According to the Interfax-Ukraine Culture project, the Ukrainian book market maintains stable demand during the war, but publishers face higher production costs, logistical problems, loss of warehouses and changing reader preferences. This is evidenced by the assessments of the participants of the XIV “Book Arsenal” in Kiev, published by Interfax-Ukraine agency on the website of the Interfax-Ukraine Culture project.
The XIV Book Arsenal has become one of the key platforms for assessing the state of the Ukrainian publishing industry. The festival presents dozens of Ukrainian publishing houses – from major players to niche projects working with military, historical, Ukrainian studies, classic and contemporary fiction.
Market representatives note that despite the difficult economic situation, shelling, rising costs of paper and logistics, interest in Ukrainian books remains. Readers are increasingly choosing publications about history, war, culture, national identity, as well as modern Ukrainian fiction.
Gennadiy Korber, deputy director of the Kharkiv publishing house Folio, said that the demand for books has decreased, but the market continues to work. According to him, a significant part of the publishing house’s books are still printed in Kharkiv, despite the constant shelling of the city, and some orders are placed in other regions of Ukraine.
Among the new editions of Folio presented at the Book Arsenal are Alexey Bobrovnikov’s novel “Red Zone” about the war and Yuriy Soroka’s book “Our Knight’s Cross”. The publishing house notes the growing interest in Ukrainian history, classics, military themes and fantasy. According to market representatives, the youth audience is actively reading fantasy, although for a number of publishers this segment was not the main one before.
One of the main economic challenges for the industry remains the growth of production costs. Publishers attribute the rise in book prices to rising prices for paper, logistics, imported raw materials and currency fluctuations. According to market participants, paper could rise in price by about 20-25 per cent over the year. Ukraine has almost no own production of commercial paper for the book industry, so publishers depend on imports, particularly from Lithuania, the Czech Republic and other countries.
An additional risk factor remains Russian shelling, which leads not only to production delays, but also to direct losses of print runs. Folio reported cases when books were destroyed due to strikes on factories where orders were placed.
For the Ukrainian Priority publishing house, the blow to the infrastructure was critical.
Its director Volodymyr Shovkoshytnyy said that as a result of the Shahed drone attack on the night of 17 June last year, the publishing house’s warehouse and office were destroyed. According to him, about 70 thousand books and office equipment were burnt, and only about 4-5 thousand damaged copies were retrieved from under the ashes and water.
Despite the losses, the publishing house aims to restore its repertoire by the first anniversary of the attack. The main direction of “Ukrainian Priority” is historical, fiction and popular science literature about Ukrainian history from the Scythian era to the modern war.
Publishers also record a steady interest in Ukrainian studies literature. Publisher Oleksandr Savchuk noted that after the outbreak of full-scale war Ukrainians became much more interested in books about their own culture, history and identity. At the same time, according to him, after a sharp increase in demand in the first years of the big war, the market is now experiencing a certain pullback, but the interest in Ukrainian topics remains long-term.
Digital services are becoming a separate area of development of the book market. Olga Olhova, the founder of Litcom book application, presented at the Book Arsenal an update of the service, which is positioned as a navigator of the book market and a tool for forming one’s own library. The app now offers the possibility to add books by scanning a barcode, make written and audio notes, and record to whom a reader has lent a book.
According to Olkhova, non-fiction is in high demand in Ukraine, especially short audio formats based on books. Litcom team is also conducting a survey of reading habits of Ukrainians among schoolchildren, students, active readers and general audience. The first results are planned to be published after the end of Book Arsenal.
Military literature remains a notable market segment. Director of the publishing house “Belka” Irina Belotserkovskaya noted that the publishing house has been working with military literature since 2018. Among the novelties-collection of militaristic horror “birds in the dark”, written by eight military authors. According to the publisher, this is actually a new genre that is being shaped by the experience of war.
Market participants also draw attention to the change in buyers’ requirements to the quality of the book as a physical product. If earlier part of the audience was primarily orientated on price, now readers more often pay attention to printing, decoration, illustrations, cover design