The Slovenian Book Market and Analysis of Slovenian Bookshop Supply

A book is the product of a complex process that begins with the author, continues with editors, publishers, designers, printers, librarians, booksellers and ends with readers. In this way, the state would also prove that it still believes that publishing is an economic sector, but at the same time also a cultural one, and as such the state needs it to preserve Slovenian national identity. One could also ask what times are being written for their bookshops.

Solution and Method

A book is the product of a complex process that begins with the author, continues with editors, publishers, designers, printers, librarians, booksellers and ends with readers. For the development of the sector, it is therefore crucial that all links in the chain function optimally. Book publishing, this unique mixture of culture and economy, by its nature thrives best when it can follow its internal logic and laws.

Publishers, writers, translators, illustrators of numerous Slovenian reference, fiction, essay and other book works constantly prove with their rich production that they know and master this logic. This can be noticed by anyone who is in any way connected with books and the book market. The author in the diploma thesis briefly presented the development of publishing and the Slovenian book market.

She compared the two largest business systems present on the Slovenian book market – Mladinska knjiga and Državna založba Slovenije. She created a questionnaire and surveyed randomly selected individuals about what they think of Slovenian bookshops. Without the help of the state, the bookshop network will not be able to solve the problem of bookshops.

A precondition for an effective solution to this question is that one or more publishing or bookselling companies decide to fundamentally restructure the distribution structure of books and bookselling sales and align it with similar trends abroad. State aid would be justified and sensible only if there was also an appropriate level of readiness for change among publishers and booksellers, which should not only be reflected in the preparation of appropriate business plans, but also in the willingness to share common sales data and thus improve the quality of their business decisions.

Currently, the easiest and quickest solution for publishing would be assistance from the state, so that the book would once again become a commodity of 'special social importance', but not in the same sense of the words as in the past. I think the state would do a great deal for publishers if it exempted them from paying taxes and thus enabled publishers to use this money to remedy their own mistakes from the past. Publishing houses would have to start printing books in quantities that they would later sell on the market, deal with stocks that cause costs and make the operations of publishing houses more expensive.

Results

In this way, the state would also prove that it still believes that publishing is an economic sector, but at the same time also a cultural one, and as such the state needs it to preserve Slovenian national identity. One could also ask what times are being written for their bookshops. How well do we Slovenians know the range of their bookshops?

What do we think about the range in bookshops? On the basis of which criteria do we decide to purchase books? Based on the survey results, one could say that their range is average, there is too little advertising, people do not have enough information about books, and the expertise of Slovenian booksellers does not reach the desired level.

These are just a few questions that we booksellers face. The view is critical, as we must be aware of the situation and draw attention to it, although Slovenian publishing is relatively developed. Every book written, translated and published means that the Slovenian language is richer, more useful and stronger.

Slovenians, even in the time of globalisation, in the time of new fast media, television and the internet, do not forget about the book and are well aware that no other medium can replace it. Only a book can give us some lasting value, an opportunity for deepening, for reflection on our relationship to the world and also to ourselves. With entry into the EU, a new chapter in our history has begun, so we must be even more aware of the importance of tradition for preserving the Slovenian word.

Slovenian culture, precisely with entry into the EU, is confronted with other cultures and languages, and in this competition it must assert itself and also survive.