Romanians read books worth $25m annually

Book sales in Romania stand at some 25 million dollars annually, much below the market potential and less than in neighbouring countries.

Book sales in Hungary, a country with 10.3 million inhabitants, are worth some 70 million dollars, while the sales of a single Western publishing house may reach 100 million dollars annually.

While in Romania 12.000 titles are published every year, in Germany some 80,000 titles are published. A 30,000-copy circulation may be considered high in Romania, where the average circulation stands at 3,000 copies, but this circulation is almost confidential in the West.

According to some sources, the first explanation for the fact that only 10% of the market are currently exploited consists in economic issues.

Because of the low income, people come to the book fairs especially for the price discounts. The prices are 20% lower these days, when Gaudeamus book fair is taking place in Bucharest.

“Book sales are banned at any book fair in the West,” the deputy chairman of All Group, Nicolae Fundi, said.

“A book fair is where publishing and printing houses and distributors should meet and not a place where the readers come and buy books at discount prices. Moreover, I do not believe that the goal of the fair should be to make the public aware of the latest titles, as there are other means to do that,” he said.

The publishers complain every year about the book market being in a crisis. However, the book fairs are crowded with visitors and publishing houses display their books, a sign that this business is still going strong.

With more than 120 titles launched this year and estimated sales of some 70 billion ROL, RAO Publishing House is “posting the best sales on the market,” but manager Ovidiu Enculescu is not happy.

“The state takes too much money instead of helping us. Together with other publishing houses, we are currently working on a draft law in line with EU legislation in this field, according to which the VAT for books is zero or very low.”

Established ten years ago, All Publishing House estimates 120 billion ROL in turnover this year. All deputy chairman Nicolae Fundi says that the ten years of work in this field taught him that a book does not sell if it is cheap, but if it is necessary and good.

“Publishers agree that prices should be higher, but they are afraid to raise them,” he says.