what is known about the situation with Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s books

AST Publishing House stopped all payments to Lyudmila Ulitskaya due to a statement about the transfer of royalties from book sales “to Ukraine”. Retailers still have the works, but libraries have stopped lending them out. Previously, networks removed from sale books by authors recognized as foreign agents or extremists, but Ms. Ulitskaya does not yet have such statuses. Experts say that the result is a depletion of assortment, although the restrictions on book sales will not seriously affect the income of chains. Lawyers do not consider AST’s actions to be legitimate: the authors’ remuneration is their personal property, which only a court can deprive, and publishing houses “should not replace government bodies.”

AST stopped paying all royalties to Lyudmila Ulitskaya after pranksters Vovan and Lexus (Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov) published on January 31 in Telegram channel recording of a conversation with the writer. The pranker called Ulitskaya on behalf of the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Andrey Yermak. In a conversation, the writer admitted that royalties for her books “go to Ukraine.”

“In connection with the author’s statement about the transfer of royalties to Ukraine, the AST publishing house decided to suspend any payments under all contracts with Ulitskaya until the situation is clarified and possible official clarifications from the author regarding the recipients of royalties from books sold,” Kommersant was told in AST press service. They added that Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s books have been published by the publishing house since 2011. She herself did not respond to messages from the Kommersant correspondent on social networks.

The day after the video of the conversation was published, Ulitskaya’s books were no longer available in the capital’s libraries. “That’s it, there are no more of these books,” an employee of one of them told Kommersant.

However, the writer’s works are still present on bookshelves. In the stores of the “Chitai-Gorod-Bukvoed” and “Book Labyrinth” chains, Kommersant was told that employees “have not yet received any instructions regarding Ulitskaya.” The Read-Gorod-Bukvoed network declined to make any official comments. The Book Labyrinth did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

In December 2023, AST stated that the publication and sale of books by Boris Akunin and Dmitry Bykov (recognized as foreign agents in the Russian Federation; Mr. Akunin is also included in the register of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring) was suspended due to the political statements of the authors (see “Kommersant” dated December 15, 2023).

Books by writers have also become unavailable in the book networks “Chitai-gorod-Bukvoed”, “Book Labyrinth”, on the online platforms “Litres” (affiliated with “Eksmo-AST”), Ozon and Wildberries (from the official supplier).

Litres told Kommersant that Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s books are still presented on the service “indicating all the necessary age markings.” When asked whether the works would be removed, as happened with the books of Messrs. Bykov and Akunin, the service refused to answer. “If the publisher, who acts as our supplier, decides to remove this author’s books from sale on the site, we will inform and recommend that distributors do so,” Wildberries told Kommersant. Bookmate did not respond to the request. Ozon and the Stroki book service (owned by MTS) declined to comment.

According to the Russian State Library (RSL), in 2023, one publication by Lyudmila Ulitskaya was published in Russia with a circulation of 3 thousand copies. In 2022 and 2021 – 15 and 14 editions with a total circulation of 55 thousand and 45 thousand copies, respectively. In general, according to the Russian State Library, from January to September 2023, more than 62 thousand books were published in Russia with a total circulation of more than 207 million copies.

Freedom Letters technical director Vladimir Kharitonov explains that Ulitskaya’s disappearance from sales will not have a serious impact on the networks’ revenue. “The issue here is not so much a commercial one, although the total circulation of foreign agents and others is millions of copies, but a quality issue – the assortment is becoming depleted. There is no one to replace these authors.” He adds that author contracts often include the possibility of termination due to the writer’s actions if they result in losses to the publisher.

“However, the publishing house must prove the fact of causing losses in court,” emphasizes Georgy Davidyan, executive director of the intellectual property law firm Media-NN. He explains that the author’s remuneration is his personal property; only a court can deprive him of the property. The publishing house, the lawyer is sure, “should not replace government bodies whose competence includes establishing the corpus delicti.”

Alexey Zhabin