Traditional family books

Amendments to the legislation that have not yet been adopted, providing for a ban on propaganda of LGBT relations and fines for it, have already made the largest publishers think about revising their plans. The wording of the bill in its current form leaves many questions, but just in case, publishing houses are preparing to involve lawyers in concluding new agreements with authors, are thinking about what to do with circulations already accepted for sale, and are expecting an increase in pirated literature.

Bills on LGBT propaganda may lead to a revision of the assortment by the largest book publishers, market participants interviewed by Kommersant predict. We are talking about two bills submitted to the State Duma on Thursday (see “Kommersant” dated October 21): the first includes “materials promoting non-traditional sexual relations and (or) preferences” in the list of already prohibited information, the second introduces administrative liability for violation of new prohibitions.

“If the law is passed, we will be forced to analyze the manuscripts that are being prepared for publication in order to understand whether we can publish them or not. We will involve lawyers in the analysis,” says Alexei Ilyin, founder and CEO of the Alpina Publisher group. The range can also be reviewed at Eksmo-AST. Oleg Novikov, the founder of the group, emphasizes: “The project that introduces administrative responsibility causes the greatest concern. It involves maximum fines for legal entities – from 4 million to 10 million rubles. or suspension of activities for up to 90 days.

Publishers are worried about the vagueness of the wording: will any mention of non-traditional sexual relations in a book be considered “propaganda”, etc. “I think that there are probably not very many such books, but among them there are quite significant on the market and bestsellers”, – says Alexey Ilyin. As Kommersant wrote on October 17, the Russian Book Union stated that signs of violation of the new laws can be found even in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Bunin, Vladimir Nabokov, and others, but Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, assured Kommersant that “classic plots are not subject to the proposed restrictions.” Here, however, the question arises of how and who will determine which “plot” is “classic” enough to not fall under the law. “We will wait for by-laws, clarifications and law enforcement practices,” says Alexei Ilyin. He is also waiting to see if there will be a requirement to withdraw circulations already in stores, or whether it will be possible to sell off the leftovers.

According to interlocutors in the book market, the bills may primarily affect editorial offices that specialize in Young Adult literature about the difficulties of growing up. “Such publishers will be forced to greatly revise their assortment,” suggests one of Kommersant’s interlocutors. Among the publishers operating in the segment is Popcorn Books, which published the book “Summer in a Pioneer Tie” by Katerina Silvanova and Elena Malisova, which was criticized by many representatives of the authorities, it ranked first in the top sales of fiction, according to the Ozon rating, LitRes, MyBook and the network “Chitai-gorod – Bukvoed”. Popcorn Books did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

“Books that publishers do not dare to release will become available on pirated resources and samizdat platforms registered outside Russian jurisdiction,” forecasts Oleg Novikov. The initiatives also “endanger investment in the book market,” he said.

Valeria Lebedeva