kostin, Sergey
Lukyanenko, and Anna Storabinets who
are shaping Russia’s contemporary cul-
ture. We hope that our programme at
the London Book Fair and BEA will be
a springboard for con-
temporary Russian litera-
ture to reach a new level
of popularity.”
The government is
also stepping up its
efforts in copyright pro-
tection. One area of con-
tention is the issue of
public domain. One
landmark case occurred
last June when AST was
ordered to compensate Terra Publish-
ing 7.6 billion rubles ($250 million).
The author at the center of the legal
wrangle is a Russian household name:
sci-fi novelist Alexander Belyaev.
Though the author died in 1942, his
works (under the Berne Convention’s
stipulation of life plus 70 years) have
not entered the public domain. Terra
obtained permission from the author’s
daughter to produce 630 sets of a six-
volume deluxe edition priced at
$3,800. AST, using post-Berne terms
(life plus 50 years), published 30,000
copies of the author’s collected works
on the premise that the content is in
the public domain. AST is appealing
the judgment.
Challenges and loopholes aside, there
is one message from many industry play-
ers for their overseas counterparts, either
clearly communicated or subtly con-
veyed to PW during our visit for this
report: given the new face of the Russian
book industry, it is high time for the
world to move on from Tolstoy, Dos-
toyevski, and Chekhov (no offense
intended) to newer, fresher voices.
As such, visiting the St. Petersburg
Book Fair (in April), Moscow Book Fair
(August), and Non/Fiction Fair (Decem-
ber) or stopping at the Russian book
stand at the 2011 London Book Fair or
the itinerary of any publisher or rights
agency wanting a better understanding
of the Russian publishing industry and
its players.
Now let us start our journey to
uncover new collaborators, authors,
and opportunities in the largest coun-
try in the world.  ■
 Publishing in Russia 2011

Kundera, Richard Yates, Isabel Allende,

Exploring opportunities in rights exports Mario Vargas Llosa, Marc Levy, Cecelia
Ahern, Ben Elton, Lemony Snicket, Tove
and e-books while busy adding Jansson, and many others. It publishes
about 1,200 titles per year, and in 2010
translations to originals translations accounted for nearly 44% of
its catalogue.
The high percentage of translations,

A Young (and Very

explains Maxim Kryutchenko, founder
of Azbooka, is because “we are eager to
provide Russian readers with a wide

Ambitious) Group of range of foreign titles. When this com-

pany was founded, the intention was to
get Russian readers acquainted with

Publishers world literature, both classic and con-

temporary. But through the years, we
also have built up a strong Russian lit-
erature base—again both classic and con-
By Teri Tan temporary. There are several contempo-
rary Russian authors whom we are hon-
ored to represent and publish, and we use
every opportunity to produce more orig-
The current crop of Russian publishers is collectively on the inals. For instance, we have sold millions
young side, many of them born shortly before the dissolution of copies of works by Sergey Dovlatov,
Joseph Brodsky, and Vladimir Nabo-
of the Soviet Union in 1991. Then, teething problems were kov—authors who have been translated
many and the growth path rocky at times. But today these into English and are doing very well in
other countries. But it is quite difficult
publishers produce nearly 120,000 new titles per year, placing to uncover new Russian authors with
Russia firmly in the #4 slot in global ranking (after China, high overseas potential.”
CEO Arkady Vitrouk shares Kryu-
U.S., and U.K.) in terms of output. tchenko’s opinion of contemporary orig-

N
o one sums up the industry
today better than Natasha
Perova, publisher and
founder of GLAS: “Pulp fic-
tion triumphs over literary
fiction—in Russia and else-
where. Tolstoy and Dostoyevski would
have a tough time getting published
today—they might not even win the
Booker or other major prizes. While the
current Russian publishing scene is a far
cry from what it used to be during the
Soviet era, it is nowhere as developed as
in the West. The distribution system, for
instance, collapsed with the demise of
state-owned publishing, and it hasn’t
been restored to this day.
“Back in the early 1990s, after censor-
ship was lifted, people rushed to catch up
with world literature, resulting in a
frenzy of translation and also publication
inals: “Russians are only now beginning
of banned titles. Unfortunately, new writ- to review what happened during the per-
ers had little chance of being noticed in estroika period—a painful time for
this influx. But since the 2000s, Russians many—and the emotions and sentiments
have started to take more interest in in books on this period may not carry
internal affairs, and the wild capitalism easily across borders. Selling them, much
ride offers a lot of content for fiction. The as I would like to, will be difficult.” Vit-
time has finally come for new voices to be rouk is busy promoting several authors
heard. Those writing in the early 1990s
have managed to get their works pub-
lished in the early 2000s and are gradu-
ally becoming known here and abroad.”
Let’s get a closer look at the industry
through the operations of 14 publishers
(in alphabetical order).
Azbooka-Atticus
The third largest publisher in Russia
with around 5% of the market, Azbooka-
Atticus holds exclusive rights to such
authors as Janus Leon Wisniewski, Milan Arkady Vitrouk, CEO of Azbooka-Atticus

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M 5
 Publishing in Russia 2011
including Yevgeny Grishkovetz. “His
titles invariably sell more than 100,000
copies each, and they have been trans-
lated into German, French, and Norwe-
gian. Japanese and English are next, I
hope.” At the upcoming London Book
Fair, he will present Leonid Parfenov, a
television personality and author of a
series of books on the Soviet Union, and
Denis Osokin, who is famed for short
stories. “One of Osokin’s stories, ‘Silent
Souls,’ was made into a movie that was
subsequently nominated for the Grand
Prix at the 2010 Venice Film Festival.
Academia Rossica is set to show the
movie prior to the book fair.”
In the children’s segment, Azbooka-
Atticus boasts names like writer Anton
Soya (famed for Emo Boy), illustrator
Anton Lomayev, and paper engineer
Nikolai Nemzer. The present children’s
book segment in Russia, says Vitrouk,
“can be summarized in one word: prolif-
eration. Basically, every Russian pub-
lisher—and that includes us—produces
some children’s titles. Although the seg-
ment has not grown that much, the sup-
ply has certainly broadened a lot. Now
one can find children’s books for any
taste, from Soviet classics to avant-garde
European picture books, creative pop-
ups and novelty titles. At the same time,
consumers are becoming more picky,
paying more attention to the content
before making the purchase.”
AST
From its humble beginning as a book-
shop in 1990, AST has produced nearly
33,000 titles within the span of 22 years.
It often vies with Eksmo for top billing
as Russia’s biggest publisher. Around
30% of its list is translated, and it reads
like a who’s who of the fiction world: Ste-
phen King, Stephenie Meyer, John
Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Nicholas
Sparks, Paulo Coelho, and Wilbur Smith.
Homegrown talents are not few either,
and these include Boris Akunin, Pavel
Basinsky, Edward Radzinsky, Sergei
Lukyanenko, Dmitry Glukhovsky, and
Polina Dashkova. On the children’s side,
various licenses have resulted in a range
6 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
Top 15 publishers in 2010
(by title and number of copies)
Rank Publisher Title output Rank Publisher Total no. of copies
(in thousands)
1 Eksmo 9,663 1 Eksmo 78,804
2 AST 9,333 2 AST 72,255
3 Prosveshcheniye 1,646 3 Prosveshcheniye 48,791
4 Azbooka-Atticus 1,481 4 Drofa 17,122
5 Rosman 1,146 5 Azbooka-Atticus 14,913
6 Drofa 1,115 6 Ekzamen 14,556
7 OLMA Media Group 1,099 7 Rosman 12,317
8 Fenix 1,016 8 OLMA Media Group 10,632
9 Ripol Classic 979 9 Ripol Classic 8,194
10 Ekzamen 894 10 Ventana-Graf 6,916
11 Veche 894 11 Mir Knigi 6,372
12 Centrepolygraph 732 12 Centrepolygraph 4,787
13 Piter 622 13 Veche 3,973
14 Mir Knigi 587 14 Piter 3,061
15 Ventana-Graf 455 15 Fenix 3,058
SOURCE: THE RUSSIAN BOOK UNION, 2011
of merchandise from Disney, Sanrio, Fox, Given that AST prints at least 60% of
Warner Brothers, Hasbro, Mattel, DC its titles at two wholly owned facilities,
Comics, and others. the plan is definitely achievable. “At the
According to president Oleg Bartenev, same time,” Bartenev continues, “con-
“There is an urgent need to work with our tent and design for print books must go
foreign publishing partners to obtain a notch—or a few notches—higher to
digital rights for titles licensed to us. This compete with other media out there.
is one way to reduce piracy of e-titles. Take fashion magazines as an example.
Given that around 30% of published titles They didn’t die because of sophisticated
will migrate to e-book format, it is critical televisions or the availability of fashion
to close loopholes that allow piracy to hap- channels. They get more design based
pen. For AST, the plan is to retain our and content oriented to compete. For the
market share—currently estimated at book industry, I would cite Dorling
20% of the industry—in the traditional Kindersley, one of our publishing part-
format while using more sophisticated ners, for setting the standards in merging
designs and printing methods to discour- content and creativity.” For the foresee-
age illegal scanning of our titles.” able future, AST (derived from the first
letter of three of the directors’ names:
Andrei, Sergei, Tatiana; Oleg and Igoz
are the other directors) aims to cover
every book segment. Its 800 editors,
divided into 40 teams, also work with
big magazine brands such as National
Geographic and DeAgostini.
With more than 330 stores within its
Bukva chain (“with plans to add 50 shops
annually”), AST has also made huge
injections (to the tune of $50 million)
into ailing retail giant Top Kniga. “They
account for 40% of our sales, and we sim-
ply cannot afford to see such a vast dis-
tribution network collapse. It would be
catastrophic for the whole Russian book
industry.” Bartenev is also trying to read
Oleg Bartenev, president of AST further into the nation’s changing demo-

