Feature Market Focus


channels are opening up. While e-books comprise only 1%–2% of the market, the number of Lithuanians who bought books on the internet between 2008 and 2016 grew from 1.2% to 4.4%. Arturas Karosa, head of Balto, which provides a “three-in-one” service as a printer, online bookseller and publisher, says its direct sales grew 40% last year, and this year it is expecting 60% growth. “I believe we will see more online shopping,” he says. “We are still far behind more developed countries, like the UK, the US and even the Scandinavian coun- tries, but we’re following them—it’s going up.” Arvydas Andrijauskas, head of by far Lithuania’s (and the Baltic states’) biggest publisher, the Alma Litera Group, said it began selling books online 15 years ago because of “a lack of good bookstores”. His company is also seeing rapid growth of online bookselling and he says sales of books through supermarkets is growing too, estimating that the channel now makes up as much as 20% of the market. A good portion of what is dominating the Lithuanian bestseller charts may be familiar to the international observer, with trends such as psychological thrill- ers and franchises like Harry Poter, Twilight and 50 Shades having a huge impact. “In our country usually


Lithuania: The numbers Population


2.9 million 4.3 million


Circulation (retail plus sales to libraries, schools and other institutions)


€45m Estimated total market revenue in 2017


‘Active’ publishers


63


3,167 New titles


published annually 17


we mimic what’s happening in the world market,” says Saulius Repečka, head of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union. “[Trends come] a litle later to us, but they all usually make it here.” Though translated literature is in demand, especially from English and Scandinavian nations, Lithuania is also marching to its own beat. Local authors are becom- ing increasingly popular, not only in fiction but in pop culture and lifestle too. Original titles by Lithuanian authors now make up two-thirds of all books published, though they only generate around half of all book sales in the country. Karosa says: “People like local authors. There are a lot of celebrities who want to write a book. Of course there is debate, ‘Should everyone write a book?’ But having these [celebrit] authors helps the market. I think it’s great.” Andrijauskas has a theory as to why it has taken some time for local authors to shine: “Before Lithu- ania became independent, our writers had been saying they were very talented but that everything was forbid- den and that they couldn’t publish. When everything became free, we all expected writers to have something in their locker—but most of that generation had noth- ing that would be interesting and popular. I think it took


www.thebookseller.com


Specialist bookshops


144


–13.8% Decline in the


number of bookshops since 2008


Languages into which Lithuania’s most-


translated children’s author, Kęstutis Kasparavičius, has been sold into


€50m Author of the Day Kristina 68


% of new titles by local writers


–41.1%


Decline in circulation since 2008


15 Sabaliauskaite . 52


% circulation for local writers


23%


Market share of Alma Littera Group, its biggest publisher


Languages into which Lithuania’s most-


translated adult author, novelist Tomas Venclova, has been sold into


5m


some time, 10 or 15 years aſter independence perhaps, until a new generation appeared who knew how to write and what to write about.” History and historical novels is particularly strong in Lithuania. “It was forbidden in Soviet times, and collect- ing material for research takes time, so it is now that we are regaining our historical fiction,” Repečka explains. “Because we have no such literature here, there are blank spots with a lot of potential.”


The Vilnius Book Fair above and above, left the Hall of Pranciškus Smuglevičius, the oldest part of Vilnius Univer- sity’s grand library


This has been shown by bestsellers including the reis- sue of Adolfas Šapoka’s complete history of Lithuania and Ruta Vanagaite’s Our People, a soul-searching look at Lithuanian complicit in Jewish genocide during the Holocaust. Then there is the enormous success of Kris- tina Sabaliauskaitė’s Silva Rerum saga: one of London Book Fair’s Authors of the Day at yesterday’s instal- ment, the writer’s series has sold hundreds of thousands of copies and has been a hit outside oLithuania, espe- cially in neighbouring Latvia and Poland. “I’m very happy we published Our People,” said Andrijauskas. “Last summer people started to organise meetings to remember the [Holocaust] victims... I think we have to talk about it, and write about that [part of our past] more.”


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