How to open a private theater - legal question. Own business

Today publishing as a business is gaining new momentum. It is quite difficult to calculate the profitability of such a project, and reviews from the owners indicate upcoming difficulties. But if you draw up a business plan and develop gradually, you can achieve great success.

In this case, a lot depends on luck, mood and preferences of the readers. The book publishing business involves many risks and unforeseen circumstances, but overall it is promising investment money. After all, now everything more people return to the book as a source of inspiration or for important information.

Features of publishing

The creation and publication of books and other printed literature performs educational, social and intellectual functions. To successfully implement an idea in this area, you need to have many knowledge and skills:

be well read and understand good books;
have experience in the publishing market;
constantly look for and establish contacts with promising young authors;
understand which projects are worth taking on;
clearly represent the target audience, its tastes and wishes;
be able to convey the product to the consumer;
understand the law (publishing, copyright, advertising), etc.

And although experienced entrepreneurs talk about the difficulties of this business and the numerous disadvantages of the project, the level of entry is still not too high. And if at least one of the books you publish becomes a bestseller, then the success of the whole business is guaranteed.

It is also worth noting the fact that many publishing houses in our country began not with an attempt to make profitable investments, but with the opportunity to release to the market the literature that was in short supply. For example, the owners of the company Mann, Ivanov and Ferber started their business due to the desire to compensate for the lack of high-quality specialized printing products on the shelves in the business sector.

Where to begin?

If you want to open your own publishing house from scratch, you need, first of all, to draw up an action plan:

Decide on the direction of published literature, a narrow segment. At the same time, you will get an idea of what target audience you can count on. Clarify the preferences, wishes and needs of readers.
Create a brand, a company logo, think about how to name the publishing house so that the name becomes recognizable over time.
Find a source of funding for the project.
Go through the process of officially registering a company with the tax service. Obtaining all required permits, concluding contracts.
Hire staff for effective activities publishing houses.
In modern realities, it would be appropriate to create your own website, which contains all the information that could be of interest to both authors and distributors.
Searching for promising writers, concluding contracts with them, obtaining translation rights, etc.

The publishing process itself is not associated with any technical difficulties. Publishing a book takes no longer than 3-4 months and goes through standard printing steps. The simplicity of this stage is one of the advantages of the publishing business.

Choosing a Specialization

Today, the highest demand is for action-packed literature, which includes detective stories and women's novels. Second place is occupied by educational books, manuals, manuals. Another popular trend was children's themes. But beginners are not recommended to immediately take up fiction, since this segment of the market is associated with high risks and larger investments.

It is believed that it is better to start the publishing business with narrow specialized areas, for example, business literature, cooking, calendars, books on psychology or esotericism.

The following segments are also considered profitable and promising:

Periodicals - newspapers and magazines that make a profit not only from circulation, but also from advertising placed in them. This direction is fraught with its own difficulties. Here you need to be able to find relevant information and submit it in a short time. Remember also that advertisers, at the expense of whom this business thrives, prefer beautiful glossy publications.
Electronic books are gaining more and more popularity today. For a novice entrepreneur, they are beneficial because they do not require large investments and cooperation with. Products are sold via the Internet.
Creating mini-games is one of the modern trends. This has its own specifics. Many professionals work on each project - from authors to programmers. Products are distributed in online stores, through gadgets, social media, applications, specialized gaming portals etc.

It is unlikely that it will initially be possible to be a universal publishing house that can afford to tackle diverse projects at once. Only large companies that have long established themselves in the market have this advantage. But the only way to compete with such giants is by choosing a narrow, specialized area that will create a recognizable name for you.

What documents are needed?

Depending on the expected volume of printed products, you should choose one of available ways registration - LLC or individual entrepreneur. For small starting investments You can limit yourself to the second option, that is, become an individual entrepreneur. In this case, a minimum package of documents is submitted, and accounting is much easier.

But a limited liability company has a greater chance of expansion and further development. True, then you need to create a company charter, lay down authorized capital in a certain amount, pay a higher state duty. In any case, the taxation system can be simplified (USNO), in which the state is paid 6% of all publishing house income or 15% of the difference between profits and expenses.

Be sure to include everything OKVED codes:

1 – publishing activity.
13 – publication of magazines and newspapers.
40 – printing of advertising materials.
15 – other types of printing.

Office and equipment

A publishing house can look different. A less expensive option is to have a simple room for several workers with a standard set of office equipment and furniture. Here they receive clients, authors, conclude contracts with distributors, etc. The very technical part of printing books is sent to the printing house.

