Svět Knihy Praha

Essential Facts about the Czech Book Market in the Year 2003

Book Production
In 2003, the growth in book production in the Czech Republic of more than 15% compared with the previous year has meant a new record height in the number of published book titles. The following summarisation is based on data supplied by the National Library of the Czech Republic (NK ČR), or, to be more precise, data from the national bibliography, based on publisher-submitted deposit copies. However, despite the fact that the information is not the result of a marketing survey focusing on the Czech book market - which is still something we very much lack - the NK ČR data offer a sufficiently relevant testimony to the Czech book trade's development and trends.

In 2003, the National Library of the Czech Republic registered a total of 16 451 titles of non-periodic publications being published, of which 13 809 were books and 2642 brochures, i.e. publications of up to 48 pages. The amount of first editions from the total number was 14 639 titles (12 146 books and 2493 brochures), i.e. almost 89% of the total production. The rest were re-editions. These data do not differ to any significant extent from those of the previous years – what the Czech book market demands the most are new titles, and only a limited number of titles gets brought out in re-editions.

A total of 2186 last year's titles did not feature the international standard book number (ISBN). In the total annual production this amounts to a little over 13 %, which is, once again, an increase of two percent compared with the year before; in 2001, the share of books published without an ISBN amounted to 9% of the total production. In such cases, the National ISBN Agency in the Czech Republic (NA ISBN) assigns the books substitute ISBN identification (80-238 and 80-239).

The growing absolute numbers of published book titles in 2003 further support the claim that Czech publishers compensate for the dropping average book print runs by publishing a large number of titles, in order to sustain their financial turnovers (see TABLE I).

TABLE I

On 31^st December 2003, the number of book publishers - entities authorised for the production of non-periodic publications - registered in the Czech Republic was 3448 (see TABLE II). In comparison with the same period of the previous year this represented an increase of 5.5 %. On 31^st March 2004, the number of registered publishers had already reached 3492.

A total of 1365 publishing houses has participated on last year's total book production in the Czech Republic, i.e. they have published at least one book title. This means that in comparison with the year 2002, more than 100 publishers had newly become active. In most cases, however, these would be newly registered publishing entities, which had only started their activities.

Compared with other countries, the publishing of books in the Czech Republic is still spread between a greater number of publishing entities, despite the fact that the decisive share of the Czech book production is to be attributed to only 300-400 non-periodic publications publishers - a small part of the total number of registered entities. In 2003, only 34 entities, including university publishers, produced over 100 titles. If we were to exclude university publishers, the number would further narrow down to 21. This copies the situation in the previous year. The top thirty-four publishers have produced a total of 6237 titles in 2003 (universities and state institutions 3208, other publishers 3029), which amounts to almost 40% of the total book production. The share of the total Czech book production belonging to major non-periodic-title publishers has therefore increased considerably compared with the year before, when it amounted to a little under one fourth.

TABLE II

TABLE III features major book producers on the territory of the Czech Republic in terms of the number of book titles published in the year 2003. This somewhat mechanic criterion can be of some, if limited, value to us, as it gives us at least some idea about the turnover of the companies in question. It tells us nothing, however, of the quality and the demands such production places on the books' editors. Unfortunately, these data also fail to provide us with such valuable indicators, as, for example, the total book production print run or profits made by the companies in question, which would in turn enable us to perform a more objective quantitative assessment of their real position and percentage share of the Czech book market.
Recognising the specific nature of university and state institution presses (usually characterised by a large number of highly specialised titles at relatively low print runs), these publishers are presented in a table of their own (TABLE IV). The number of titles published within the year, upon which the publishers' positions in both tables are based, only includes titles with a new ISBN number, i.e. reprints are excluded.

TABLE III

With few exceptions, TABLE III illustrates the consolidated situation among major book producers in the Czech Republic. In the past five years, the Prague-based BB art press has worked its way to the very top of the ladder, owing to its sustained and intensive increase in production. Only the biggest player on the Czech book market, Euromedia Group - Czech branch of the Bertelsmann Group multinational media concern - could claim a higher number of total titles with all its various imprints put together. Last year, Knižní klub, Ikar and Odeon labels published a total of 435 book titles. Alpress, Albatros, Grada Publishing, Verlag Dashöfer, Portál, and Triton have also registered a significant increase in production - Triton's soaring production has even catapulted it among the top publishers for the first time, similar to the Cesty publishing house, which has earned its place in TABLE III among major Czech book producers for the first time by almost tripling its number of titles within the last three years.

The one publishing house missing from the survey altogether this year is Harlequin, which has not registered a single published title with the National Library of the Czech Republic. For comparison, in 2002 the publisher boasted production exceeding 200 titles. Following its previously announced withdrawal from the Czech book market and transferral of its Central-European activities to Poland, the publisher had submitted a notice of the official termination of its activities to the NA ISBN on 28th February 2002. Other notable retreat from previous positions in terms of published book production was registered by the Czech National Library in the case of the Ivo Železný publishing house; its last year's production amounted to only 83 published titles, compared with 227 in the year 2002. MOBA, Karmelitánské nakladatelství, and Paseka publishing houses also registered a decline in the publishing of new titles in 2003, while managing to maintain their positions.

TABLE IV

What the list of major university and state administration book producers shows (see TABLE IV), is essentially a regrouping of positions among the same publishing entities. The more than twofold increase in the production of the Czech Statistical Office must be attributed to the final assessment and publication of the results of the 2001 census. Compared with the table from 2002, the publishers with the most notable production increase are Karolinum (by almost 100%), followed by the University of Ostrava and the Mining - Technical University from Ostrava. The specific nature of the production of the K.E. Macan Library and Printers for the Visually Impaired means the institution is missing from this year's leading producers category - most titles in Braille are broken down into several volumes and many years may pass before their completion. A title is only considered published on the moment it is complete.


