The most frequent word we hear these days is crisis. By now, all businesses faced the consequences of this situation to a higher or lower extent. But in an industry like books publishing, which was already addressing a decreasingly narrow target, the impact of the world economic crisis may be much more serious than in other fields.

ROMANIAN BOOK MARKET VALUE AND ESTIMATIONS

The main players on the book publishing market are Humanitas, Polirom, Corint, ALL, Nemira, RAO, Paralela 45, Teora, Curtea Veche, Trei and Egmont. The value of the Romanian book market in 2008 was estimated at approximately €100 million. Predictions for 2009 vary, from the most optimistic ones stating that the market will stagnate, to some grim forecasts announcing a decline of up to 40%. The reason behind this market decline can be justified by the decrease in the purchase power of Romanians, but also because it has become common practice for the newspapers to give away free books along with their regular editions. Another serious problem for the Romanian book market is the debt publishing houses have to recover from their distributors, also affected by the economic crisis. Furthermore, some of these distributors have the tendency to practice a very high trade mark-up, thus discouraging the potential book customers even more.

DEALING WITH THE CRISIS ON THE BOOK MARKET

The most affected sector of book publishing is the educational segment, due to the decision of the Ministry of Education to severely reduce its budget. Still, the hope for the actors on the Romanian book market lies in the fall sales.  Book publishers are taking harsh measures to help diminish the consequences of the crisis. Staff lay-offs, salaries cuts, book circulation reduction are only a few of the actions taken on the market to minimize loss. They also started reediting book titles that had proven to be very successful in the past.

TAKING A LOOK AROUND

Other countries in the region do not face the same problem Romania does on the book market. In states like France, Germany or the UK, the situation looks quite encouraging.

Still, we have to admit that, all crises aside, the Romanian books market was already much smaller than in other countries. It is estimated that there are around 8,000 books published in Romania annually, which is approximately only 10% of what countries like Germany print.

PROMOTING BOOKS TO A BROAD AUDIENCE

We could say that reading is not exactly the average choice of spending free time in Romania: a Romanian buys one book a year on average. Maybe a reason for this phenomenon is the fact that books do not benefit from the advantages of an integrated advertising campaign. Reading should be properly encouraged and promoted through a group effort from both publishing houses and the state. Unfortunately, the budgets in this field are not big enough so as to allow a solid communication that reaches a broad audience. Publishers often have to settle for bellow the line advertising campaigns, while not benefiting from any support from the state. The most frequently used media channel for promoting books is written press: newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines, cultural publications.

ROMANIAN BOOK MARKET – WHERE TO?

The development of the Romanian book market highly depends on distribution. Not only should more libraries be opened here, but much more attention should be paid to the atmosphere created in these places. After all, all marketers know that it is not enough to have a good product in order to be successful. A whole experience has to be created for the readers when they enter a bookstore. They have to feel like they are part of a community and even be rewarded for their hobby. In order to do all this, the Romanian book industry needs more trained and gifted people. I truly believe they are out there.

Author: Adriana Niculescu

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