The second option involves a full publishing cycle. To do this you need to additionally purchase:

computers for layout and preparation of documents;
printing equipment;
special devices for post-printing processing - devices for cutting and selecting sheets, creating brochures, binding, etc.

Search for promising writers

The main difficulty is working with authors. They are the ones who can make your business succeed or fail. For a beginning entrepreneur, this point turns out to be even more difficult, since you can’t count on popular names; you simply won’t be able to provide them with the required working conditions and high fees.

The only chance is to find the same newcomer, but in the writing field. Successful tandems guarantee long-term cooperation and profits for both parties. But you need to understand that before you discover a valuable “zest,” you will have to review thousands of manuscripts that were rejected by other editors.

There is such a statistic that out of 2000 texts sent to publishing houses, only 1-2 have value. Much depends on the tastes and preferences of readers. If people like the book, then you are guaranteed success; if not, it’s wasted money on circulation.

The publishing business also differs in another specific detail. You cannot enter into a contract with the author for future books. Therefore, very often promising newcomers are bought up or simply lured away by larger companies. Sometimes this is really profitable, since the amount offered for the author will be higher than the profit from the annual sale of his books. But you will have to start looking for a new writer again.

Staff

The publishing house also needs people involved in preparation, editing, proofreading, printing and other stages of the printing business. And although large companies have more than a hundred people on staff, this is still not necessary. Pay attention to the most key figures in this business:

The editor is the one who will be able to distinguish a successful and promising manuscript from the rest, choose a good cover and present the book to readers in the most favorable light.
Sales manager - contacts distributors, bookstores, uses advertising and marketing channels to present the book to as many readers as possible.
Sometimes other people are needed - translators, designers, proofreaders.

If you are well versed in the publishing business and are internally “burning” with this idea, then you can do most of the work yourself. Then you will know for sure that the product looks exactly the way you want it.

Risks

It is not for nothing that experienced publishers talk about the difficulties and problems in this matter. Among them are the most noticeable for a beginner:

The unpredictability of the popularity of a particular project. You can have a good understanding of literature, fashion trends in this area, and readers’ preferences. But if the published book, for some unknown reason, is not liked by customers, then it will remain on the shelves in the store.
Working with authors - the difficulty lies not only in finding them, but also in further cooperation. There is a fairly wide range of force majeure circumstances and human behavior here. Thus, a promising and successful aspiring writer may receive an advance, but not publish a book, delay writing it for several years, begin experimenting in a dubious direction, or switch to another publisher if they offer him more interesting conditions or a high fee.
There is also a strong dependence on the author, if at the expense of one person the publishing house has become recognizable. Its success and failures directly affect profits.

Sales of products

Another difficulty in publishing is the distribution process, that is, distributing books to the masses. Most companies that purchase and distribute printed publications to stores are only interested in popular copies and bestsellers. And they only want to purchase large wholesale quantities. Cooperation with newcomers and small circulation is unattractive for them.

In this case, the best solution is personal work in in this direction. That is, you, as a business owner or hired manager, must make every effort to sell the published book. There are the following methods for this:

Establish contacts with retailers.
Print promotional items to promote the book.
Collaborate with bookstores directly. But focus not only on Moscow or other megacities, but also on less big cities.
Buy advertising space in front of the establishment where your print publication is for sale.
Monitor exactly how your products are placed on the shelves.
Use other advertising platforms - glossy magazines, radio, television, Internet, etc.

The more sales and advertising channels you use, the higher the chances that people will be interested in your book. Although the result will still depend on whether they like her or not. And it is almost impossible to influence this factor.

Where can I get money?

A novice entrepreneur faces another problem - finding the required amount to start. The publishing industry is different in that banks almost never lend to such projects. Therefore, you will have to look for funding in other ways:

Have personal savings.
Attracting interested investors - however, they, as a rule, invest money in such a business only on the basis of their own interests, since publishing is too risky.
Search for co-owners of the company, then you can count on the fact that several people will be able to provide the required financing for the project on their own.

Also today there is a very beneficial way of cooperation for a beginner. A start-up publishing house puts its idea forward large company. She agrees to put it into practice, and the owners divide the profit equally or according to other rates under the drawn up agreement.

You can download it here for free as a sample.

Project profitability

The amount of invested funds will differ significantly depending on the volume of products produced, the chosen direction and format of work. So, if you trust the entire technical part of the printing house or other contractors, then the investment will be minimal.

