Samizdat almost published – Kommersant

According to the results of the first quarter, the samizdat market in Russia for the first time exceeded 1 billion rubles, having increased by 18% year-on-year, Litres Group calculated. These rates are still not even up to the growth of 2022, in which the development of the market has slowed down sharply. But the players are counting on the restoration of dynamics by the end of 2023. The main factors, in their opinion, will be the demand for books by digital authors, especially in such genres as romance, fantasy, science fiction and young adult, as well as the development of services for independent authors.

The general director of Litres Group of Companies (developing Litres: Samizdat) Sergey Anuryev told Kommersant that the samizdat market in Russia in the first quarter grew by 18% year-on-year and for the first time exceeded 1 billion rubles. He noted that the share of samizdat in the digital book market today exceeds 35%, and in the e-book category it is only 6 percentage points behind publishers.

The Litres: Samizdat platform itself showed a 42% increase in revenue in the first quarter, representatives of the service say. The number of registered authors on the platform, according to Mr. Anuriev, increased by 26%, exceeding 203 thousand, and the platform’s market share was 37%. The service specifies that the revenue of the direction for the preparation and promotion of books for the same period increased by 53% year-on-year.

For the Litres publishing services, the key growth factors in the first quarter were free dubbing of books for authors using TTS (text-to-speech) technologies and the Litres: Reader project, different mechanics for obtaining audio rights, closer work with digital authors in in general, improving the quality and quantity of publishing services, adds Sergey Anuryev.

Litnet said that the platform’s revenue also grew in the first quarter year-on-year, but did not disclose the figures. “The main stimulus for the increase, so to speak, was the recovery after the closure of the portal in March 2022 for three months. After we have restored work, revenue is only growing,” explained Boris Makarenkov, general director of Litnet.

Publishing platform Rugram’s revenue increased by more than 20% year-on-year in the first quarter. “The growth driver is an increase in the processing speed of the incoming content stream, including through the improvement of software,” says Diana Smirnova, head of the platform. So, according to her, the Rugram print plan is already being developed with a horizon of 12-16 months.

Ridero in the first quarter increased revenue by 10% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, says Evelina Logunova, executive director of the publishing holding. The service also notes the increased activity of independent authors in preparing books for publication: “More attention is paid to editing, illustrations, this increases the average check when ordering services, and the interest of readers in the authors of the platform is also growing.”

In 2022, the growth of the samizdat literature market in Russia slowed down sharply from 70% to 20%, its total volume amounted to 3.2–3.65 billion rubles. (see Kommersant dated February 27). But publishers are looking to pick up the pace in 2023.

“The main factor is the growing demand for books by digital authors, especially in the genres of romance, fantasy, science fiction and young adult,” Sergey Anuryev notes. In addition, digital authors often benefit from speed and interactivity: they can publish as soon as they finish writing, being the fastest to “respond to trends, the agenda, and get in touch with the audience,” he adds: “In the next quarters, the growth rate of the category will reach the level of the end of 2021 and will be about 43–44%.

According to Diana Smirnova, another factor in the growth of the market is the development of publishing services for independent authors, “opening access to the market for thousands of new names.” The publisher predicts platform revenue growth of at least 20% in the second and third quarters of 2023. Litnet is also counting on an increase in revenue in the second quarter, without specifying figures. At the same time, Ridero is cautious in its forecasts: “The second quarter of each year is included in the traditional period of holidays and the summer low season, so we would not expect any breakthrough stories from it.”

Julia Yurasova