The best-selling books in Bulgaria in 2011
Reading books is back into vogue despite frequent comments that in the recent years Bulgarians have increasingly retreated from literature. Reading is a major factor contributing into personal development. It assists emotional and intellectual growth; boosts imagination and curiosity and greatly helps people identify their interests.
Unfortunately reading is not necessarily directly linked to buying books, at least in Bulgaria, explains Konstantin Yordanov, trade director of one of the largest publishers in this country, Ciela. He has made this recapitulation based on the traditional annual chart of bookstore chains prepared by Ciela.
“Looking at the chart for 2011 the first thing that stands out and is becoming a trend, is that many readers have opted for books with psychological content. This trend has been triggered by the ongoing crisis of individuality. People are on the lookout for solutions to their personal problems. It seems that live communication has lost its great relevance in our lives, and we have Americanized in a sense, i.e. we increasingly rely on assistance from psychoanalysts. Another interesting phenomenon has emerged in the 2011 book chart too – notably, a return to parables, such as the teachings of the past, like the story about Sufism in the book Love by Turkish writer Elif Safak. I can point to other books in that vein, such as The Happiness Formula by British psychologist Cliff Arnall, or the esoteric book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. This trend has become quite obvious over the recent years.”
So, the 2011 book sales chart is topped by The Three Questions, followed by Let Me Tell You, both by Jorge Bucay. Two other books by him also feature in the Top Ten - Loving Oneself With Open Eyes and Count on Me. Konstantin Yordanov remarks that in fact all Jorge Bucay books translated into Bulgarian so far, six in total, have entered the Top 50 of best-selling literature. In the chart, Love by Elif Safak is third. The Top Ten features only two Bulgarian books. The humorist biography of PM Boyko Borissov, I, Boyko, has been ranked fourth. It was written by the scriptwriters of the famous TV talk show Slavi’s Show. Fifth comes Lilly Ivanova: the Truth by journalist Martin Karbovski, the biography of Bulgaria’s foremost pop diva. The latest novel by Ludmila Filipova Anomaly is also among the 2011 bestsellers.
Do Bulgarians read more these days?
“Well, I am an optimist, and one of the reasons is that many young people have turned to reading books”, Konstantin Yordanov says. “However, in 2011 we did not have a good teenager novel. In 2010 the books by Stephanie Meyer sold like hot cakes. The 2011 chart makes clear another thing: Bulgarians have not only been reading more, but they have been reading books more by Bulgarian writers. We can now point to a group of Bulgarian writers whom people know and read and these include Alek Popov, Georgi Gospodinov. Zachary Karabashliev, Lyuben Dilov Jr., Vanya Shtereva and Iliya Troyanov. Unfortunately, reading is not the same as buying a book. In Bulgaria we have book sales that are 6 to 7 times smaller than the average in Europe.”
As is the case with many other businesses in Bulgaria, the book market is disproportionately concentrated into the capital Sofia where as much as 50 percent of the turnover takes place. “We follow closely the Average Sale criterion, and we can see that with time, average sales contract, especially in the provinces, Konstantin Yordanov explains, and adds that people in the provinces have more limited finances making buying books a luxury.
What makes a bestseller?
“This is the question of questions. There is a sea of books that floods bookstores, and at the same time, we run a business that cannot afford spending much on advertising and PR. For this simple reason many good books are not sold at all, and on the contrary, less worthy books are catapulted into spectacular market success due to loud publicity. Advertising sells, this is obvious. Mass media too, have a major say in boosting sales. Here is an example – the book The English Neighbor by Mihail Veshim. In the wake of the screening of the TV series based on the book, its sales soared. Even the book Mission London by Alek Popov that was released more than 10 years ago, saw a true market renaissance after the movie of the same name by film director Dimitar Mitovski was released.
Konstantin Yordanov points to another trend in Bulgarian book publishing:
“Our business is strongly dependent on the processes in book publishing across the world. In recent years the Bulgarian book market has seen two basic trends. On the one hand, the Bulgarian contemporary writers have been selling better though they are confined to not more than 15 percent of the market. On the other, the Bulgarian publishers are very flexible, so they quickly translate into Bulgarian and release on the local market any world bestseller. When great bestsellers are released globally, our business profits as well, concludes Ciela’s trade director Konstantin Yordanov and admits that he hopes 2012 won’t turn out worse for book sales than 2011.
Text and photo: bnr.bg
(23.02.2012)