When organizing a full production cycle of printed products, you will have to purchase professional equipment, which will significantly increase the cost. But then the cost of each copy will be significantly lower. According to average estimates, to start in the publishing business it is enough to have 650-700 thousand rubles. If you focus on publishing e-books, then much less investment will be required.

Income and profitability of the project also depend on the chosen direction. The publication of glossy magazines, calendars, crosswords, games, etc. is considered more promising. With a circulation of periodicals of 5,000 copies, you can earn about 80,000 rubles. But it is quite difficult to calculate the income received in advance.

Video: publishing business.

Publishing activity is more than in demand, moreover, publishing is not only about books. Many companies, scientific institutes and just individuals need writing and pre-printing of brochures, corporate printed products, such as magazines, newspapers, books, manuals and much more. Actually, there are three main areas of activity: book publishing, publishing specialized magazines and publishing newspapers.

An important advantage in the publishing business is complete transparency and low investments at the start. In addition, by choosing your niche and clearly formulating the concept, you can always take a worthy place and earn a good income.

Of course, a lot depends on literacy in building a business, on the professionalism of the team and on the chosen development path. But a certain amount of creativity, a permanent agreement with a printing house or the presence of your own printing house will give the green light to the future.

Publishing business organization

So, to organize a publishing business you need, first of all, qualified employees: literary editor, proofreaders, layout designers and designers, as well as a group of authors and journalists to work with customer materials when it comes to corporate products or the wishes of private individuals. Another important component is an agreement with a proven but inexpensive printing house that will promptly fulfill your orders. It should be taken into account that the cost of an average book made on regular paper with a circulation of $10 thousand will be only $1, while it will go on sale or to a client at a price two or even four times higher.

It is usually most profitable to work in two directions at once. Fulfill orders from companies for the preparation for printing of corporate publications of any type, when the client supplies a batch of scattered materials and his wishes, and the publishing house employees create the final product based on them.

Or provide only pre-press preparation, carrying out lithoprocessing of the finished text, complete the begun creation of the layout of the book (magazine) and submit it for printing to the printing house.

Along with such routine activities, it does not interfere with conducting reconnaissance in the area great literature and look for your own winning project. No matter how full the book market is, there is always the opportunity to find an author who will bring fame and profit to the publishing house. True, it is difficult to predict the fate of the released project. And we must not forget that even the most brilliant book, which everyone has been waiting for a long time, will go unnoticed without advertising. The only thing is that you shouldn’t be afraid of advertising activities, since a creative approach helps you achieve great results with a minimum of funds. And profits in publishing are based on volume constant circulation and sales.

The only negative is that for the publishing business it is almost impossible to find an investor; banks and investor unions are categorically not interested in such an unpredictable business. But private individuals will show favor and will not mind supporting the start-up project, since book publishing has always been considered a prestigious industry.

The book business has been actively developing in Russia for 15 years, there are more than a thousand publishing houses in the country, and the market volume reaches $3 billion. However, despite the impressive scale and long-standing traditions, the industry does not look successful. Publishing houses do not attract large investments, do not enter the financial market and do not become divisions of large financial groups.

This fall, the famous “sausage maker” Vadim Dymov decided to create his own publishing house. Some experts hastened to announce that the publishing business is a new area of investment for capital in Russia. However, Dymov himself said that this is a business “for the soul.” The entrepreneur’s caution is quite understandable: the investment attractiveness of book publishing raises serious doubts - which is especially strange if we remember what rich traditions the Russian book business has.

Old story

Book publishing is one of the oldest sectors market economy, where Soviet citizens began to show their entrepreneurial talents. In the early 90s, everyone who had an inclination towards business rushed first of all into the trade of clothes and products and, secondly, into publishing and bookselling. The demand for books was huge at that time, and the publishing business did not require large investments. To this we must add selfless love for books, which many pioneers of the book business had. As a result, in a short period of time in the first half of the 90s, thousands of new publishing houses appeared in Russia. Many still exist, in particular, the market leaders - Eksmo and AST - appeared precisely in this era. Moreover, both the above industry leaders and many other players were originally bookselling organizations. Then traders began to publish the most scarce books - from time to time. Gradually, trading companies grew into full-fledged publishing houses.

It would seem that having such long history, the book business was supposed to become a model for the development of the industry along market rails. However, having heroically emerged in the midst of the 90s, the Russian publishing system froze almost unchanged. “The market has not yet been fully formed, has little money, is not structured, with a low level of management and without reporting according to international standards,” states Alexander Limansky, marketing director of the Alpina Business Books publishing house.

