Snapshot:
The manager: Yonko Yonchev
The jobs: Chairman of the board of managers of Bulgarian Book Association, and director of the Publishing House Prosveta
The companies: Prosveta, and the Bulgarian Book Association
In brief: (from the brochure) “The Bulgarian Book Association (BBA) is the only organisation of book publishers, book distributors, and book agents in the country. ... The association has 77 members - book publishers, book distributors and book agents, which are responsible for over 90 per cent of book publishing in Bulgaria.” As chairman of board, Yonchev works with various ministries to develop programs for promoting literacy and access to books in Bulgaria, as well as publicising Bulgarian books abroad.
He also works as the director of Prosveta, the oldest and largest publisher of educational materials in Bulgaria with almost 16 000 published titles (totalling over two billion total copies) in its 60-year history, with over 900 titles in current circulation, including textbooks, reference and teaching aids. In his capacity as director, he works mainly with the political end, dealing with the regulations and requirements that the Education Ministry has for textbooks.
Yoncho Yonchev is one of the directors at Prosveta publishing house, the largest publisher of school materials in Bulgaria, where he works with “publishing politics", as he puts it. “In Bulgaria,” he explains, “there are also many state educational requirements for publishers to follow: quality requirements from the Education Ministry coupled with a demand for improving the quality of the textbooks, and the requirement that there be only three textbooks for a given subject at every grade level. So we have to be aware of all these things and to translate it into our published works”.
With several hundred titles either active or in preparation, in addition to research and working with government agencies and regulations, there is a lot of work involved. “As far as the everyday routine goes, like in all publishing houses we have a huge number of titles that have to be prepared for publishing."
For a long time, Prosveta was the only publisher/distributor of textbooks and school materials in Bulgaria — for the entire period between its founding in 1945 and the fall of communism in the country. With the advent of a more open economic situation afterwards, the firm is now facing competition from other publishing houses, but Yonchev looks on the bright side: “This competition is very healthy ... especially over the past five or six years, the quality of the textbooks has greatly improved: they are more visually appealing. We use higher-quality materials in the making of the textbooks, we are making the contents more interesting for the children, and with these new textbooks (the children) are able to better meet the expectations of the education system. This (improvement) is the result of competition. ... I can show you copies of the older textbooks that were in circulation for a long time — up to about 10 years ago — and they're in a very old visual style and just aren't interesting to the children anymore.”
In addition to his work with the publishing house, Yonchev is also the chairman of the board of the Bulgarian Book Association (BBA) — a growing group of 77 of the largest publishing houses, book distributors and agents in the country, whose members are responsible for over 90 per cent of all books printed in Bulgaria. Its mission is the promotion of books and literacy in Bulgaria, and the creation of economic conditions necessary for the publishing industry. One of their more important projects at present is to better the condition of libraries in Bulgaria, mostly by working with ministry officials to try to increase available funds: “At the moment there's a drop in the number of books per person as compared to European countries,” he explains. “We want to turn this tendency around. First, by supplying libraries with sufficient numbers of new publications and everything else that their readers need: books, internet access, databases, periodicals.”
Recently, the Government raised the VAT for books, essentially taxing them at the same rate as other products, making them less affordable for people. “We tried to convince the Government and Parliament to maintain preferential tax status as in other European countries, (all of which except Denmark and Slovakia) give books a preferential VAT rate. ... We had several events to raise public awareness, we gathered around 20 000 signatures. We got support from poets, writers, intellectuals, intellectual organisations, various creative unions — the union of actors, of artists, teachers, lawyers, as well as many citizens and politicians.” The campaign also included the numerous posters around Sofia saying “No to the VAT on books!”
Unfortunately, and in part due to the rather short nature of the deliberations in Parliament, the tax was raised despite their objections.
He remains optimistic about reversing the decision in the future, however: “We know from the experience of other European countries (that the preferential tax status) has always been the result of patience and hard work on the part of the publishers. … We are looking to the example of Sweden, which lowered its VAT on books from 25 per cent to six per cent. Statistics demonstrated what an exceptional boon it was to books in terms of readers access, and to the economic situation of the publishing houses, and, ultimately, to the state. We like to quote the British parliamentarians as they were liberating books from the VAT: 'It will cost us far less to lose the income from the tax on books than to compensate for illiteracy and inadequate education and preparation.' (Europe is) founded on a knowledge economy, as a community of knowledge and progress, which recognises that reading and books are the main way of achieving this.”