is an international grant competition
launched in 2009 by the Mikhail
Prokhorov Fund, a private charitable
foundation, to promote contemporary
Russian literature and thought
throughout the world.
We provide translation support for:
–Russian non-fiction (history,
philosophy, political, social and
cultural studies, sociology, anthropology,
interdisciplinary studies, etc.);
–Russian fiction (prose, poetry
and drama, including children’s
literature).
www.prokhorovfund.com
We offer:
– Full or partial payment of the rights;
– Full or partial financing of translation
costs;
– Partial support of printing costs
for non-fiction books.
For your information:
–The Transcript program supports
the translation from Russian into any
foreign language;
–Applications are accepted year round
and decision is made four times a year
(January 31, April 30, July 31,
and October 31);
– Publishers may apply for a grant
before they have signed a contract
with the rights holder.
 Publishing in Russia 2011
graphics. “The 1 to 10 age group is esti-
mated to be thrice the size of the 17 to
25 group. There is going to be tremen-
dous pressure on kindergartens and pri-
mary schools, and this represents a big
opportunity for the children’s book and
merchandise segment. But instilling the
reading habit in the young would require
nationwide support and promotional
effort—something the Russian Book
Union and various governmental agen-
cies are undertaking.”
Centrepolygraph
This has been the Russian home of Har-
lequin for the past 16 months. The pop-
ularity of such Harlequin authors as
Nora Roberts, Tess Gerritsen, and Deb-
bie Macomber is making Centrepoly-
graph’s latest publishing program a run-
away success. At least 172 Harlequin
titles have been translated since the deal
was sealed by v-p Alexandra Shipetina.
“Laying the groundwork was tedious as
we had to relook at our whole operation
prior to signing the agreement,” she says.
“We expanded our sales channels, put in
a new editorial team, created a special
Web site to promote the line, and ramped
up our marketing team for this.”
Recently, the contract was amended to
cover digital rights, and her team are
now busy working with LitRes, Russia’s
biggest digital bookstore and content
aggregator, to have the titles converted
into e-books and prepared for downloads.
“Names like Nora Roberts are highly
recognizable and enthusiastically
accepted by the market,” says Shipetina,
“but it needs more time to know new
authors such as Macomber, for whom we
have to make additional promotional
effort and learn to be patient. We are
translating one author at a time while
planning a focused marketing campaign
to promote each one.” And to ensure the
widest and most cost-effective distribu-
tion of Harlequin titles, the company has
inked an exclusive deal with Russian
Post to make use of its 39,000-odd sales
offices and 80 regional hubs to reach
readers in every corner of the nation.
Ranked #12 in the industry in terms
8 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
Dmitry Shipetin, chairman of Centrepoly-
graph
of output in 2010, the company was
founded by chairman Dmitry Shipetin in
1990. It remains until today a general
trade publisher specializing in fiction,
memoirs, history, popular medicine, and
self-help, and it has not been tempted to
enter the children’s, educational, or busi-
ness segments. With translations cur-
rently accounting for around 25% of its
catalogue, Centrepolygraph is known in
Russia for introducing such authors as
Peter James, Ann Granger, James Had-
ley Chase, and Vicki Myron. “I’m proud
to say that we started Russians reading
translated thrillers and detective stories,
and now romance. We were also the first
to translate titles on famous politi-
cians—local and foreign—such as Jung
Chang’s work on Mao Zedong. As for
original titles, we developed two unique
series of autobiographies—totaling 500
titles—of Russian and German soldiers
of WWII,” says Shipetin, whose com-
pany is also famous for another original
series of more than 100 autobiographies
in the history of Russia during the Com-
munist revolution and the fall of the
monarchy in the early 20th century.
Asked to recommend authors that may
appeal to foreign publishers, Shipetin
reels off several names, including nonfic-
tion author Valery Sinelnikov, whose You
Must Love Your Illness has six million cop-
ies in print, and fantasy authors Dmitry
Khvan, Roman Haer, and Igor Chuzin,
whose works are published in the series
Our People Out There. “Contemporary
Russian authors remain largely unknown
to foreign publishers and readers, and we
hope this situation will change soon.”
Eksmo
Bookselling was how Oleg Novikov and
Andrei Gredasov—currently CEO and
editor-in-chief respectively—started
Eksmo back in 1991. Since then, organic
expansion and various acquisitions have
turned it into one of the largest book
publishing and retail companies in Rus-
sia. With 81 million copies printed per
year and around 10,000 titles in its cata-
logue, Eksmo has major stakes in differ-
ent sectors of the book industry, includ-
ing retail (with nearly 200 stores through
the chains Bookvoed, Bibliosphera, and
Chitay-gorod) and an e-bookstore
(LitRes). For a general trade publisher
that started with only one title (on his-
tory) in 1993, it accounted for 20% of
the total Russian book sales last year; it
was 18% in 2009. “Acquisitions in the
retail sector have allowed us to be the
biggest retail operator in Russia, and this
lays a strong foundation for our future
expansion,” says Novikov, whose com-
pany also owns publishing and retail
concerns in Ukraine. The only Russian
publishing company to run a mySAP
ERP system to integrate the various divi-
sions in its vast operation, Eksmo cur-
rently has eight regional distribution
centers, both in Russia and outside—
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny
Novgorod, Samara, Ekaterinburg, Ros-
tov-on-Don, and Kiev, Ukraine, and
Almaty, Kazakhstan—and is working on
expanding the network further into the
often neglected eastern regions of Russia.
Blockbuster authors abound among
Eksmo’s 8,000-odd names, with fiction
Oleg Novikov, CEO of Eksmo
 Publishing in Russia 2011
Agent 013 by Daria Dontsova,
the most published author in
Russia
emerging as its strongest (and best-
known) segment. Foreign names in its
catalogue (of which 25% are translations)
include Stieg Larsson, Danielle Steele,
Haruki Murakami, Arturo Pérez-
Reverte, Agatha Christie (since 2008),
and Eoin Colfer. As for Russian authors,
this is the house of Darya Dontsova,
Tatyana Tolstaya, Tatiana Ustinova, Lud-
mila Ulitskaya, Yuri Nikitin, and Viktor
Pelevin. Dontsova, nicknamed the queen
of detective stories, is the most published
author in Russia, with a total print run
of 122 million copies, while Ustinova
takes third place with around 30 million.
“Some Eksmo authors, such as Dontsova,
Ulitskaya and Pelevin, have had their
works successfully licensed to foreign
publishers, mostly European. But rights
sales are tough going,” adds Novikov,
currently vice chairman of the Russian
Book Union and an expert considered by
many as the spokesperson of the Russian
book industry.
“The trends in the marketplace point
to growing interest in children’s books,
hobbies and crafts, cooking and popular
literature. And these are the areas that
Eksmo will focus on for the next two to
three years.” Far-sighted Novikov, who
started a culinary magazine, Bread &
Salt, two years ago, has developed a
related Internet portal, which boasts
more than two million visitors per
month. At the same time, he has launched
10 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
a range of books, a dedicated Web site
and newsletters on soccer and national
players, well in advance of the 2018
World Cup in Russia.
Unlike many publishers, however,
Novikov does not view the Internet and
digital publishing as threats: “These are
additional opportunities to distribute our
publications and make them available to
the masses outside major cities more
affordably and conveniently.” But a
shrinking reading population, estimated
at around 20% of the whole population
for the past two years, is worrying, and
Novikov, in a bid to reverse the trend, is
one of the initiators and supporters of a
nationwide program to promote reading.
GLAS
Few publishing houses work harder than
GLAS to promote works by contempo-
rary Russian authors. Winner of the Ros-
sica Prize for best translations in 2007
(for 7 Stories by Sigizmund Krzhizha-
novsky) and again in 2009 (Iramifications
by Maria Galina), GLAS has just part-
nered with Consortium Books to distrib-
ute its titles to non-British Common-
wealth countries. “We publish the best of
contemporary Russian fiction in English.
In fact, many authors appeared in English
for the first time with GLAS, and some
were then picked up by overseas publish-
ers,” says founder/publisher Natasha
Perova, who works with American and
British translators. She has just reprinted
Michele Berdy’s The Russian Word’s Worth:
A Humorous and Informative Guide to the
Natasha Perova, founder and publisher of
GLAS
Russian Language, Culture, and Translation.
“With nearly 10 million Russian émigrés
in the U.S. and thousands of expatriates
in Russia, this title is set to bridge cul-
tural differences and bring people closer,”
Perova says. “Consortium has started dis-
tributing it in March, and we hope it will
be a sleeper hit.”
Her backlist of 50 titles (half of which
are anthologies) includes Squaring the
Circle, a collection of Debut Prize win-
ners. “This unique award for writers
under 25 is considered on par with the
Booker. We collaborate with Olga
Slavnikova—Debut Prize Foundation
director and Russian Booker Prize win-
ner—to provide glimpses of present-day
Russia, its thoughts and its future direc-
tion. Aside from the English and Chinese
editions out in 2010, we also launched
the French edition last February. Oth-
ers—in German by Suhrkamp, Italian by
Marco Tropea Editore, and Spanish by La
Otra Orilla—will be available within the
next 12 months.”
One surprise hit at GLAS is The Diary
of a Soviet Schoolgirl, an Anne Frank–like
diary that was accidentally discovered
among KGB archives. “We published the
abridged version, and it has since been
translated into 20 languages. Another
successful title is Arkady Babchenko’s A
Soldier’s War in Chechnya. We published
his firsthand account as part of our War
& Peace collection, and now his book is
available in 15 languages, including Eng-
lish by Portobello–Grove Atlantic. It is
amazing how those books that you didn’t
pin much hope on unexpectedly do well.”
But successes from contemporary writers
are far and few between. “Russian litera-
ture is still deeply entrenched in the clas-
sics. Language and cultural barriers are
further obstacles to translation of Russian
works. On the other hand, English-
speaking countries are notoriously self-
sufficient, and translated titles make up
only 3% of their publications. It’s time
for English-speaking people to realize
how much they are missing,” says Perova,
listing several Debut Prize winners, such
as Alisa Ganieva (from Daghestan), Igor
Savelyev (Bashkiria), Alexei Lukyanov
(the Urals), and Irina Bogatyreva (Mos-
 Discover Unknown Russia
with New Literary Observer //
New Literary Observer is the leading publishing house
in Russia focusing on humanities, contemporary art,
prose and poetry. // Three multidisciplinary periodicals,
28 book series, two annual scholarly conferences,
and a broad variety of cultural events are just a small
part of what we do. // Launched in 1992, at the very
peak of the Russian democratic revolution, New
Literary Observer maintains its powerful impetus for
social and cultural transformations. // Over the years,
our publications have become a meeting point for
an international community of renowned scholars,
writers, and intellectuals. // Promoting new fields
of knowledge, forging cutting-edge aesthetic trends,
generating bold ideas, we have created a unique
cultural space, a 21st century republic of letters. // Join
us at the London Book Fair for a series of discussions
and readings to discover Unknown Russia.

