Marketsquare Europe – 2011 opened Ukraine to European Christian Publishers

For the first time Ukraine hosted the European Forum of Christian Book Publishers and Booksellers Marketsquare Europe 2011. These professional meetings are held annually in different countries of Europe at the time of the International Book Fair in Frankfurt. Participants in this year’s forum, held in Irpin near Kyiv, were publishers and booksellers from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Hungary, Poland, France, Great Britain and the United States.

Publishers meeting: Western theory and Slavic practice

The first part of Marketsquare Europe 2011 consisted of seminars and workshops for book publishers and distributors. They were conducted by world leaders in Christian publishing – heads of publishing and trade houses from the U.S. and European countries, including LINKS, Tyndale House Publishers, Christian Trade Association International (CTAI), and others.

During the two days of seminars, participants were able to learn about the experiences of their Western colleagues and hear their marketing strategies, the value of a corporate image, financial management, how to find sponsors and build relationships with them, how to create a business plan, how to negotiate copyrights, and so on.

The publishers also told their European colleagues about their most interesting publications and brands that were commercially successful, the percentage of unprofitable books, and the secrets of marketing for individual books.

According to Olena Tsertiy, executive director of the Ukrainian Christian Publishers Association (UCPA), holding the forum in Ukraine created a unique opportunity for many Eastern European publishers to hear firsthand about the peculiarities of the world's largest Christian publishing houses.

“In organizing such an event in Ukraine, we together with the Christian Trade Association International wanted to make it possible for colleagues from CIS countries, who haven’t been able to attend such events in Frankfurt or Denver, to join the professional publishers meetings. To develop publishing in our countries, we need not only to learn but also share experiences with colleagues from nearby countries, with whom, unfortunately, it is not so easy to meet in such a format. And it was a wonderful opportunity to finally invite them to Ukraine,” Olena Tsertiy told RISU.

Indeed, according to participants of the seminars, the Western experience is not always easy to apply in Ukraine or Belarus, but the opportunity to talk to the leaders of the Christian publishing houses was extremely important for those taking their first steps in publishing Christian books in their countries.

Diana Reutki, representative of New Hope from Moldova, said that in her country there is not one Christian publishing house. All the Christian books that come to the market of Moldova are brought from Ukraine, Russia or Romania. Diana and her colleague came to Ukraine in order to learn from experienced professionals and try to use this knowledge in their country.

“It was nice to learn about the experience in the U.S., which is how it should look like ideally. And it is also important that along with seeing the Western model, we also saw a different model – one less than perfect but closer to our ability and mentality: the work of Ukrainian Christian publishers. And in combining Western theory and our Slavic practice we hope that we can build this ministry in Moldova as well,” says Ms. Diana.

For some publishers, who for many years have worked in this area, the topics are not new, but at the same time they are no less urgent.

“It’s no secret that the production volume in post-Soviet countries is many times inferior to what is in America. Even neighboring Poland is significantly ahead of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova. And that is why we are interested in looking at the experience of our colleagues, in asking questions, synchronizing watches and continuing to work in order to create high-quality Christian literature and bring it to the readers,” said the publishers.

“For 17 years I have been engaged in book publishing in Belarus, and this is not the first time I attend such meetings. But we are very pleased that we were able to participate in the Ukrainian forum. This is wonderful opportunity to meet colleagues and exchange ideas and experiences. There were interesting topics, especially on marketing and finance. It was very useful for us to learn about the experience of the Ukrainian Christian Publishers Association. In the future, I would be glad to see Ukrainians among the speakers because they have achieved great results while working in conditions similar to ours,” said Lina Pinkevych, a representative of the Blagovest publishing house from Belarus.

“This was the first time I participated in such a forum, and I am very glad that we in Ukraine were able to organize such an event here,” said Dmitry Fimushkin UCPA board member. “All the information that we heard from the speakers was useful and important, especially when they spoke not about the general theory of publishing but about specific things and the peculiarities of their work. I worked for many years in the Christian publishing market in Ukraine, so I know a lot about this area. But even that which I already knew, especially concerning financial matters or collaboration with the authors, was now expressed in new ways. My knowledge was refreshed, which is extremely useful for the development of our ministry.”

Myroslava Kryvdyk and Myroslav Lemik, employees of Ukraine’s largest Christian publisher Svichado, which is based in Lviv, were also very satisfied with the forum and being able to meet with their European and American counterparts.

“Even the very atmosphere, the ease in which we were able to exchange experiences and share our best practices with our colleagues, was very inspiring. We hope that there will be more of these events in Ukraine,” said the Lviv residents.

The European Book of 2011

The last two days of the forum was the business part of Marketsquare Europe 2011. This included an exhibition of literature, meetings, talks between European publishers, and the sale and purchase of copyrights, as well as the competition European Christian Book 2011.

Only books published in the last year by national authors could be entered into the competition. This time two Ukrainian publishing houses – Kliuchi (Keys) of the UOC-KP Lutsk Diocese and Khrysyianska Prosvita (Christian Education) from Odesa presented books at the competition. The trilogy Perla, by Polish author Rafal Kosowski and published by Vocatio was also presented at the competition.

It was this book that took first place and won the prize.

A collection of short stories for children, Nove Sertse (New Heart), publisher Khrysyianska Prosvita, which was presented by publisher Dmytro Fimushkin, took honorary second place.

UCPA welcomes guests

The Ukrainian Christian Publishers Association (UCPA) was the main organizer of Marketsquare Europe 2011. Many participants, especially foreigners, were interested in and impressed by the experience of their Ukrainian colleagues, who through the association again displayed their successes at the international level.

Presenting the achievements of Ukrainians, Dmytro Fimushkin, UCPA board member, spoke about how the work of the association began. According to him, in 2007 Christian publishers in Ukraine began to communicate closer with one another and discuss issues in the publishing business.

“We did not want to repeat the tradition of our Russian colleagues, who sometimes fight amongst themselves. And when we saw that communication brings good results, we recognized that we are not competitors, but people doing the same thing. So we decided to come together in an institution. In early 2008, seven publishers met and decided to create the association.”

UCPA members emphasize that their goal is to work together for the development of Christian publishing and to promote Christian books. This task is urgent, because, they say, “in Ukraine the opinion still exists in some Christian circles that reading books other than the Bible is dangerous – especially if the book was written by someone other than a pastor or his wife,” half-jokingly noted the publishers. And we are trying to fight this trend, trying to help more people fall in love with books.

In the future, the association hopes that Christian literature will enter the secular market. But before that, there are still ways of creating a civilized market of Christian literature.

“From the beginning we understand that it is altruism, and a commercial goal achieved through the publication of Christian books is very difficult. It is not possible to earn money with this. We are driven by an idea,” said Fimushkin.