A Spotlight on Russia

Posted on April 6, 2011 in Uncategorized

Every year the SYP organises a pre-LBF speaker event with the intention of introducing SYP members to the London Book Fair. Last year’s event was a mixture of basic LBF hints and tips as well as a focus on the market, which, for 2010, was South Africa. Inspired by its success, the entire focus at this year’s event was Russia, the LBF 2011 market focus.

The event was very appropriately held at the Russian cultural hub – Pushkin House – in Bloomsbury. As well as being one of the official focus market partners, they are the centre for Anglo-Russian cultural exchange in London. Run by the Pushkin House charity, they aim to home and showcase Russian culture and language education. 

After enjoying some wine and nibbles with an eclectic selection of Russian music in the background, the audience was introduced to the panel. This consisted of a great variety of speakers who all have a close relationship to either Russian culture or publishing in diverse and interesting ways.

Andrew Nurnberg – Founder of Andrew Nurnberg Associates

Our first speaker was Andrew Nurnberg of Andrew Nurnberg Associates, who gave us extensive information on the past and present of the Russian publishing market.

Having a wealth of experience in the Russian market, he pointed out that there have been a huge amount of changes in the last 20 years. Soviet Russia was a central economy, where companies were state owned and not allowed to profit. The only successful Western books there were examples of good literary fiction, or non-fiction as long as it was about the plight of the poor man.

Andrew explained that the 1973 Geneva Convention caused a massive transformation in the Russian publishing industry. The market suddenly had a huge growth spurt and everyone wanted a piece of the cake. However, not everyone stayed with publishing, as it proved too difficult a way to make money. One of the reasons could be that the bookselling distribution of books was much better during Soviet times. Ironically there has been a drastic decrease in bookshops, from 8,500 to about 2,500.

Another big change since the Soviet Union is the Russian reader’s tastes. After the end of Soviet censorship Russians were particularly thirsty for the kind of books that were banned during Soviet times. English and American writers were hugely popular. Lately the focus has shifted back to Russian writers, who are becoming increasingly famous domestically and abroad. Non-fiction and science genres are growing in popularity and more English writers are invited in for press interviews and signings.

Andrew pointed out that one of the biggest problems for the industry with foreign publishing interests in Russia is the very low price of books, which is a hang up from Soviet times.  It is proving difficult to change as it is reliant on the Russian people’s conception of the monetary value of a book – about 50% of books are at a measly £1-4.

Lynette Owen – Copyright Director of Pearson Education Ltd

Our second speaker was Lynette Owen. Lynette has a background in educational, academic and professional titles and also has experience of the Russian market from before the Soviet Union. She gave us more information on the effects of the changes experienced by academic publishers in Russia. Large state publishers used to be one subject focused, e.g. on Physics or Chemistry. When the rapid expansion of the market happened, they suffered, as it was quicker and easier to do fiction. Even though it is hard to sell foreign academic books to Russia, things are changing and Russians are increasingly interested in economics and history books.

Self-help books are also becoming more and more popular. Another problem with selling foreign rights in Russia is the increased piracy, and interestingly enough it all seems to be for private individual use rather than for commercial reasons. But this of course still means that domestic publishers lose out.

Lynette believes that the growth of the Russian publishing market is also helped by the fact that more and more foreign authors want to have their work translated into Russian. She concluded by saying that this is still a volatile but interesting market, which has a lot of potential reflected in the terrific line-up of events at the LBF this year.

Amy Webster – International Key Accounts Manager at the London Book Fair

Amy Webster was our LBF representative for the evening. She started by telling us about the history and the purpose of the market focus. The market focus has been done for eight years and it is usually a growing economy which is selected. The idea behind it is to create cultural and commercial opportunities, hopefully leading to successful business and partnerships.

The reasons behind the choice are many. For example, one reason is that the export of Russian writers is increasing every year. LBF market focus aims to encourage debates and discussions in order to find solutions to any issues there might be. There are many opportunities for foreign publishers in Russia. Russian readers are widely read and educated. Russian authors such as Tolstoy, for example, indisputably revolutionised European literature. Of all the languages, Russian translations are the most popular and Leo Tolstoy is far and away the best-selling Russian author in English.

The LBF believes that increased understanding and engagement with Russia is reliant on increased publishing of Russian work and that the exposure of Russian writers and publishers during the fair will help build relationships and create lasting engagements.

Rosamund Bartlett – writer, translator and lecturer specialising in cultural history, literature and music

Our last two speakers were representing more of the cultural side of the evening. Rosamund told us about the Chekhov Foundation, a very interesting project and charity which started with a regular tourist visit to the Chekhov’s house museum in Yalta. Its decrepit state inspired her to start a project to save it as neither the Russian or Ukrainian people had decided to support the museum. She met with a likeminded spirit in Russia who helped her and eventually in November 2008 the Chekhov Foundation was opened in a ceremony in Pushkin House.

From one cultural project to another, the foundation also inspired Rosamund and the people she works with to also instigate other cultural projects between Russia and England. The idea is to organise translator workshops, donate English books to Russian libraries and much more. The purpose is to promote Russian culture in England and English culture in Russia. Rosamund also added excitedly that with more and more information and resources available since the opening up of Russia to the West, culture interchanges have been made easier and are growing.

Zinovy Zinik – Russian-born novelist and broadcaster

Zinovy Zinik gave us a much needed and interesting native Russian angle on Russian literature and the LBF market focus. He pointed out that after the break of the Soviet Union, Russian authors are disputed territories just like the countries.
According to Zinovy, the last 30 years has seen a flourishing of Russian literature abroad. However, this is not recognised in Russian or international media. The choice of authors and publishers at the fair is therefore in some ways restricted by this. As it stands, the market focus is a collaboration between the LBF, the British Council and the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. He raised some interesting questions – why should the Russian authors appearing at the LBF be chosen by the authorities like Russian government? Why should commercial organisers work with governmental ministries in the first place?

His latest book, History Thieves (Seagull Books), has just been published in the UK and deals with issues such as the conflicting understanding and concept of one’s past when it clashes with reality. Zinovy’s suggests that people have a falsified past imposed on them by others as well as our imagination. The book was inspired by the fact that he first became aware of his ‘Jewishness’ when he immigrated to Israel in the 1970s. In his autobiographical essay, Zinovy explores ‘assumed identity’ in twentieth-century Jewish experience.

With this personal and eye-opening last speech, our pre-LBF event concluded. All that was left to do was to start planning which of the great variety of Russian literary events at the LBF we would like to attend. More information can be found here.