tel/fax: +7 495 229 9103 // info@nlo.magazine.ru // www.nlobooks.ru

 Publishing in Russia 2011
cow), as the upcoming voices of modern
Russian literature.
Meshcheryakov
Wo n d e r f u l t h i n g s h a p p e n e d a t
Meshcheryakov: a former banking execu-
tive became its founder and publisher,
and a biologist won the nation’s best
book award. For Vadim Meshcheryakov,
children’s books in Russia used to be
little segments in big publishing houses:
“Commoditylike, they were available in
big quantities but low on quality. Book-
stores, on the other hand, were very con-
servative in stocking them. As a former
banker with good knowledge of how
business is done, I set up this publishing
house six years ago to provide both quan-
tity and quality.” The latter is certainly
in abundance when one thumbs through
Meshcheryakov’s catalogue. A particu-
larly striking title is The Insects’ Letters by
biologist Olga Kuvykina. The 2010
Book of the Year, announced at the Mos-
cow International Book Fair, was also a
finalist in the Enlightener contest along-
side many noteworthy nonfiction books
meant for adults.
Although translations take up only
10% of its list, Meshcheryakov offers
many works by top European illustrators
(Arthur Rackham, Jon Bauer, Charles
Robinson, and Mabel Lucy Atwell) and
was the first to introduce Finnish author
Mauri Kunnas and Italian writer Silvana
de Mari to Russian children. “This year,
we are planning to release two titles by
The Insects’ Letter, winner of the
2010 Book of the Year award
12 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
Vadim Meshcheryakov, founder and publisher
of Meshcheryakov
New Zealand author Margaret Mahy,
whose works have been published only in
magazines. The demand for foreign con-
temporary titles is stable but not high
enough to generate bestsellers. Classics
such as those by James M. Barry and
L e w i s C a r r o l l r e m a i n p o p u l a r. ”
Meshcheryakov publishes about 150 new
titles per year (“I won’t be embarrassed
by any of the front- or backlist titles; they
are all good”) and is focused on publish-
ing for the Russian market instead of
selling rights (“since we are truly a non-
entity in the global publishing industry,
and even more so when it comes to chil-
dren’s books”).
The dream of gathering all children’s
publishers under one roof while provid-
ing a genre-specific distribution network
prompted Meshcheryakov to set up Curi-
osity Shop for Children’s Books last year.
“We have four stores now—in Moscow,
St. Petersburg, Rostov, and Nizhny
Novgorod—representing around 40
publishers, and the plan is to set up shop
in 10 other cities with populations in
excess of one million this year. It’s a
three-pronged approach: creating new
markets for small and medium-sized
publishers, introducing regional book-
sellers to a varied range of children’s
titles, and making available such selec-
tions to children in every corner of Rus-
sia.” Meanwhile, his seven-month-old
online bookstore now offers 3,500 titles
in the Russian language.
YA titles are next on his to-do list.
“We want our readers to stay with us as
they grow while we expand our publish-
ing scope into new areas. For a start, as a
general partner in Kniguru—a new
award for YA and children’s books that
was launched last November—we will
publish the winning YA authors and take
it from there.”
New Literary Observer
(NLO)
NLO specializes in the study of Russian
culture in a global context. Last year, edi-
tor and publisher Irina Prokhorova pub-
lished 85 new books and 16 journals (six
in NLO, six in NZ: Debates on Politics
and Culture, and four in Fashion Theory:
Dress, Body & Culture). This year, she
plans to release 100 new books and is
working on two special issues of the
NLO journal devoted to one key ques-
tion: how to write the other history of
mankind: “It is about the transnational
history of an individual.”
Prokhorova’s goals are to create new
trends in Russian human studies and
contemporary fiction as well as to develop
NLO as a research center. “I’m launching
a new long-term project, a New Anthro-
pology of Culture, aimed at radically re-
evaluating current approaches to national
and world history. There will be a set of
special NLO journals and a series of
workshops and seminars on this topic,
and these in turn will present us with
content for a new series of books.”
Last year, Prokhorova collaborated
with Gallimard to translate works by five
French authors on the emerging new
Irina Prokhorova, editor and publisher of
New Literary Observer (NLO)
ROSMAN Group is the full-cycle
children’s brands
promotion company
and provides
following services:
-Localization or
greenfield product
line development based
on a licensor’s style guide
-Content production
for Russian
major TV channels
-Promotional programs
-Countrywide distribution

ROSMAN Group is a licensee

of large international brands,
also develops and markets
its own brands.

ROSMAN Group is a marketer

of children’s products.
-Book publishing
-Magazines for children
-Branded stationery
-Toys and games
-Collectible cards

ROSMAN Group Brands:

-Iron Man 2 (Marvel)
-Littlest Pet Shop (Hasbro)
-Fisher Price (Mattel)
-Dora the Explorer (Nickelodeon)
-Strawberry Shortcake (Cookie Jar)
-Beyblade (Hasbro)
-The Penguins of Madagascar
(Nickelodeon)
-Lego (Lego)
-My Melody (Sanrio)
-Tonka (Hasbro)
-Moxie (MGA)
-4ever Kids (MGA)
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
(Nickelodeon )
-Bella Sara (Hidden City)
-Masha & the Bear (Animakord)
-Disney Baby (Disney)
-Pop Pixie (Rainbow)