True, in 1996 the industry suffered its first crisis of overproduction - people were full of Angelique. Publishers had to improve their printing, their specialization increased, and licensed products appeared on the market - for example, translated children's books with illustrations. After the 1998 default, rich people appeared in Russia who were “disappointed,” in the words of Associate Professor Moskovsky state university printing by Elena Solovyova, in other areas of business. Capital began to flow into the publishing industry from sectors new to it - according to Elena Solovyova’s estimates, most of the money came from banks, especially in St. Petersburg. It was in 1998 that publishing houses such as Amphora and Alpina Business Books emerged. However, even then there were no qualitative changes in the market. Up to today The overwhelming majority of publishing houses are relatively small, independent, closed and extremely opaque organizations. Almost none of them is part of the financial-industrial group. Naturally, almost nothing has been heard about any public investment in the publishing business. True, last year financier Alexander Mamut, having bought the publishing houses “Kolibri”, “Makhaon” and “Foreigner”, created the Atticus group (according to rumors, Mamut’s investments did not exceed $4 million). In July 2007, the Dutch international publishing and consulting group Wolters Kluwer acquired Russian company MCFR and, according to estimates, the transaction amount could be about 40 million euros, but we must keep in mind that MCFR is not only a publishing company, but also an educational and consulting company. Finally, Vadim Dymov recently created the Third Shift publishing house, but the total investment in the project will not exceed $2 million.

These three cases practically exhaust the history of public relations between the book business and external investors. New publishing houses are now very rarely founded, and if they are founded, it is usually done by top managers of existing ones (for example, former Chief Editor"Ripol Classic" Nina Komarova in 2004 initiated the creation of "Eterna"). No company has ever held an IPO. Almost the only case of bond issue has been registered for the entire industry, and even that has nothing to do with the publishing house, but with trading company"Top Book". The founders of most companies are either unknown or are their own top managers. “Those people who head publishing houses today started with simple book trading,” says CEO"Atticus" Arkady Vitruk. – These are those who were simply interested in books and exchanged them in used bookstores. In the early 90s, someone caught the wave and tried to print editions in a simple homemade way, selling photocopied copies. Nowadays, large and medium-sized businesses are usually managed by hired managers, but in the publishing industry it is typical that the people who founded these publishing houses are still managers in them. In many other sectors this is already a thing of the past.”

Gradual consolidation of the industry is underway, but, according to the unanimous opinion of experts, much slower than it could be - this is evidenced by the fact that approximately 1300 - 1500 publishing houses are active in Russia (according to the Book Business, their number has decreased approximately since 2004 by 19%). There is practically no foreign capital in the publishing market. The oldest Russian business in many ways it continues to live in the last century.

The enemy is on the doorstep

And yet, changes are coming: publishing houses are faced with questions to which they have to look for answers. The main one is the gradual decline in reader demand. Cumulative circulations have been declining sharply over the past five years - from 702 million copies in 2003 to 633 million in 2006. " Social status books fell,” says Elena Solovyova. – Now you’re not ashamed to admit that you don’t read anything – you just don’t have time! You serious man, and there’s not enough time for stupidity.”

To this we must add the increase in the cost of books, which is outstripping the increase in prices for them. “In recent years, there has been an increase in all components: materials, printing, employee salaries, rent of offices and warehouses, transport, royalties, cost of rights to foreign books”, notes Alexander Limansky from Alpina Business Books. An important role is played by the growth of the euro exchange rate, because it is in Europe that most of printing machines and a significant share of printing raw materials. Meanwhile, the share of imported (that is, high-quality) materials, in particular high-grade paper, is constantly growing: the reader is becoming more and more demanding. The decline in profitability of the publishing business can be considered a fait accompli.

A natural response would be to accelerate market consolidation. Large players save due to “economies of scale.” It is no coincidence that Alexander Mamut united three publishing houses at once under the roof of the Atticus holding. “We began to purchase more paper, cardboard, films and all other materials. Due to the growth in the volume of our orders, printing houses are also meeting halfway, we are becoming a large and interesting client. In addition, the larger the size of the publishing house, the more efficiently you can manage warehouses, accounting - everything that is called the back office. Due to this, we try to maintain profitability at a sufficient level,” explains the head of Atticus, Arkady Vitruk.

