Books are expensive. They are expensive in Lithuania, and other countries as well. It is not surprising to see that Lithuanian translations of famous foreign writers in local bookstores cost more than books in original language at amazon.com or other on-line sellers. However, price difference of 1 or 2 EUR is too small to cover shipping costs so there is still a motivation to buy book published in Lithuania.

Few week later I got a surprise which encouraged me to write this post. Surprise came from Fyodor Dostoyevsky but not for what he wrote or did. Surprising was the price of one of his most famous novels “The Brothers Karamazov” in one of the Vilnius bookstores. Price of English translation of this novel published by Oxford University Press was only 22 litas (1 EUR = 3.45 LTL) while Lithuanian translation price in all bookstores is higher than 26 litas. So in the case of English classical books the difference should be even higher.

If this a new trend, wide group of foreign books translation published by Lithuanian publishers can become totally uncompetitive. Group of English speakers is expanding very fast and I think the only one reason for them to buy Lithuanian translations is price. Having in mind, that translations usually are far from top quality, even the same price or difference of 1 or 2 EUR can be enough to choose original translation. In such small book market even loss of one or two hundreds of buyers can make publishing unprofitable. So what Lithuanian publishers can do to defend the market?

First, to reduce costs. Although in small market where circulation of 2000 is considered big printing and paper cost are relatively small, some successful examples show, that paperback editions printed on lower quality paper are cheaper per 7-8 litas. If normal book price is 30 litas, economy paperback edition can be 23.3 % cheaper. It even can positively effect pop literature sales by making it easier to carry.

But reducing material costs is not enough. Publishers will probably need to close part of their owned bookstores and reduce labour costs to avoid significant losses during economical recession. Increasing popularity of online bookstores and decreasing spending on books will hurt bookstores hardly. However, connecting online trade with existing bookstores (buy online, take at the bookstore) can be one of the keys how to attract buyers.

Last measure should be taken by publishers is reducing amount of books published. This will help not only to increase quality of translations but also to avoid cannibalization. Books compete each other in the market so publishing too many similar books lead in reducing profitability. Decrease in variety of books can be compensated by increasing import.

To conclude, my proposal for Lithuanian publishers is to reduce printing and selling costs and concentrate on translating only the very best of foreign books along with increasing variety of imported books available in the bookstores. These are necessary steps to survive in changing economic environment.