www.ROSMAN.ru
+7 (495) 933-70-70
 Publishing in Russia 2011
concept of man based on recent discover-
ies in natural and human sciences. The
special project was completed in time for
the Non/Fiction Book Fair in Moscow.
“French philosophy and literature
exerted a tremendous influence on Rus-
sian thought and cultural identity when
the country was opening up to the world
in the past. This joint effort—together
with a series of roundtables involving the
authors—was most timely.”
Overall, 20% of NLO publications are
translations, including Robert Darn-
ton’s The Great Cat Massacre, Frances
Yates’s Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic
Tradition and Donald Rayfield’s Stalin
and His Hangmen. Originals such as
Gasparov’s The Engaging Greece (70,000
copies sold), Olga Vainshtein’s Dandy
(15,000 copies), the two-volume collec-
tion Smells and Aromas in a Cultural Con-
text (10,000 sets), prose by Bruskin and
Prigov, as well as poetry by Rodionov are
among its bestsellers. Some have been
translated into English (Alexei Miller’s
The Romanov Empire and Nationalism and
Marina Mogilner’s Homo Imperii), Japa-
nese (Boris Akunin’s Writer and Suicide)
and Korean (Mikhail Yamposky’s Lan-
guage-Body-Opportunity). Fiction, such as
Yuri Bujda’s The Prussian Bride and
Vladimir Tuchkov’s Death Comes over the
Internet, is much more widely translated
than nonfiction titles.
About 35% of NLO readership comes
from overseas markets. “Our journals are
subscribed by various foreign universi-
ties with Slavic departments,” says
Prokhorova. “We have Kubon & Sagner
and East View Publications to distribute
our journals in Europe and the U.S. We
also have a big online readership because
the journals are available on our Web
site. This free access has not affected our
print subscription; in fact, it has signifi-
cantly increased the citation rate.” Natu-
rally, Prokhorova is very enthusiastic
about e-books, especially for the aca-
demic and educational segments. “I’m
looking for partners to turn our titles
into e-books. I also hope that Amazon
would be interested in distributing Rus-
sian e-books in the near future.”
14 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
OLMA Media Group
Several major translations are set to boost
OLMA’s sales this year (and to beat the
previous gross of $60 million). George W.
Bush’s Decision Points, Julia Child’s Master-
ing the Art of French Cooking, and a bestsell-
ing European children’s fantasy series
Oksa Pollock are just some of the new
titles. “We are also planning to publish
more of P.C. Cast and Erin Hunter as well
as series by Cate Tiernan, Martin Cruz
Smith, Diane Mott Davidson, and Char-
lotte Link,” says general director Dmitry
Ivanov, who has bought many other titles,
including an award-winning Spanish
series, but is keeping the names under
wraps, especially since many are still in
manuscript stage. “Translations will rep-
resent at least 10% of our list this year, and
we are constantly looking out for the best
titles for our portfolio and our readers.”
On the other hand, rights sales of
works by Boris Akunin and Ernst Mul-
dashev as well as various nonfiction and
reference titles have been going on for
some time. Most of these go to eastern
European publishers. Back home, Alex-
ander Bushkov, author of more than 80
titles in various genres, is an OLMA
brand. “Bushkov’s fantasy and detective
titles are very popular with Russian read-
ers, and we have sold more than five mil-
lion copies of his books. We also sold
420,000 copies of Boris Akunin’s Falcon
and Swallow.” Reference titles are another
OLMA specialty, with more than half a
million copies sold of its Great Painters
series, along with classics like Omar
Dmitry Ivanov, general director of OLMA
Media Group
Qayyum’s Rubayat. “Culinary titles are
becoming trendy, and one of our cook-
books, Fast Cooking Recipes, has sales in
excess of 400,000 copies.” Then there are
special titles dedicated to Moscow’s
860th anniversary, audiobooks (under
the OLMA Bookster imprint), and orig-
inals by authors such as Anna Andri-
anova and Natalia Nechayeva. “We are
best known for high-quality full-color
illustrated encyclopedias such as The
World People’s Great Encyclopedia, The
Slavic Encyclopedia, and Ten Centuries of
Russian Literature.”
OLMA (coined from the name of its
two founders, Olessa and Maxim) has
around 150 staff in Moscow and will
release 1,450 titles this year covering all
genres. To date, 20 years since its incep-
tion, OLMA has published more than
27,000 titles. Holding firm to its busi-
ness principle of zero investment in book-
stores, it has opted to set up regional
offices—about 16 of them—to directly
deliver products to retail shops and out-
lets instead of relying on wholesalers.
“Last year, the Russian book market
dropped by 20%—the same for the
2008–2009 period. For some, the rise of
e-books is worrying. But for me, the
worst thing would be if people stopped
reading. So, whether it is e-books or print
books, it does not matter to us. As a pub-
lisher, we just want to see people continue
reading in whichever format they like.”
Piter
Competitor and collaborator are some-
times one and the same at St. Petersburg–
based academic publisher Piter. Last year,
president Vadim Usmanov set up iBooks
.ru, a joint venture with BHV (his main
competitor in the computer book seg-
ment) to sell e-books to universities. He
also collaborates with other academic
publishers, namely Infra-M, Yurait, and
LAN, for the same purpose. “A year ago,
our Education Ministry mandated
e-libraries at every university, and that
effectively changed our business stance
with respect to e-books. While the online
store—which will offer about 2,500 titles
by the end of this year—has been success-
 Publishing in Russia 2011
President Vadim Usmanov and general director Elena Nikol- new categories have proven
skaya of Piter
ful, sales from this channel represent
barely 3% of our total business. One
major challenge is that our universities,
like many others around the globe, suffer
from a lack of government funding.”
Usmanov believes that e-books and
multimedia titles are the future of the
publishing industry. But the online plat-
form is complex, adds general director
Elena Nikolskaya: “There is no proper
legislation in place to prevent piracy of
e-books or uploaded print books. Free
downloading is rampant, especially
among students who want material from
books that are usually very expensive and
are only available in hardcover.” Still,
there is no stopping Piter from venturing
beyond conventional publishing. Several
months ago, it signed an agreement to
put titles in Apple’s iBookstore and
started participating in the Google
Books project.
The past 20 years saw Piter, one of the
top three academic publishers in Russia,
releasing around 8,000 titles (totaling 92
million copies in print run), 20% of
which are translations from mostly
American publishers such as Pearson
Education, Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill,
Cengage Learning, and O’Reilly. It has
offices in 11 cities, including in Ukraine
and Belarus, and takes up nearly 60% of
the Russian computer book market.
However, the segment’s drastic drop—
with nearly 50% contraction during the
2008–2009 period—has prompted Piter
to find new businesses. (Today, however,
professional computer titles, especially
those by Alexander Levin, continue to
sell very well.) “We branched
out into nonfiction children’s
titles about two years ago,
producing playbooks, educa-
tional CD/DVD/interactive
titles, and parenting books.
We also broadened our pub-
lishing program to offer eco-
nomics and political journal-
ism, besides strengthening
our list in law, business, psy-
chology, and medicine. These
to be a good fit for us.” Best-
sellers in 2010 include Paul
Ekman’s Telling Lies (200,000 copies
sold), Nikolay Starikov’s Crisi$: How to
Create It (rights sold to Nova Zora of Bul-
garia, DPF of Slovenia, and Ukrainian
entrepreneur Tsirul Pavel), and Levin’s
Computer: Teach Yourself (11th edition).
Five million copies of Levin’s titles have
been sold to date. Adds Usmanov, “Two
years ago, at the start of the economic
crisis, the plan was to survive the down-
turn. Today, the mission is to expand our
business in various segments, whether in
e-book or print. We are highly adaptable
and proactive in this respect.”
Ripol Classic
At Ripol Classic, there is no bigger title
in recent memory than Elizabeth Gil-
bert’s Eat, Pray, Love, which has sold
more than 800,000 copies since its 2008
launch. Other translated bestsellers in
2010 include Cassandra Clare’s Mortal
Instruments trilogy and Bernard Wer-
ber’s The Mirror of Cassandra. Werber, a
French sci-fi novelist, is Ripol’s top
author in terms of sales, with two million
copies of his works printed and distrib-
uted in Russia.
Originals make up nearly 60% of
Ripol’s catalogue, and big authors include
Andrei Yasrebov with his books in the
Watching series, which together sold
more than 150,000 copies in 2010, and
Victor Dragunsky with his Denis chil-
dren’s series (60,000 copies). The last four
months also saw Ripol selling 30,000
copies of Olga Lucas’s trilogy and 25,000
of Sophia Catenina’s Will There Be Happi-
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
ness. Rights sales have picked up, with
titles going to the Baltic States, Bulgaria,
France, and Japan. How I Love America and
Paris, Moscow, Love by Misha Aznavour,
for instance, were sold to France.
Ranked #9 in terms of output (979
titles in 2010), Ripol specializes in fic-
tion, nonfiction, and children’s titles. Its
portfolio has broadened in recent years to
include popular science and reference
and dictionaries. After celebrating the
sale of its 150,000,000th book last year,
general director Sergei Makarenkov and
his 250-strong team are ready to find
new authors—local and foreign—to
boost its 8,000-title catalogue and
strengthen its 2,000-odd e-book list.
“But when it comes to translations, we
are often not given the digital rights for
e-books. Or they are granted long after
the print version has appeared. This does
not help in terms of pushing e-book sales
or countering piracy,” says Makarenkov,
who also points out that poor Internet
connectivity in the outer regions is a bar-
rier to wider e-book distribution. For
print books, having nine bookshops in
Moscow and two “book supermarts” in
Voronezh and Kursk does help to bring
titles to readers.
In the fiction market, Makarenkov has
witnessed dramatic changes: “There is an
emerging awareness of the importance of
promotion and positioning. So now we
have author tours, book signings, and
more targeted campaigns to coincide
with the book launch. And, increasingly,
readers of fiction in Russia are women,
Sergei Makarenkov, general director of Ripol
Classic
15
 Publishing in Russia 2011

which means we need well-designed cov-
ers and better packaging to make books
more appealing. Today, fiction blockbust-
ers that sell above two million copies are
no longer just a dream. You can say that
modern Russians are no longer so serious,
with their nonfiction and literary tomes.”
Rosman Group
This is Russia’s biggest children’s book
publisher, ranked #5 in the publishing
industry in terms of title output, with an
average of 1,300 titles per year. This is
also home to the young Hogwarts wiz-
ard, with over 12 million copies of his
adventures sold so far. “We printed
30,000 and 50,000 copies for the first
and second books respectively, and suc-
cess came only after the third book,” says
president Mikhail Markotkin. “No one
believed that this series would be suc-
cessful here, and we certainly took a big
risk by leveraging our reputation to push
a foreign—and totally untested—
author.” In the 1990s, the company
depended on translations because of the
lack of local contemporary children’s
titles. “Our translations were then as
high as 90% of our entire list.” Today,
only about 25% of Rosman’s catalogue is
translations, mostly YA titles such as
Top 10 authors in 2010
(adult titles)
Rank Author
1 Darya Dontsova
2 Julia Shilova
3 Arthur Conan Doyle
4 Tatiana Ustinova
5 Tatiana Polyakova
6 Alexandra Marinina
7 Alexandre Dumas
8 Stephenie Meyer
9 Boris Akunin
10 Ekaterina Vilmont
SOURCE: THE RUSSIAN BOOK UNION, 2011
Top 10 authors in 2010
(children’s books)
Rank Author
1 Kornei Chukovsky
2 Vladimir Stepanov
3 Agnia Barto
4 Irina Gurina
5 Hans Christian Andersen
6 Samuil Marshak
7 Charles Perrault
8 Alexander Volkov
9 Nikolai Nosov
10 Grigory Oster
SOURCE: THE RUSSIAN BOOK UNION, 2011
As such, the group has ventured
beyond publishing. It provides compre-
hensive marketing services for children’s
products, from localization/adaptation to
complex nationwide multimedia promo-
tional campaigns that involve content
production for major TV channels. Ros-
man is now the official distributor for
Hasbro, Mattel, and Giochi Preziosi. It
has licenses from Hasbro for Littlest Pet
Shop, Beyblade, and Tonka, and it works
with Mattel, Disney Baby, and Cartoon
Network on publishing and merchandise
properties. It recently launched Bella-
Sara in Russia. “Few Russian children are
allowed to use the Internet on their own
because parents are wary of undesirable
online elements. So, we use BellaSara
magazine as the main brand carrier and
roll out an extensive marketing program
to educate parents on the security of our
online portal. This online/offline promo-
tional campaign is essential for a success-
ful product launch.”
Adds Markotkin, “Aside from the
huge Russian market, our proximity to
neighboring countries such as Kazakh-
stan and Ukraine, and our understanding
of them, allows us to develop compre-
hensive marketing plans that cover these
regions for our overseas partners.”