It can be assumed that the main direction of market development will be the gradual consolidation of business around several dozen leaders. “Small companies have many ideas and projects, but do not have enough resources to implement them and bring them to the consumer, provide the necessary support and promotion. At the same time, the economy of many small publishing houses is in a deplorable state,” notes Eksmo General Director Oleg Novikov.

The Art of Takeovers

Already today, the structure of the publishing market is similar to a pyramidal structure. At the top there are two leaders - the AST and Eksmo groups, which together produce approximately 30% of book production. They are followed, with some distance, by Prosveshcheniye, Olma-Press, and Bustard. The top five publish half of all Russian books. Their size is already such that they can interest third-party investors, and use the raised funds both to increase their market share and to buy up competitors. True, according to Oleg Novikov from Eksmo, in order to enter an IPO, the company’s value must be at least $500 million, and there are no such publishing houses in the country yet. But the market leaders have experience in acquisitions, although these transactions sometimes took place according to rather specific schemes, characteristic only of the publishing business.

The fact is that the value of a publishing house is largely determined by the quality of its team. Large companies prefer not to buy companies, but to absorb teams of experienced editors. Collaboration with a small publisher can begin with a joint project. Small - comes up with an idea for a book, finds an author, prepares the text, large - invests in replication and provides its own sales channels. Profits from the project are divided between the partners, and the output data, as a rule, contains the names of both publishers. After a certain period of cooperation, a large company may offer the partner’s team to move entirely under its auspices. At the same time, the junior partner sometimes formally retains independence - although in fact this means that he simply outsources the work of editing and preparing the text from a large group. “Now only large publishing houses with their own strong distribution system can provide their books with large-scale and effective work with retail operators,” explains Oleg Novikov. – Today there are only a few of them, while the rest work through wholesalers, whose assortment of many thousands of items allows them to promote, at best, the top 100 of each publishing house. And all the other books remain lying somewhere in the warehouse. If a small enterprise falls into the structure of a large one, then all the resources of the large one become available to it.” According to Elena Solovyova, it is AST, the largest Russian publishing house, that has a special propensity for such cooperation with small and medium-sized companies, with their subsequent absorption. Thanks to this policy, the AST group consists of 50 separate editorial teams, and, according to Solovyova, the group’s sales divisions actually manage this creative economy. The second giant, Eksmo, prefers to take over small players without preserving their brand, although it also resorts to joint projects– for example, with the publishing houses “Oko” or “Zebra E”. However, official purchases also happen: at the beginning of this year, the AST group acquired Avanta+, a leader in the field of publishing encyclopedias. Experts estimated the cost of the transaction in the range from $4 million to $10 million. In early October, Eksmo completed a deal to acquire 25% of the Mann, Ivanov and Ferber publishing house, specializing in business literature(estimated transaction value – $1 million).

The second mechanism of consolidation is the repurchase of authors. According to experts, any author whose books have achieved commercial success in the market immediately receives an offer from competitors. And since larger firms also have greater financial capabilities, they can usually do Best offer. As a result, the market is witnessing a phenomenon that could be called a vertical migration of writers: from small publishing houses to medium ones and from medium ones to the largest ones. The competition of offers has another important consequence - a gradual increase in fees. If at the end of the 20th century a person who wrote a detective novel received $3,000–5,000 for his work, now bestselling authors can claim tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Only market leaders can pay such fees.

The fate of the vertical

Large publishing houses, even in conditions of declining demand, can maintain an acceptable level of profitability also because they are able to create vertically integrated structures, including printing houses and bookselling organizations as part of their holdings. Today, all the major players own either printing houses or shares in the capital of printing plants. However, integration encounters a number of objective difficulties. Firstly, Russian printing houses often do not know how to “do everything”, and the owners are forced to print some books in foreign printing houses. Secondly, the publishing house usually cannot fully load the printing plant, so it must look for clients on the side. Thirdly, the Russian printing industry is in dire need of modernization, and publishing houses do not have the investment resources for this.

More promising direction development is the integration of large publishing houses with the wholesale book trade. In Russia today there is a clear shortage of federal-scale wholesalers. There are small ones in every region - but they are known only to the publishers who work with them.

In this link there is almost sole dominance of one large company - Top-Knigi. Other companies - “Club 36.6”, “Labyrinth”, “Mega L”, “Master-Kniga” - lag behind the leader by a large margin. But even Top-Kniga is not able to organize delivery of goods to all subjects of the Federation. “There are only two players in the wholesale book market in Germany – KNV and Libri,” says Lyubov Kasyanova, head of the wholesale sales department at Top-Knigi. “For Russia, given its size, the existence of 3–4 major players is quite possible.”

