24.05 – Conference “Independent Book Publishing in Belarus: Challenges and Opportunities” (report)

On 24 May 2023, the Political Sphere Institute held the conference “Independent Book Publishing in Belarus: Challenges and Opportunities” in Warsaw.

The partners in preparing the conference were the Belarus Beehive Civil Society Support Project and the Belarusian Book Institute.

The event began with a presentation of the study “Publishing Belarusian Books: State of the Sector, Challenges and Prospects”.

Andrei Kazakevich (Political Sphere Institute) presented an overview of the main trends in the global book market and in selected countries (the United States, Poland, Lithuania), as well as a detailed analysis of statistics on the publication of Belarusian books in 2013–2022.

The presentation also addressed the prospects for print, digital and audiobooks; distribution trends (online, offline), pricing policies, the popularity of genres, age-related and other features of contemporary book consumption.

Aliaksei Lastouski (Political Sphere Institute) spoke about the results of the second part of the study, based on in-depth interviews with book publishers about the state of the sector and its prospects.

More details: Closure of publishing houses, books declared extremist, relocation — researchers interviewed independent Belarusian book publishers about their work (https://www.svaboda.org/a/32426329.html)
The study was carried out at the initiative and with the support of the Belarusian Council for Culture.

The next part of the conference was the round table “Independent Publishing of Belarusian Books: Challenges, Opportunities, Recommendations”.

Independent book publishers and experts took part in it: Timokh Akudovich, Valiantsina Andreyeva, Pavel Barkouski, Valer Bulhakau, Alina Koushyk and Ihar Lohvinau.

During the round table, the state of and challenges for independent publishing of Belarusian books were discussed, and the needs of the sector were formulated.

Following the round table, a policy paper is planned, with recommendations for European and national institutions, foundations and civil society structures.

The final part of the event was the discussion “Publishing Belarusian Journals.

Identifying Challenges, Developing Recommendations and a Common Strategy”.

During the discussion, the state of and challenges for independent publishing of Belarusian journals or journals about Belarus were discussed, and possible areas of cooperation, mechanisms for information exchange and network interaction were identified.

Participants: Valer Bulhakau, Natallia Hardziyenka, Alena Markava, Dorota Michaluk, Ales Pashkevich, Palina Prysmakova, Ales Smalianchuk.