those by Pullman (whose Dark Materials

trilogy has sold one million copies),
Paolini, Funke, Shan, and Stine.
Originals are growing, especially pic-
ture books. Bestselling exports, however,
come from original children’s educa-
Mikhail Markotkin, president of Rosman
Group
16 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
tional titles and fiction such as School for ROSSPEN
Preschoolers (12 million copies sold in ROSSPEN (or Russian Political Encyclo-
Russia), Kid’s Development (seven million), pedia Press) is the largest publisher of
and the series Novels for Girls (four mil- 20th-century archives of Russian and
lion). These titles have been sold to 28 Soviet Union history. “We started with
European publishers including Svojtka the political history of the Soviet Union
(Slovenia), Zvaigzne (Latvia), Toper (Ser-
bia), Group 62 (Spain), and Fortuna Libri
(Czech Republic).
For Markotkin, the children’s segment
is one of the brightest spots in the cur-
rent Russian book industry. “We grew
significantly in recent years, not because
of natural market expansion but because
we took over the market shares of com-
panies that collapsed during the eco-
nomic crisis. Future growth, however,
has to come from beyond book sales. We
have to look into online games, TV pro-
grams, and merchandise, all of which Andrei Sorokin, general director of
have huge market potential in Russia.” ROSSPEN
 Publishing in Russia 2011
and Russia, and since then we have moved
on to other branches of social science,”
says general director Andrei Sorokin,
whose 40 staff members released 250
titles last year. A historian by profession,
Sorokin initially planned ROSSPEN as a
research institute. “It was only after the
total collapse of state-owned publishing
in 1991 that I thought about establishing
this company as a publishing entity.”
One of Sorokin’s biggest (and most
ambitious) projects took place in 2007
when he collaborated with the Boris Yelt-
sin President Centre Fund, the Russian
State Archive, and a few other organiza-
tions to produce a massive 100-volume
series called the History of Stalinism.
More than 80 volumes have been released,
with around 50% translated from various
languages including English, German,
Italian, and even Swedish. Nick Baron’s
Soviet Karelia: Politics, Planning, and Terror
in Stalin’s Russia was translated and added
to the series last month. So far, the His-
tory of Stalinism project has been short-
listed for the IPA Freedom to Publish
Prize twice—in 2009 and 2010.
As to why a comprehensive and large-
scale study of Stalin is crucial, he says, “It
is a fact, garnered from various socio-
logical surveys, that more than 50% of
the population judge Stalin’s role in Rus-
sian history to be positive, and the num-
ber has grown in recent years. This series
is aimed at overcoming the ideological
and political legacy of the Soviet period,
and uncovering the truth and facts. We
believe that the creation of a modern type
of civilization in Russia is only possible
after we put the previous era into per-
spective.” The series will be distributed
to 1,000 public and university libraries
once it is completed.
Over the years, ROSSPEN has also won
several UNESCO prizes, including for
Russia Abroad: A Golden Book of Emigrants
in 2007 and Essays in the History of Islamic
Civilization in 2009. Last September, its
119-volume Library of Russia’s Social
Thought won the Book of the Year award.
“Scientific and research titles such as
those produced by ROSSPEN have lim-
ited readership. We are happy when a
print run reaches 2,000 to 3,000 copies.
On record, our bestseller is Egor Gaidar’s
The Downfall of the Empire, which has sold
more than 20,000 copies and is available
in English and French,” adds Sorokin,
who is planning to release several big
titles, including an encyclopedic series on
Russian Revolutionary Thought and the
continuation of the Library of Russia’s
Social Thought to cover the whole 20th
century. “Next year, on the 200th anni-
versary of the 1812 Patriotic War, we
hope to release a three-volume encyclope-
dia with several partners, including the
State Historical Museum and the State
Hermitage, to commemorate the event.”
Terra
This is a unique publishing company
founded and chaired by Sergey Kondra-
tov, a name known throughout Russian
publishing and printing circles. Its core
business is book clubs—but these are not
your typical book clubs. Their names—
Montplaisir and Marly, after the ancient
royal villas located near St. Petersburg—
provide obvious hints of exclusivity.
Montplaisir, established 11 years ago, has
around 300 members who hail from the
upper echelon of Russian society, includ-
ing politicians (presidents and ministers
past and present) and billionaire busi-
nessmen.
“Titles produced for Montplaisir
members are deluxe collectibles of vin-
tage books,” says Grigory Kozhevnikov,
Terra’s general director. Consider these: a
gilt-edged two-volume Baltic Fairy Tales
complete with gold and amber cover
embellishments selling for $7,000 (and
only 20 sets available) or a four-volume
Emperor Alexander I with Swarovski crys-
tals and semiprecious stones forming the
shape of a czar’s crown for $8,000. “Our
bestsellers include the Legend of Sergius of
Radonezh, the 62-volume Grand Ency-
clopedia, and the three-volume World of
Roerich.” In contrast, Marly Club, formed
two years ago, serves a much wider mem-
bership with titles that are priced much
lower. It publishes one catalogue per
year, offering about 100 titles in total.
Encyclopedia on Wines of the U.S.S.R., for
instance, is one recent title from Marly.
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
Sergey Kondratov, founder and chairman of
Terra
These two book clubs account for
nearly 60% of Terra’s total sales. The
profit is pumped back into its general
publishing division, where multivolume
encyclopedias and various reference titles
are produced. Among the titles are Ency-
clopedia of the Russian Revolution and Civil
War in Russia and Encyclopedia of Fascism
and Anti-fascism—special titles that
would appeal to international readers.
“But we have not sold any rights to over-
seas publishers yet,” says Kozhevnikov.
“We also have not planned to issue
e-books in the near future, though we are
now seriously considering selling our
content to e-book aggregators.” Then
there are thematic encyclopedias, such as
the 15-volume Encyclopedia of Painting,
which sells for around $350 and is among
the bestsellers. Given all these publish-
ing activities, it is not surprising to note
that Terra printed its 10-billionth book
with Bertelsmann-Arvato back in 1996.
For a publishing house considered small
in the Russian context and ranked nowhere
near the top 20 in terms of new titles or
print run, Terra has a monopoly in the
deluxe/collectible editions segment with
its two book clubs, the most successful in
the country. And now, its low-priced mul-
tivolume encyclopedias are setting the
standards in the reference segment.
Veche
History is at the heart of Veche. Whether
it is historical novels or military history,
the publishing house has something to
17
 Leonid Igor
Igor Zimin
Zimin –– The
The Big
Big World
World of
of
Leonid Mlechin
Mlechin –– Cold
Cold War
War Imperial
Imperial Residences
Residences

Leonid Mlechin – KGB

David G. Chandler –
The Campaigns of Napoleon

Valerij Sinelnikov –
Mysteries of the Subconscious Roman Haer – Perfect Job
 Eva
Eva Hornung
Hornung –– Dog
Dog Boy
Boy
Donald
Donald N.
N. Thompson
Thompson ––
The
The 12$
12$ Million
Million Stuffed
Stuffed Shark
Shark
Deon
Deon Meyer
Meyer –– Thirteen
Thirteen Hours
Hours

Ann Granger –
A Fine Place for Death

Peter James – Dead Like You

Vicki Myron – Dewey

Centrepolygraph Publishing House Man

2010
is one of the biggest publishers in Russia. Booker t,
Shortlis
n
732 titles were issued in 2010 with a total Russia
tion
publica
print run of 4 787 500 copies. in Ap il
r

The best books from Centrepolygraph are presented on a special exposition in the Presidential Library and
kept in the Personal Library of the Russian Patriarch.

Nora Roberts
Debbie Macomber
Tess Gerritsen
Susan Wiggs
Shannon Drake
Brenda Joyce
Maggie Shayne
Harlequin® Russia is a result of cooperation
between the world's leading publisher of women's
fiction Harlequin Enterprises Limited and the
Russian Publishing House Centrepolygraph
 Publishing in Russia 2011
Sergey Dmitriev, editor-in-chief of Veche
offer from its catalogue of well over
10,000 titles. Editor-in-chief Sergey
Dmitriev, who recently bought Rory
Clements’s Martyr and Revenger, says,
“Translations represent 15% of our 2010
list, and this figure is set to increase this
year. Our major plans for the next 24
months are to produce more bestselling
translations and e-books, and, as always,
INTRODUCING
Your business is only
as strong as your talent.
Publishers Weekly’s new
JOB ZONE will enable you to
recruit from amongst the
publishing industry’s finest
job applicants. Place your
employment opportunity for just
$250 monthly and recruit from
amongst publishersweekly.com’s
400,000 monthly users.
Your success is our success!
www.publishersweekly.com/jobzone
20 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
JOBZONE_1/6.indd 1 1/20/11 5:08 PM
to offer readers an objective point of view Veche.” Each e-book currently retails at
on world history in various genres.” around 80 rubles ($2.80).
Veche’s editorial team released a series Recent years saw Veche adding trade
commemorating the 60th anniversary of titles to its portfolio, such as books on
WWII with a total print run of one mil- pets, hobbies, travel, medicine, and
lion copies a few months ago. It is set to health. “While our passion is for anything
become yet another bestseller. But for historical, we are also mindful of what our
now the distinction of being Veche best- readers would like to have on their book-
sellers belongs to three big series: 100 of shelf. And as a for-profit company, it
the Greats (on world history, told makes perfect sense to widen our publish-
through specific personalities, events, or ing program to cover different segments.”
cultural masterpieces), Military Adven-
tures (fictitious accounts), and Actual Other Players in the
History (in which historians, politicians,
and journalists, both native and foreign, Market Place
discuss contemporary Russian history). It is impossible to cover all major players
Among the many authors, novelist Val- in this article, but there are several names
entin Pikul, whose war and naval his- that PW wants to mention briefly. In the
torical novels have been adapted for the textbook segment—one that is seeing
screen, emerges as its most popular. increased cooperation with American
Meanwhile, rights sales have started in and British publishers—there are Pros-
earnest. “We are in the midst of selling veshcheniye, Drofa, and BINOM, while
several titles, including Vladimir Eksamen produces mostly study and test
Shiguin’s Kursk: 10 Years Later, Alexey guides. In the college and academic seg-
Isayev’s 1945: Triumph in the Offensive and ment, Infra-M has 50% share of the law
Defensive and Vladimir Lebedev’s Trea- market and 36% in business and eco-
sures and Relics of the Romanovs,” adds nomics. On the other hand, Vlados,
Dmitriev, whose team is in negotiation largely regarded as a humanitarian pub-
with Bellona (Poland) and Helion (Great lisher, produces titles for teachers and
Britain). teacher trainers dealing with special
About 800 new titles (with print runs needs children. Trade publisher Vremya
averaging 5,000 copies each) are added focuses on 20th-century Russian authors,
each year. Interestingly, 90% of Veche especially of prose and poetry, while no
titles are in hardcover. Says Dmitriev, one does it better than Slovo when it
“Our readers and distribution partners comes to illustrated coffee-table books
prefer that. In fact, it has become a tradi- and art titles.
tion for us to release any title in hard- Many of the publishers named in this
cover.” Currently, the number of e-books report will be attending the 2011 Lon-
stands at around 500. “We collaborate don Book Fair (April 11–13). Just head
with LitRes on e-books, and the agree- to the Russian Pavilion (Stand W555),
ment is that 50% of the revenue goes to and get to know them and their authors
them, 20% to the author and the rest to better.  ■
Acknowledgments
The task of selecting a representative group from a pool of 20,000 registered publish-
ers—6,000 of which are active—is daunting, and it was made possible through the help
of many. PW would like to thank the following for making this report a reality: Vladi-
mir Grigoriev, deputy head of the Federal Agency of Press and Mass Communications
for supporting our efforts; Alexandra Shipetina, v-p of Centrepolygraph (as well as v-p
of the Russian Book Union) for contacting major publishers and other industry players,
fixing up appointments, and acting as our general minder; and Viktor Nemchinov (in
Moscow) and Natalia Ivashova (in St Petersburg), interpreters par excellence.
 Books
for those
with child
inside

Meshcheryakov Publishing House

www.idmkniga.ru
 Publishing in Russia 2011

print books, or around 65 rubles ($2.20).

