István Bart
Transition and Privatization in Publishing
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Production costs have for some years been increasing by at least 25 per cent a year (this year the growth is expected to be 30 per cent); this does not take into account the rise in publishing overheads (relatively smaller than the growth in printing and paper costs) and the relentless pressure of distributors for larger and larger discounts. It is now certain, however, that retail prices (even though, by 1994 they had risen to two and a half times their 1992 level) will be unable to keep up with this increase, given the drop in buying power. Nor have I even mentioned inflation, the effects of which are now inseparably interwoven with the rise in costs.
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In Hungary there are no price bands as in the Western book markets; the price scale is contiguous. Instead, there are certain "threshold values" marked out by what people find "affordable". Today a paperback priced over Ft6-700 is regarded as expensive, which means that it can be brought out in a relatively small number of copies only. Another price rise of at least 25 per cent is predicted for this year because of soaring paper prices. This is bound to lead to a tragic decline in demand in Hungary, especially as it comes at a time of dropping living standards.
The increase in paper costs exhausts the rise potential in book prices, which means that the income of all those active in the production of books is declining. Publishers can earn, at best, 5 per cent on their investment on a publication; obviously, at such a profit margin they daren't even think of bank loans and have to rotate their own capital as fast as possible. Consequently, economies can only be effected in the other column of costs— quality and people. To put it briefly and crudely, even in the best case, increasingly fewer and poorer-quality books are going to be produced by fewer and fewer staff and authors, who will be more and more underpaid.
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The Black Side
Straightforward piracy (when intellectual property is produced and sold without the knowledge of its copyright owner), apart from a few isolated cases, has so far been unknown in Hungarian publishing, unlike in the case of video or audio cassettes, where only two years ago illegal reproduction was on an industrial scale. Since then, bootlegging has become a criminal offence in Hungary, too, and, of course, complainants (mostly foreigners) have more effective means to defend their rights. Today there are more or less settled conditions in this market, too, although thus far, no-one has been convicted.
Strange cases of faking, however, do happen. For instance, several books have been published under the name of Ken Follett, an extremely popular author in Hungary, which were actually written by someone else. In another instance, the same book, already a hit once, was republished under a different title by another publisher who naturally forgot to inform the copyright owner. The latest affair of this kind was when the copyrighted form, design and editorial principles of a highly popular series was simply swiped by someone who produced a poor-quality work in the same protected mantle.
Books of this kind are usually put out by non-existent publishing companies without giving the name of the printers where they were produced, information which is legally required. They are mostly sold by similarly illegal street-vendors and they are strikingly cheap since they are naturally unburdened by VAT and other taxes. So far no move has been made against these illegal book distributors, either by the police or by the tax authorities.
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In 1988, the Hungarian publishing trade was, in the respect of all its more important indeces, almost exactly a tenth of the (then) West German publishing trade. This was largely proportionate with the difference in population. German publishing was first-rate (as it is today) and has traditionally served as a model
for Hungarian publishing. Of course, the inner proportions had always been different because of the different dimensions and absorbing capacity of the various special market segments, not to mention the capital strength of the German book industry and the resulting performance which could be measured even by the intellectual value it was producing. Still the comparison was not entirely absurd. However, in a country like Hungary, this was possible only in the shelter provided by the economic greenhouse of socialism. We did not know that the much yearned-for freedom from censorship will naturally entail the demolition of the greenhouse as well.
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There is a danger that because of the sudden opening of the floodgates by the political and economic changeover, processes will be accomplished with extreme speed—within a year or two in Hungary—processes which took decades in Western book markets and under settled conditions. Here, a similar story will be played out amid the scenes of the collapse of book distribution—and a lot else—the sum of which will also be a decline in the role of the written word. It is ironic that it was the intellectuals pressing for a market economy who practically opened the way to the liquidation of their own power. Who would have believed that the spiritual culture embodied in writing, printing and reading would be so very expensive and so dependent on technology? It will have to be protected, while the new technology will never
be able to take on its most fundamental role, just as the cinema has never been able to take on the same role as the
theatre.
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Book publishing cannot be substituted by randomly distributed occasional publications issued out of context. Nor can it be replaced by a couple of computers; nor can its absence be made up for by teaching the educated classes English as is being done in Nigeria. Hungarian science (and scholarship and architecture, medicine and art, poetry and fiction) can only be cultivated in the Hungarian language. That requires a skilled and professional Hungarian publishing trade functioning on an industrial scale and, last but not least, decent bookshops.
To find a way to do this is the great challenge of the coming years.
heads Corvina Press, a Budapest publishing house, formerly specializing in Hungarian books in foreign languages. Besides many translations from English and American fiction, his books include a biography of Crown Prince Rudolf of Habsburg and a volume of non-fiction.
