Kommersant learned about a way to circumvent the ban on the release of international bestsellers in Russia

Russian publishers have found a way to circumvent the ban on the release of international bestsellers in Russia. They plan to publish them in summary format – a retelling without direct quotation. About it informs Kommersant with reference to the Eksmo-AST group (includes Eksmo, AST, Bombora, etc.).

In particular, in the form of a summary, the publishing house plans to publish in Russia the memoirs of Prince Harry Spare (“Reserve”). The book was published abroad on January 10, in Russia the memoirs are not available, since Penguin Random House, which owns the rights to it, stopped work with the Russian market in 2022 against the backdrop of a special operation in Ukraine.

Eksmo CEO Evgeny Kapiev explained that the summary “will reflect the key ideas of the book without using excerpts from it.” Spare will be available in audio and electronic formats on February 16, and a print retelling of the memoirs will be released at the end of the same month. The circulation will be 3,000 copies. Another version of the Spare summary in audio format will be released on February 15 by the Smart Reading publishing house on the LitRes platform.

Kapyev said that Eksmo sees this approach as a start-up and “an alternative to a compulsory license.” According to the same scheme, the group plans to release a book by Jen Sinsero “Don’t Noah”, the rights to which ended last spring and have not been renewed.

Maria Kopachevskaya, Chief Editor of Smart Reading, noted that the publishing house has been publishing summaries for ten years. According to her, now the format has become especially relevant. Bookmate said that they do not plan to release summaries yet, but books in this format from partners are available on the service.

At the same time, a number of publishing houses have a negative attitude towards the idea of ​​retelling. Individuum said they would not use this method to circumvent sanctions. Editor-in-Chief Felix Sandalov called the summary a “gray scheme”, adding that the format does not violate the law, but “in a purely human way, this should not be done.” Ad Marginem Press publisher Mikhail Kotomin also said the company would not go that route.