E-books and e-libraries are gaining “Our Web site also offers old books—
which is something very Russian—and
ground amid challenges big and small out-of-print titles, including collected
works, encyclopedias, and entire librar-
ies. As long as there is interest in a spe-
cific segment,” continues Lukey, “we will
Braving the Digital Path work on turning it into an online busi-
ness.” (Lukey added an online travel
agency two years ago to meet customer
demand.) Customers have 18 payment
By Teri Tan and 14 delivery options, with shipping
anywhere in the world. “You just have to
let us know how you want to pay for it
Given that nearly 90% of Russian households are expected to and where to send it,” says Lukey.
And like its American counterpart,
have Internet access by 2012, it is easy to see why e-books, OZON.ru has also gone into e-reader pro-
online retailers, and electronic libraries are getting so much duction. Its monochrome e-ink device,
OZON Galaxy, launched in 2009 and has
attention (and investment interest) in recent years. Russian sold about 2,000 units at 9,900 rubles
publishers, fueled by the success of their U.S. counterparts, ($340) each. “We are planning to produce
over 5,000 units of the second genera-
are busy converting e-books and working with service provid- tion—which will come with an integrated
ers to put the titles online. But this being a new sector in the Wi-Fi module—with one of Russia’s larg-
est mobile operators,” adds Lukey.
Russian book market, challenges abound. Here, a few domi- Asked about the Russian publishing
nant players talk to PW about the general e-book industry, industry in general, Lukey says, “The
book market needs to grow. And there
their successes, and the challenges ahead. are two ways to go about it: add more
translated titles or venture into more
OZON.ru book sales—we believe its promising segments such as children’s
At OZON.ru the power of volume will increase signifi- and business. At the same time, publish-
the Internet has turned a cantly during the next five ers should look into developing cheaper
resource portal started by a years. The same upward versions of the same title—essentially
group of sci-fi lovers from St. trend is also expected of for- targeting the long tail. Presently, the
Petersburg in 1998 into an eign books sold through the book market is in decline with fewer new
e-commerce powerhouse. Internet.” More than 90% of titles, but prices keep going up.”
Now regarded as the Ama- all foreign titles on OZON
zon.com of Russia, it .ru are in English, imported
accounts for 50% of all from wholesalers or publish- LitRes
online book sales in the ers in the U.K. and Europe. LitRes, which boasts a catalogue of more
country. Last year, it sold 5.2 Bernard Lukey, CEO of Visitors can browse through than 45,000 Russian e-books, has effec-
OZON.ru
million copies of books (in 250,000 books, which tively become the largest digital content
print and electronic for- account for nearly 30% of the provider in the nation. “Our Web site has
mats), representing 38% of the group’s products offered online. more than 400,000 registered users and
sales. “In general,” says CEO Bernard Partnering with major publishers to about one million unique visitors per
Lukey, whose team is, naturally, paying a convert titles into e-books is standard month,” says general director Sergei
lot of attention to e-books and foreign procedure. “This conversion business is a Anuryev, whose collaboration with ser-
titles, “the online book market grows loss leader, but we have the utmost faith vice provider MintRight last June has
about 30% year-on-year, while bricks- in the future demand for e-books. The allowed the titles to be distributed to
and-mortar operations slide into negative problem for the book industry is how to global e-book sellers such as iBookstore,
territories. And despite the fact that the monetize the content and add value to Barnes & Noble, Nook, Sony, and Nokia.
e-book market is nearly insignificant— e-books,” says Lukey. E-books on OZON “It has been a very successful collabora-
representing less than 2% of total online .ru are priced around 25% to 30% of tion, but our major market is still Rus-
22 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
 Publishing in Russia 2011
sia.” The 40-strong LitRes
team provides conversion
services to the publishing
community—offering 17
e-book formats, including
M o b i , L R F, e P u b , a n d
PDF—and complete mar-
keting support.
Established in 2007 as a
literature resource (hence
the company name), LitRes
has witnessed the tremen- Sergei Anuryev, general
dous changes in the Russian director of LitRes
e-book market. “Back in
2008, there was virtually no e-book mar-
ket here. It was then just a new market
opportunity with a questionable future
and abstract sales volumes. Now it is a
viable segment with concrete sales vol-
umes and channels, but it is constantly
changing.” Not all Russian publishers
are releasing new titles in e-book format,
Anuryev cautions, “and we need to do
more to encourage these publishers to do
so. Only market leaders such as Eksmo,
AST, and Ripol release their front lists in
e-books.”
The average e-book price has also
increased since those early days. “But this
is only because we started very low, at
around 10% of the print book price. Now
it is up to 30%, and there is potential for
further increase—but not too fast, of
course.” Then there is the price difference
between a new e-book title and an old one
that is published, say, three years ago.
“The difference can be huge. For instance,
a new e-book from a bestselling Russian
author may sell for $8, but only $2 each
for his old titles. It must be said that this exceeded 50,000, and we are now the
pricing policy is in tandem with the pol-
icy adopted by Russian publishers.”
Transaction-wise, the main method is
pay-as-you-buy, “but there are other
models depending on our partners,” says
Anuryev. “We have subscription plans,
where customers pay a monthly fee and
download a specified number of titles, or
online reading, where customers can read
as many titles as they like within a cer-
tain period but are exposed to sponsored
advertisements. Then there is the loyalty
program, where customers with approved
club membership can download a spe-
cific number of books per overseas partners include Wiley & Sons,
month.” Pan Stanford, Nova Science, and World
For now, e-piracy is a big Scientific Publishing.
challenge at LitRes. The The challenge to the ELS (Electronic
company has initiated about Library System) model, says Zyatitsky, is
10 lawsuits against various in “convincing universities that our ser-
parties (mostly operations vice is crucial to improving the quality
based outside of Russia) and of Russian higher education. Fortunately,
is working to introduce President Medvedev’s endorsement of
changes to Russian law per- this project has helped to promote and
taining to publishing activi- smooth the process. Naturally, there is
ties. Going forward, Anu- some resistance to the adoption of ELS
ryev’s major plans, besides and other digital innovations. The
educating and getting more response to the call to protect copyright
publishers to offer e-books, are to pro- has also been slow in certain quarters. In
duce mobile apps and develop e-books fact, there were times when piracy at uni-
for the library market. versities and colleges was rampant and
went unchecked.”
But the biggest headache for Zyat-
DDC itsky is the emergence of various small
Four-year-old DDC (Digital Distribu- e-libraries, mostly offering illegal con-
tion Center) is a division within ProfMe- tent and outdated titles at very low
dia, one of Russia’s largest media and prices. “We are now working with vari-
entertainment companies. There, two ous government agencies and nongov-
projects take the spotlight—KnigaFund ernmental organizations to close loop-
(“Book Fund”) and BestKniga (“Best holes that may allow such e-library
Book”). providers to flourish. This is an impor-
Launched in 2008, KnigaFund has tant step forward. We need to let local
one major goal: to develop and support and foreign partners know that the pur-
the legal distribution of educational pose of KnigaFund is to provide legally
content via the Internet. A sizable obtained and up-to-date material for
investment from ProfMedia has allowed Russian universities. Our partners must
it to acquire 10,000 titles in the past be assured that they hold the rights to
three years. KnigaFund now counts their titles in the KnigaFund repository
more than 100 universities across Russia in entirety and that it is free from piracy.
and CIS (the Commonwealth of Inde- Most importantly, our students must
pendent States, i.e., Russia and the for- have reliable and fast access to the best
mer republics of the Soviet Union) as its quality reference material possible to
subscribers. “Current subscriptions have meet their learning needs.” Just
recently, all 500 computer terminals at
biggest and most demanded content the Russian State Library were given
aggregator of educational free access to KnigaFund’s
and scientific literature in e-catalogue “in a bid to pro-
the region,” says general mote ELS as well as counter
director Sergei Zyatitsky, e-piracy.”
whose team added 10 uni- Zyatitsky’s goal this year
versities to its client list in is to increase ELS subscrip-
the last quarter of 2010. To tions by 50% and to grow
date, its database boasts DDC’s other verticals. “I
more than 54,000 titles, would also like to see the
with 2,000– 5,000 new ones same increase in our online
added every month. Local bookstore, BestKniga, which
partners are some 80 pub- Sergei Zyatitsky, general now has around 6,000
lishing houses, while major director of DDC e-books in various genres.” ■
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M 23
 Publishing in Russia 2011

hand them down the generations. TV,

Catering to shifting reader preferences the Internet, and games have consider-
ably less impact than in the U.S. or U.K.
while adding online services and cultural Schools continue to emphasize literature,
and parents buy lots of classics, original
activities or translated. On average, every Russian
buys around five books per year. Still,
publishers bemoan the decline in read-
ing.
Bricks-and-Mortar As to where to buy books, residents
and visitors alike have plenty of choices—

Still Rules
from the “book supermarkets” to “mobile
book vans” that offer cheaply priced (but
an extremely limited range of) current
bestsellers. Just 10 minutes’ walk from
Red Square, for instance, one finds Bib-
By Teri Tan lio-Globus, one of the biggest players in
the Russian retail sector. Founded in
1957, it is one of Europe’s biggest book-
Nearly 40% of Russia’s book sales in 2009 came from inde- stores. The huge three-level building
pendent bookstores. Bookshop chains contributed around offers books, CDs, DVDs, stationery
items, and even an antique section for
20%, and only 8% were transacted online. The dependence first or limited editions, stamps, coins,
on bricks-and-mortar outlets remains unassailable even though postcards. It hosts a variety of book clubs,
including Klio (for history lovers),
bookstores outside of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and some other Young Philosophers, and Foreign Lan-
major cities (such as Ekaterinburg and Novosibirsk) are poorly guage Lovers.
For a more in-depth look at the retail
stocked. sector, PW heads over to Moscow’s Dom