He also noted that books are a special kind of product that aren't simply items that are bought, but a spiritual product that aids in the development of the country and in spirituality, and which should be encouraged. Books encourage personal development — they make people more aware of themselves and their world, aid in professional development, and ultimately help people achieve happiness in addition to being better informed citizens and more successful at business.
Another aspect of the BBA is promoting specifically Bulgarian books both at home and abroad. At first glance, it would seem as if the majority of books sold in Bulgaria are foreign books that have been translated, “but in actuality, that's a bit of a false impression. Because, in the first half of 2006, the statistics from the National Library indicate that over 6300 books — new titles — were published during that time period. Of these, 70 per cent were by Bulgarian authors. But in actuality this globalisation that has been sweeping the world shows up in book distribution and publishing — the bestsellers that are read in America and Western Europe are also being read in Bulgaria”. However, he adds optimistically that there is a very strong tendency for people to turn their attention back to Bulgarian authors, and especially young Bulgarian authors. “There have been several editions of Bulgarian novels by Bulgarian authors that have won a very wide audience, even in some cases selling out several printings. This is of course very happy news for Bulgarian writers. Several of them have won prizes in Europe and are being published in foreign languages. Perhaps you know that this year Teodora Dimova won the award for Eastern European literature.”
In promoting Bulgarian books, literacy and authors, one must also take into account demographic trends, such as the low birthrate and high immigration that have reduced the population from almost nine million to under eight million in the past several years. “This is a very negative tendency. ... There are two reasons, first the large number of young people of working age who have left the country, and the majority of these are well-educated, well-prepared people who are capable of succeeding in other countries, which is good for them and for the countries that they are in, but for Bulgaria it's a tendency that is slowing down our development.” This represents a double challenge to publishers, as the successful, well-educated young people who are immigrating are the most probable consumers of books. “(This immigration) is something of a global tendency, which unfortunately for us is combined with a decline in birthrates. ... We like to remember times in Bulgaria where books had a really exceptional success in Bulgaria, selling incredibly large printings, sometimes as many as 200 000 or more, but that was due more to the fact that we were isolated and that Bulgarians wanted to get a taste of world culture and the book was an excellent way to do that.”
He did mention an encouraging fact that would indicate that these immigrants are not forgetting their homeland, however: “As I’ve understood from our colleagues who have internet bookstores, they sell a lot of copies to Bulgarians living abroad. This means that those people who are living outside Bulgaria continue to be interested in Bulgarian books and are looking for the connection.”
Speaking of the internet and electronic media in general, though, there is a disturbing tendency “for the book to be pushed aside by other information media. … Now, we are tempted by many media — by the huge amounts of information that flow through the electronic media and the internet, and I think that’s something of a world tendency. But, publishers around the world haven’t given up, and don’t think that the book will lose its place in our values, especially here with us”.
Bulgaria’s upcoming admission to the European Union also presents its own sets of challenges and opportunities. “We are preparing for this, and in the association we are conducting a study on book publishing and distribution with an eye towards coming up with a strategy for development after the entry into the European Union. … We expect the strategy to be ready by the end of the year, and we'll be able to proceed with scientifically based suggestions from specialists, learned economists and sociologists.” The study includes speaking with representatives from other recently-accepted countries, and getting their opinions and hearing about how it affected them.
One bright side to the EU acceptance is the possibility for a greater pan-European recognition of Bulgarian culture and literature. “We have great hopes that (Bulgarian authors) will become more popular in Europe, we already see an increase in demand for textbooks for learning Bulgarian; (people are interested in) a new opportunity for contact, business, culture, and of course tourism. ... We also hope to be able to demonstrate the value and uniqueness of our culture. We would like for Bulgarian writers to be better represented outside Bulgaria — not only in Europe but around the world.” Towards this end, the BBA is working closely with the Ministry of Culture on many programs for publicising Bulgarian authors and culture.
As both a native and someone who works with the political system both as Prosveta director and BBA chairman, Yonchev had some interesting insights to offer about working with the Government: “For us, we see every individual instance in a different way. There are certain issues which are resolved very quickly and constructively, but on some the Government has its own views (about the situation),” such as the recent raising of the VAT on books. “Someone coming from the outside would probably be more aware of the difficult things than those of us who have gotten used to them, so it would be difficult for us to judge. There are very good sides and very bad sides, and we hope to increase the good sides. As a whole, our association works towards the liberalisation of business, and the creation of better conditions for businesses.”
Striving for progress with optimism for the future and realism about present problems — whether promoting Bulgarian books at home and abroad, providing educational materials to Bulgaria’s children, or improving business conditions in the country — is what his work is all about.
