Country Profile for Russia

The Russian book market has been transformed from supply-driven to market-driven since the ending of the Soviet Union in 1991, according to The Publishers Association’s Russia Publishing Market Profile 2006. There are now approximately 20,000 publishers registered in Russia (compared to 280 state-owned publishers in 1991), but of these only some 5,000 are active. In 2004, these publishers produced around 90,000 new and revised titles, putting Russia behind only China, the UK, US and Germany in world rankings.                    

The total book market was said to be worth around R50–60bn (£1.0–£1.2bn) in 2005 at publishers’ net revenue level. Books are still priced very low by global standards, although the average price has risen a great deal during the years 2003–2006, and is likely to continue to rise. Due to the domination of the Russian language in education, and in general use, book exports to Russia from the UK are not high (£6.1m in 2005). Therefore rights deals are the main channel for doing business in Russia. Translated titles make up about one-tenth of the output, and are very important to the catalogues of the leading publishers.

The Russia Publishing Market Profile 2006 can be purchased by UK organisations at the full price of £50 or trade price £42.50 (PDF only). All prices + VAT.

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