T
Knigi (“House of
hat is due in part to high outlets near and far. For Books”). “The last three
restocking costs when great smaller publishers, tag- years saw a significant
distances and large transporta- ging along with their big increase in demand for
tion bills are involved. And counterparts’ logistics children’s books, while
that translates into different services and bookstores in-store purchases of pro-
prices for the same book: makes perfect sense in fessional titles and litera-
cheaper in Moscow but dearer in the cost-conscious times. ture showed a definite
outer regions (where wages and dispos- As a rule, bookstores do drop,” says commercial
able income are much lower). Books are not import directly from director Natalia Yuma-
still priced quite low by global stan- overseas publishers, rely- sheva. “For the latter cat-
dards. But just like anywhere (and every- ing instead on distribu- egory, there is a swing
thing) else, book prices have risen in tors to get the books they toward online orders—a
recent times, from an average of 110 want so as to avoid deal- service that we also pro-
rubles ($3.80) in 2005 to 190 rubles ing with shipping, cus- vide in addition to our
($6.60) in 2010. toms clearance, and taxa- Natalia Yumasheva, commercial bricks-and-mortar opera-
director of Dom Knigi Moscow
Currently, the total number of retail tion. Presently, a value- tion. But when it comes
outlets is barely 30% of those existing added tax of 18% is to titles for their chil-
during Soviet times. The collapse of the imposed on imports of trade books, CDs, dren, parents still insist on seeing the
centralized distribution system had and DVDs, and 10% on “educational” book firsthand prior to purchase.” Yuma-
much to do with the dwindling number titles (the loose definition often works to s h e v a w o r k s f r o m t h e c h a i n ’s
of stores. Nowadays, big publishing the advantage of importers). 27,000-square-meter flagship store
houses that also have their fingers in the In general, Russians are serious (and (with 250,000 titles and 40,000 statio-
retail pie often have a sophisticated logis- rather conservative) readers. Parents tra- nery items) at Noyvi Arbat, the city’s
tics division to transport titles to retail ditionally build their own libraries and main shopping strip.
26 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
 Publishing in Russia 2011
Irina Magracheva (left) and Liubov Paskhina of Dom the store boasts 20,000 visitors a
Knigi St Petersburg
Still state-owned, the chain has 42
stores in Moscow and is becoming much
more consumer-driven in recent years.
“Muscovites are very keen to learn Eng-
lish, and for the past 10 years Raymond
Murphy’s grammar books from Cam-
bridge University Press, for instance, are
very popular,” Yumasheva says. “English
language books—specifically travel
books and fiction—are taking up more
space on our shelves. So too are books on
architecture, design, and art.” During
PW’s visit in December, the store’s best-
sellers were Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love,
Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, Meyer’s
Twilight series, Lewis’s Chronicles of Nar-
nia, and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s
Diary—driven largely by the arrival of
their screen adaptations. “We may be
quite a distance away, but we are not
immune to U.S. influence in terms of
blockbusters.”
Yumasheva also notes that there are
few local authors writing for 10- to
15-year-olds, which requires publishers
to import or translate titles for these
readers. “Meanwhile, the lack of informa-
tion on published and upcoming titles—
or launch schedules—is a major issue.
Such a database would help us better
plan our promotional campaigns and
allocate adequate space to highlight the
new titles. That in turn would help push
sales and make everybody—us, pub-
lisher, and author—happy.” Still, sales at
this store come to around 25 million cop-
ies per annum.
Eight hundred kilometers away, at
Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg, Dom
28 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
Knigi (no connection to the Mos-
cow chain of the same name) was
established in 1919, making it the
first bookshop during Soviet
times. It is still owned by the St.
Petersburg municipal govern-
ment. Visitors have access to
125,000 titles, 20% of which are
fiction and literature. Housed in
the century-old Singer Building
(complete with a covered court-
yard and allegorical sculptures),
day and holds various author sign-
ings and presentations. “Our store
is not just a place for people to buy books.
It is a cultural meeting point where con-
tent creators and buyers interact and
exchange ideas,” says general director
Liubov Paskhina.
Here, too, the demand for English lan-
guage titles has risen significantly. In
fact, Paskhina and commercial director
Irina Magracheva imported 1,000 copies
of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
directly from the U.K. publisher when
the English edition was launched. “There
are plenty of English schools in St.
Petersburg, and children want to read in
English, especially global bestsellers like
Potter,” adds Paskhina, who dreams of
having a bookstore like the seven-story
Shanghai Book City, where there is space
to display each book face out. “The major
challenge to any bookstore is the Inter-
net. The younger generation prefers to
download books and
read on iPads or other
e-book devices. How
the publishing indus-
try deals with the
Internet and e-books
will determine the
direction we take in
the near future.”
A few blocks away,
general director
Denis Kotov of
Bookvoed (“Alpha-
bet Eater”) is chang-
ing the traditional
bookstore concept Denis Kotov, general director of Bookvoed, declining reading
into “a park of culture with one store bestseller, Russia After the habit and emerging
and reading.” (And Global Economic Crisis
who could have imagined this coming
from someone who started his booksell-
ing career with a book van about a dozen
years ago?) “I want Bookvoed to be the
‘third place’—that space between the
house and the office—for book and cul-
ture lovers.” The three-level store, com-
plete with ramps for wheelchair access,
boasts specially commissioned piped-in
music (“representing diverse world cul-
tures”), an art school (“for adults to learn
how to paint”), multiple computer
kiosks (“to help pinpoint book loca-
tions”), and a coffee bar.
“We have large shops, or supermar-
kets, smaller ones, and a book club.
There is also the online store, where visi-
tors have exceeded 20,000 per week,”
says Kotov, whose team organizes about
150 cultural events every month.
“Growth is expected to hit 20% this year.
Our focus is on further strengthening our
brand. Based on our surveys, 65% of
respondents have spontaneous knowl-
edge of Bookvoed, of which 90% have
visited at least one Bookvoed outlet.”
Since its first store opened in 2000,
Bookvoed has expanded at a frenetic
pace: it now has 50 outlets, 42 in St.
Petersburg alone. Part of the Novy Kni-
zhny Bukvoed bookstore chain—cur-
rently the largest in Russia and the CIS
with 200 stores—it is managed by
Eksmo, which owns 60% of the business.
Besides those mentioned above, there
are Top Kniga, based in Novosibirsk;
Bukva, owned by
AST; and Molodaya
Gvardiya, Moskva,
and Respublica
among the more
popular and better-
stocked stores. The
challenge for these
companies—and
those operating in
any corner of the
globe—is to survive
the economic down-
turn and find a way
to deal with the
e-book market.  ■
 Publishing in Russia 2011

Harrison—whose contracts for all his

Tips on what kinds of titles will work and works are renewed for Eksmo every three
years—and Wiley author Joe Vitale.”
contract dos and don’ts Based on these titles, one can say that AK
Agency has three main segments: fiction
(covering sci-fi, fantasy, and horror),

On Rights and Book-

business titles (mostly from Wiley), and
highly illustrated crafts, cooking, and
DIY titles. These segments contribute

Scouting around 25%, 30%, and 25%, respec-

tively, to the agency’s overall business.
American detective novels do not fetch
very high figures, he notes, because those
by Russian authors have become much
By Teri Tan more popular in recent years. As for what
kinds of titles are currently hot with
Russian publishers, Korzhenevski says,
Translations account for about 12% of all titles published in “We are talking about polar opposites
Russia in 2010. Here, as in other corners of the world, Amer- here. Books on vampires are hot. So are
self-help books on happiness, well-being,
ican and British blockbusters are translated and almost guar- and personal success—especially some-
anteed top slots on the bestseller list. Names like J.K. Rowl- thing like ‘How to make millions while
doing nothing for five minutes a day.’ ”
ing, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Agatha Christie, Nora Rob- For Andrew Nurnberg of the epony-
erts, Stephenie Meyer, and John Grisham are no strangers in mous rights agency based in the U.K.,
“2010 was our best year to-date, both in
Russia. the number of deals and monies earned

