Small circulation of book publishing – a crisis or a change in development trends

The article presents the results of a study of the main trends in the development of Russian book publishing in the 20th-21st centuries. The work draws on a wide range of published and unpublished sources. The analysis of numerous statistical data made it possible to identify and evaluate the nature of the changes in the domestic book production. The authors focus on one of the most important indicators of book publishing - small circulation. They analyze the main reasons for the appearance of this phenomenon, determine its distinctive characteristics, trace their changes during the 20th-21st centuries. and reveal their features at the present stage of development of the book industry. The authors show that the quantitative model of book publishing, typical of the Soviet period, which was characterized by “massovization”, was replaced by a qualitative one, focused on the “individualization” of book consumption. The authors prove that the decline in circulation is a natural trend of a new stage in the development of Russian book publishing, which is characterized by the “personification” of the publishing offer. The authors infer that small circulation is the main trend in the development of domestic book publishing in the 21st century. They pay particular attention to the thematic and regional features of small-circulation book publishing. Numerous publishing organizations are engaged in the release of thematically niche small-circulation literature. The authors describe in detail their activities. They trace the change in the share of various circulations in book production published over the two decades of the 21st century in some territorial subjects of Siberia. They reveal that regional book editions are mostly low-circulation, thematically diverse, focused on a segmented readership. A significant part of small-circulation publications in the regions is of local lore orientation. The authors characterize significant participants in modern regional local history small-circulation book publishing; reveal the type-species and thematic composition of local history literature; show that modern self-publishers (authors who print books on their own, or publish books, brochures and magazines at their own expense) are actively engaged in the release of small-circulation literature; consider the topics of self-initiated book and magazine publications. The study of foreign publishing practice and expert assessments of leading experts in the field of book business allowed the authors to come to the conclusion that the small circulation characteristic of modern domestic book publishing corresponds to global trends.

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