Publishing: Book sales down 20%

According to the study conducted by RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) called “Book market and retail networks for book sales in Russia”, in 2009 the book market size reached $2,4 billion thus dropping 20%, and book production in Russia is down almost 6%. In the second half of 2010 the market is forecasted to grow rapidly, however it will be in late 2011-2012 that the market is expected to reach pre-crises sales.

The main share of books in Russia is sold by independent book shops, like Biblio-Globus, TD Moskva, Molodaya gvardiya. They are followed by their key competitors – book shop networks, whose sales went down amounting to 20% as compared to 2008 sales.

Ebook market in Russia is still undeveloped but is considered as one of the most promising. The development of this market is held back by high prices for Readers, absence of legal base, which would efficiently regulate this market.