A
for our clients. After a dip a few years ago,
t Alexander Korzhenevski has seen “the average advances and royal- reflecting the preference for local authors,
Agency, the first three ties going up even as print runs are com- who are obviously much easier to pro-
months of 2011 saw several ing down. The global economic crisis mote, our sales of foreign fiction and non-
big deals, including Rango: does not help, of course, and we are doing fiction have increased dramatically.” His
The Movie Storybook, Real-Time fewer deals compared to 2007 or 2008. Moscow branch, established in 1993 and
Marketing and PR, Architect, Some midsize publishers now buy just a headed by Ludmilla Sushkova, recently
and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. few titles per year, while some do not buy handled John Irving’s Until I Find You
The latter is very special to agency owner anything new at all. However, I’m confi- (sold to Eksmo), Fannie Flagg’s I Still
and founder Alexander Korzhenevski dent that things will change for the bet- Dream About You (Phantom), Chuck
because it was the first time he had an ter soon.” Among the big titles signed by Palahniuk’s complete works (AST), and
auction for a short story anthology. “If the his agency were Robert Goolrick’s A Sam Kashner’s Furious Love (Slovo). Sush-
first three months is any Reliable Wife; Robert kova has also sold a wide range of writing,
indication, we are defi- McCammon’s The Five; a from commercial fiction such as Jean
nitely looking at more Wiley textbook, Business Kwok’s Girl in Translation and Simon
deals for print and digital Model Generation, and Lelic’s Rupture to literary fiction by Coe,
rights as well as higher another Wiley title, Doctorow, Ishiguro, McEwan, and
advances this year,” he House and Philosophy; and Murakami. “YA titles have also seen a big
says. Currently, 70% of Eric Mayost’s Spectacular growth in demand,” says Nurnberg, not-
his business comes from Hair. “House and Philoso- ing that some Russian publishers are
American publishers and phy generated huge royal- catching up on various 20th-century clas-
literary agencies, and his ties, while the other four sics that were not published during Soviet
focus is on selling British went through pretty times. “Nonfiction has gained a greater
and American titles to intense auctions result- following, and art books—some quite
Russia. ing in very good expensive—are enjoying good sales.”
Over the past three to Alexander Korzhenevski, owner advances. We also han- His London office, meanwhile, repre-
five years, Korzhenevski and founder of AK Agency dled sci-fi author Harry sents classic and contemporary Russian
30 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
 Publishing in Russia 2011
authors such as Mikhail Bulgakov,
Vassily Grossman, Sergei Lukyanenko
(Nightwatch fantasy series), and the first
president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. “It has
been most rewarding to see Grossman’s
Life and Fate becoming a bestseller in
various countries, and to know that BBC
will dedicate two weeks of radio this
coming autumn to the author’s oeuvre.”
As to what works in Russia, Nurnberg
says, “We have sold an increasing num-
ber of nonfiction titles on philosophy,
business, religion, and popular science,
as well as anything and everything on
self-improvement, over the past five
years. In this respect, Russian publishers
are now very much in line with what
Western publishers are producing so suc-
cessfully. We should bear in mind, of
course, that Russia has its own authors in
many of these fields.” But fiction, which
has been the most reliable of genres for
many years, has seen a drop recently. “A
major bookseller has just decided to sys-
tematically reduce its purchase of fiction,
as well as the floor space devoted to it, by
15% starting next month due to lower
demand from the reading public.”
Russian publishers have had a big
learning curve, notes Nurnberg, “because
the Western way of remunerating authors
was unheard of until the early 1990s.
They now know that they need to pro-
duce payments and regular royalty state-
ments to authors, but many of the reports
we receive are still sorely lacking.” On
the other hand, the challenge in getting
Russian authors “heard” outside of the
borders, he says, “has a lot to do with
providing quality reading material or
outlines in good English. You can count
on one hand the number of Russian-
speaking editors in the English-language
publishing community, and those that
do not read Russian rely on readers’
reports—but that is never the same to
editors as reading the book themselves.
So more exposure of Russian authors and,
of course, one truly great success story
outside of Russia will help bring their
literature to the U.K. and other major
territories.”
For book scout Simone Garzella,
keeping Centrepolygraph abreast of new
books from the U.S.,
U.K., and Italy is a major
part of his job. “In today’s
fast-paced book industry,
it is crucial for foreign
publishers to get informa-
tion as early as possible on
titles that are attracting
more attention within the
publishing circle. This
way, the publisher can
buy the rights before their
domestic counterparts
snatch them. I also keep
C e n t r e p o l y g r a p h Simone Garzella, owner of the
informed of the latest eponymous book-scouting agency,
bestsellers and titles that with the cover of Dewey
are getting more press
coverage.” Garzella also scouts for other
publishers such as Arab Scientific Pub-
lishers (Lebanon), Constable & Robinson
(U.K.), Euromedia (Czech Republic),
Giunti (Italy), Murdoch Books (Austra-
lia), and Pensamento (Brazil), as well as a
Hollywood production company looking
for potential titles for screen adaptation.
One of the first projects Garzella
brought to Centrepolygraph was Vicki
Myron’s Dewey: The Small Town Library
Cat. “This book did very well in the U.S.
and many other countries because people
had already heard about the story of a cat
that lived in a public library. But to turn
it into a bestseller in Russia—as Cen-
trepolygraph did—where people had no
idea about the story was definitely a big
challenge and an accomplishment,” says
Garzella, who started working with the
Russian publishing house in September
2009. “I was more focused on nonfiction
titles in the beginning. But now I’m see-
ing a growing interest from Russian
readers in literary fiction. In general,
according to feedback from Russian edi-
tors, U.K. books work better in Russia
than U.S. titles. There is also a growing
interest in YA titles, especially dystopias,
postapocalyptic stories, and fantasy nov-
els with crossover potentials. U.S. influ-
ence, both in the book and movie indus-
tries, clearly plays a major part in this.”
Working closely with editors is a must
for a scout, says Garzella, “because I must
know if a particular book or author
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M
would fit into a publish-
er’s portfolio, how trans-
latable it is, and if for-
eign readers would
understand or enjoy it.
Being a scout is a little
like being a translator—
and I used to translate
English novels into Ital-
ian—in that you need to
know if a book can cross
cultural barriers and
would work for a specific
country. So it is crucial to
get as much information
as possible on what a
market likes and does not
like, which topics are hot
and which taboo.” Not surprisingly, Gar-
zella hopes that “someone would write a
book on understanding a country by
looking at books that their publishers are
translating or not translating.”
Contracts
What does a publisher (or rights agency)
need to look out for before signing on the
dotted line? First and foremost, it is cru-
cial to confirm and state clearly the ter-
ritory covered in the contract. Is it for the
Russian Federation only, or does it
include the CIS? It is advisable to restrict
the contract to Russian language only,
and not to include CIS countries. But one
for world Russian language rights is
definitely feasible since there is a sizable
market for Russian émigrés. Now that
more Russian publishers are setting up
editorial offices in Minsk, Belarus; Kiev,
Ukraine; or Astana, Kazakhstan, a differ-
ent contract should be made for each
local language, such as Belarusian,
Ukrainian, Kazakh, and so on.
Royalties, it should be noted, are based
on what is called “publisher’s price.”
Explains Nurnberg, “This is close to
what is known as wholesale price in other
markets. Anyone contemplating a con-
tract in Russia should ask what the pub-
lisher’s price is expected to be, and also
what the publisher expects the average
retail price to be. Since there is no fixed
retail price, there would not be any firm
31
 Publishing in Russia 2011
answer, but you will at least get a ball- rural regions may see costly transporta-
park figure.” Retail prices are often set tion fees reflected in the final selling
based on location and purchasing power. price.
As a rule, the wealthier residents of Mos- At present, rights contracts are usually
cow and St. Petersburg may see pricier in either U.S. dollars or euros. Check to
tags on their books, while those living in see if the 18% VAT levied by the Russian
In the past four months, several translated Russian titles have
Watch out for contemporary Russian authors
been reviewed in PW. On the fiction side, there were Alexey
Pehov’s Shadow Chaser: Book Two of the Chronicles of Siala,
Ludmila Ulitskaya’s Daniel Stein, Interpreter, and Vladimir
Sorokin’s Day of the Oprichnik. For nonfiction, Lev Loseff’s
Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life and Sofia Tolstoy’s The Dia-
ries of Sofia Tolstoy both earned starred reviews. One title
from Leo Tolstoy, The Gospel in Brief: The Life of Jesus, was
also reviewed in the religion segment.
As always, award-winning titles (or authors) get the most
attention. For new voices, the best hope is for the translation
to win an award or for a foreign edition to catch the attention
of a literary agency in the U.K. or U.S.
So who are the big Russian names that we should know and
read? With the help of several publishers, PW picks eight
Russian authors—in alphabetical order—to represent this new
crop of talents.
Boris Akunin
Winner of the Anti-Booker Prize and Writer of the Year award
in 2000, Akunin is the king of detective fiction, specializing
in the time of imperial Russia. His best-known series are the
Adventures of Erast Fandorin, the Adventures of Sister Pelagia
and the Adventures of the Master. In total, his books are now
available in 35 languages with 25 million copies sold. The
English remake of the movie based on his book The Winter
Queen is scheduled for release next year.
Polina Dashkova
Known as the queen of Russian crime fiction in Germany, her
titles are also very popular in France, the Netherlands, and
Spain. More than 40 million copies of her novels have been
sold in Russia, and 300,000 in Germany. Targeted at female
readers, her novels contain plots set in contemporary Russia
that revolve around the average Russian woman.
Sergei Lukyanenko
The biggest name in Russia’s contemporary sci-fi/fantasy
genre, Lukyanenko got the attention of the English-speaking
world only after the movie release of Night Watch in 2004. In
Russia, the movie grossed over $16 million and was consid-
ered a blockbuster at the time. Two years later, another movie,
Day Watch, was released. The Watch tetralogy was duly
translated into English and has sold more than two million
copies.
32 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 1
government on noneducational books
appears in the contract. It may become a
cost transfer (if you will) and deducted
from the rights fees later. As always, read
the fine print, and the transaction should
go smoother for all parties involved.  ■
Denis Osokin
His novella Yellowhammers has been turned into an award-
winning film—known as Silent Souls outside of Russia—and
won him the White Elephant award for best script. But way
before that, in 2001, Osokin won the Debut Prize for a short
story, “Angels & Revolution: Vyatka 1923.” Osokin is known
for his documentaries on the culture and traditions of the peo-
ple in the Volga region.
Viktor Pelevin
Known for satire-rich fantasy novels, Pelevin won the Readers’
Choice Award and the third prize at the Big Book Award for
his novel T last year. His short story collection The Blue Lan-
tern won the 1993 Russian Little Booker Prize. His eccentric-
ity (including shying away from the media) is clearly reflected
in the inscription to his novel Babylon: “Any thought that
occurs in the process of reading this book is subject to copy-
right. Unauthorized thinking of it is prohibited.”
Olga Slavnikova
Her novel 2017 won the Russian Booker Prize in 2006 and
was translated into English last year. She is also the director
for the Debut Prize, an independent literary prize for young
authors under 25 writing in Russian. Immortal, her third
novel, won the Apollon Grigoriev Prize in 2001 and was
shortlisted for both the Belkin Prize and National Bestseller
Prize. It is currently available only in French and German
translations.
Ludmila Ulitskaya
Daniel Stein, Interpreter is Ulitskaya’s fourth book to be
translated into English. Altogether, she has written 14 novels,
several children’s stories, and many plays. Her collection of
awards includes the Russian Booker (2001) for Kukotsky’s
Case and the Big Book Prize (2007) for Daniel Stein, with
nominations for the International Booker Prize in 2009.
Tatiana Ustinova
Billed as the third most read writer in Russia with more than
30 million copies in print, Ustinova has been translated into
several European languages. Her novels, about 30 of them,
combine detective work, brutal crimes, comedy, and love sto-
ries—sort of Tess Gerritsen meets Nora Roberts meets Janet
Evanovich. About 15 of her novels have been adapted into fea-
ture films.