Structure of Book Production
The structure of the Czech book production has remained virtually the same in the past several years. Books in the Czech language once again dominate in last year's Czech book production - amounting to almost 90% share (or 14 669 titles). Additional 727 titles published in 2003 were in Czech together with some other language; 201 titles were multilingual. English was once again clearly dominant in the foreign-language production of the Czech publishing entities: 544 titles were published in English (compared with 466 in 2002), 126 titles in German (148 in 2002), 25 in French, 56 in Slovak (compared with 108 from the year before), 35 in Russian and 16 in Polish. Other languages registered by the Czech National Library last year included 6 books in Esperanto, 5 in Japanese, and 3 in Arabic; other foreign-language titles included, for example, two titles in Hungarian and Vietnamese, and one in Sanskrit.

The share of the total book production in the Czech Republic taken up by belles lettres has once again declined compared with the year before last, by four percent to 21% (or 3498). The publishing of children's literature has, on the other hand, maintained its continuous upward trend, especially notable within the framework of the Czech book production in recent years. In absolute numbers there has been an increase of 160 titles to 746. As a result, children's books' share of the total book production has slightly increased to 4.5%. In 2002, it was approximately 4%. The share of school and university textbooks on the total book production has reached about 11.5% (or 1884 titles). Compared with the year before, both these indicators have registered an increase; by almost one fifth in absolute numbers. A comparison of the above-mentioned indicators for the past five years is featured in TABLE V.

TABLE V

Translations
Once again in 2003, translations amounted to about a third of the total Czech book production (almost 28%), still making Czechia count among the top countries in the world. Quantitatively, no significant changes have occurred either. A total of 4602 translated book titles was published, of which 395 were translations of multilingual publications (compared with 4342 and 331 the year before). Last year, Czech publishers have offered readers translations from a total of 40 languages, including some ancient or very rare languages for the Czech environment, such as Old Egyptian, Old Church Slavonic, Old Hebrew or Icelandic.

The trio of languages most often translated in the Czech Republic remains unchanged since the year 1990. English has again confirmed its dominance, as over a half of all the published translations originated from English (over 51%, representing a slight decline compared with the previous year). Translations from German have further reinforced their position from the year before. Traditionally, French remains third at some distance. Compared with the year 2002, however, the number of translations from this language into Czech has increased by about a fifth.

While the dynamic quantitative increase in the number of translations from Slovak and Russian, quite notable in recent years, was not repeated in 2003, these Slavonic languages have nonetheless confirmed their strong positions. The list of last year's most-often-translated Slavonic languages in the Czech Republic also includes Polish. As far as translations from other Slavonic languages are concerned, these are traditionally sparse, and their numbers remain virtually unchanged. Every year, they amount to about 20 titles, the year 2003 representing no exception in this respect. Four works were published last year translated from Croatian, Slovenian, and Serbian, 3 from Bulgarian, one title from Lusatian Serbian and Ukrainian.

Languages of other major cultural regions, translations from which have found their way to the Czech bookshops in larger quantities in 2003, include Italian (61 published titles) and Spanish (52 published titles). It can be said that in case of Italian we have witnessed a repeat of the situation from the year before, when 59 translations were published; as far as Spanish is concerned, there has been a significant increase by almost two thirds (32 titles published the year before). Works translated from the Dutch (26 titles) and the Scandinavian languages (Swedish: 16 titles, Danish: 10, Norwegian: 4 etc.) also participated on last year's book production in the Czech Republic to a relatively large extent. Following a sharp fall in the number of published translations from classical languages in the year 2002, the numbers from last year show they have practically returned to the level of the year 2001. Published titles included a total of 18 translations from Latin (2002: 4) and 8 translations from Classical Greek (2002: 2), with 5 translations from Modern Greek. Four titles were translated from the Romany. TABLE VI features a quantification of translations from selected languages in the past five years.

TABLE VI

Import and Export of Non-Periodic Publications
According to data available to the Czech Statistical Office, the value of imported printed books has exceeded the value of their export by almost CZK 600 million. According to customs declarations, books in the total value of 2.7 billion Czech Crowns were exported from the Czech Republic last year (the number includes books printed in the Czech Republic for foreign clients). TABLE VII features the value of export and import of books and some other non-periodic publications in 2003 according to the customs' classification of selected types of goods.

TABLE VII

Conclusion
The article contains available data on the publishing activities in the Czech Republic in 2003. In this respect, the Czech Republic still counts among the top countries in the world, despite the objective problems and obstacles represented by a relatively small book market, dependent on the existence of a minority language. The numbers by themselves would not mean much, had they not represented - in the era of computers and the internet - the immense effort on the part of the authors and makers of books, their publishers, distributors, and sellers, but above all the undying interest on the part of the readers, at whom the producers' offer is directed.

Important figures of our national revival, as well as our first president T. G. Masaryk, emphasised that a nation's strength will be assessed by its knowledge. Czech books will therefore, even at a time of our coexistence within the EU, still remain one of the characteristic features of the country in the centre of Europe. They will remain an important factor in how much we know, how much we can, and the extent to which we will not get dissolved in the united Europe and will be able to assert ourselves.

Jaroslav Císař
(jaroslav.cisar@volny.cz)
Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers