The Price Of Paper Has Risen By 168% This Year, And The Sixth Largest Book Publishing Country in The World Is Facing A Choice For Survival!

The price of paper has risen by 168% this year, and the sixth largest book publishing country in the world is facing a choice for survival!

Turkish publishers are finding it increasingly difficult to release new books and face the painful choice of surviving the country's economic crisis, according to some of Turkey's most prestigious publishing houses. Turkey's frenzied inflation, which officially hit 70% in May, has greatly reduced the purchasing power of Turkish bookworms.

Meanwhile, with the Turkish lira slumping to historic lows, books have become more expensive to produce. According to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute in February 2022, the annual increase in paper prices reached a record 168%. Can Publishing's editor-in-chief Sam Akas said: "Almost every day we have to decide which books to cancel the vertical version, or at least postpone it indefinitely, because we only have so much paper."

At the same time, many smaller publishers are facing closure. Last month, a front-page headline in the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet read: "Publishers can no longer print books."

These are worrisome situations for the billion-dollar Turkish publishing industry, which totaled more than 87,000 different titles last year, putting the country in sixth place in the global publishing rankings. Publishers say the industry is also vital to Turkey's cultural vitality and freedom of expression.

soaring prices

The Turkish publishing industry now relies on imported paper after domestic paper mills closed in recent years, and prices for imported paper have skyrocketed as the lira nearly halved against the dollar in 2021. At the same time, international supply has also been affected by supply chain issues during the pandemic, resulting in very severe paper shortages.

"In 2021, the price of a ton of high-quality paper is 600 euros. Now it is 1,150 euros, however, paper is not the only problem. Now, Turkish publishers import Prices of everything, including paper, ink, glue used to bind books, have gone up dramatically. Also, electricity prices, which are crucial for printers, have skyrocketed.” At the same time, he said Turkish publishers were reluctant to raise prices amid the cost crisis prices, and some have even lowered their prices to attract customers and compete with online suppliers.

Book sales inevitably decline as purchasing power declines and people spend their hard-earned income on necessities. According to a report by the Turkish Publishers Association, the retail book market shrank by 11.26% in 2020. Publishers consortium YAYBIR found a 20% drop in the number of books published in January 2022 compared to January 2021. The sharing of illegal PDF books also peaked during the pandemic, according to Kokaturk.

Small and medium-sized publishers are the hardest hit by the crisis. Umami co-founders Cecil Ipic and Busra Mutlu launched their boutique publishing house in 2021. "As a translation-focused publishing house, royalties and paper costs are equally challenging for us, and at the end of the day, we earn Turkish lira and pay in US dollars."

They said they had noticed a sharp drop in sales so far this year, and while the first edition of their first book sold out within four months, the second edition was only halfway there. Since it took months for the first release to get paid, it was difficult for them to publish again due to soaring costs. According to them, the cost of publishing their first book doubled in just two months.

"This may not be very challenging for a publisher that publishes 100 new books a year and already has dozens or hundreds of books in circulation, but for a much smaller production indie wanting to discover a niche area It's become difficult for publishers. And new names, and introducing them to readers," Mutlu said. Publishers Adım and Mikado go bankrupt in 2021. Independent bookstores including Denizler in Istanbul and Tante Rose in Izmir have also closed due to the crisis, with the former closing in 2021 and the latter in 2022.

Overworked and underpaid

In response to the crisis and to cut costs, Turkish publishers have started producing books with lower-quality materials. "The result is somewhere between photocopies and regular books," Kokaturk said, "but then at least the books will continue to sell."

Many publishers have also slashed print runs and are becoming increasingly risk averse. A new survey by the Turkish Publishers Association and Al Jazeera found that 50% of publishers in Turkey have changed their publishing schedules and publish almost no new books except bestsellers.

“Can Publishing is also printing fewer titles in smaller print runs. Publishers are less keen to take risks with new books, and eventually, everyone is turning to publishing classics from the 19th and early 20th centuries,” says Akas. It will definitely be a big hit in Turkey."

The crisis has also affected workers in the industry. While large publishers have yet to lay off workers on a massive scale, "publishers who find themselves cash-strapped will reduce the time it takes to pay translators and editors," Akas said.

Ipick and Mutrou said the crisis has made publishing industry workers work more at lower wages. "Overworked and underpaid cultural workers don't have the means or time to discover, pay attention and experience what the world produces," Mutlu said. "It's not just cultural consumption now, but participating in cultural production is also a luxury."

At the same time, Kokaturk said the industry's role as a relative safe haven for free speech in Turkey, especially when compared to the pressure journalists face from the state, is under threat. "As the crisis deepens, I fear we will lose the diversity of our publishing traditions."

Umami's Ipik says Turkish publishing will be in some form