A stalemate arises: regional wholesalers cannot establish connections with Moscow publishing houses, and federal ones are still not large enough to cover all regions with their sales network - in particular, due to competition with small ones. “We have few large wholesalers, because there are many small ones. At the same time, the book industry lacks the existing number of these companies,” says Vladimir Drabkin, editor-in-chief of the Book Business magazine. – The organization of such a link requires too much large investments. Large wholesalers cannot absorb small ones due to lack of funds. Not much will change in the coming years."

According to Lyubov Kasyanova, the average wholesaler’s markup in Russia is 20–25%, almost the same as in Germany, where a merchant adds 30%. However, products reach regional stores after passing through several intermediaries. And the total markup can exceed 100%. An artificial increase in price reduces the publisher's profit and at the same time inhibits the demand for books. In addition, publishers and dealers lack a common understanding of the role of the wholesale market in the book market. “Logisticians should not be involved in promoting individual titles; this is the prerogative of the publishing house. And publishers expect us to stimulate sales of their products,” complains Lyubov Kasyanova. – Sometimes they act as our competitors, providing equal commercial conditions to wholesalers and retailers. In this case, we have to reduce prices and, accordingly, profitability.”

As a result, the largest publishing houses do not wait for mercy from wholesalers, but begin to create networks of their own regional distribution centers. The rest have to wait for the federal players to grow to the required size.

Non-ubiquitous retail

Publishing houses also have serious difficulties in their relationships with retail trade. Moreover, these difficulties increase as Russian reader is becoming more and more demanding. In the “golden” years of the book business in the 90s, more than 70% of book production in Russia was sold on trays, kiosks, and fairs. Gradually, such a system ceased to suit both publishers and readers. Books are a specific product. The success of sales largely depends on the variety of assortment, retail space, comfort and easy navigation. Today, trays and kiosks account for no more than 10% of turnover. Meanwhile, sales growth is hampered by an underdeveloped trading system. The book simply does not reach the consumer. Moscow and St. Petersburg account for 40–60% of turnover. An area of 100,000 people may not have a single store that offers a decent selection. “Serious competition exists only in Moscow, and even then from the old stores “Moscow”, “Biblio-Globus”, “Molodaya Gvardiya”, says Dmitry Kushaev, co-owner of the Bookbury chain. They owe much of their success to their advantageous “historical” location. “In Germany, for every 15,000 residents there is one specialized store; in Russia, one outlet serves 60,000 people,” complains Alla Steinman, general director of the Phantom Press publishing house. – The situation is more or less normal only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, not bad in Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. In the provinces, retail does not meet demand.”

Market participants are already talking about an approaching crisis of overproduction. “Russian retail space can “master” a little more than 30% of printed products produced in the country. But there are still remnants of past years,” says Olga Sherman, acting. Director of the Marketing Department at Top Books. – There is practically no normal system for returning unsold goods to publishers. For example, in the USA the return rate is more than 20% of books delivered, in Western Europe– about 15%, in Russia – no more than 5%. And this does not mean that our publishers are excellent at forecasting demand, they just do not accept the remains of their “masterpieces.” Other sales channels (“Book by mail”, Internet) control no more than 12–13% of turnover.

Trapped in nets

Network players could solve the problem of the lack of civilized retail. According to experts from the marketing agency Step by Step, the number of network bookstores will grow by 35 - 40% per year. True, experts made similar forecasts several years ago, but the growth rate turned out to be much lower. According to Top-Kniga, online retail accounts for only 15% of book turnover. There are approximately 15 networks in Russia, but they mostly operate in capital cities. Online trading is also a product of vertical integration, most of it under the control of publishers or wholesalers. The shareholder of “New Book” and “Bukvoed” is the publishing house “Eksmo”, “Azbuka” owns the network “Book Salon “Prestige” and controls the St. Petersburg “Snark”. The AST publishing house belongs to the Bukva network. The Top Book company has created five networks of different formats. The owner of Atticus, Alexander Mamut, also controls the Bookbury chain.

At the same time, creating your own retail chains, publishers are constantly forced to overcome the temptation to turn them into sales channels only for their own products. For example, most of the Bukva assortment consists of books from the AST publishing house. “I don’t understand this model. This is not a bookstore, but a point of sale of goods from a specific publishing house,” complains Dmitry Kushaev. In your own retail network you can attract buyers more favorable prices, because there is no intermediary markup. But there is also a lack of choice, which usually brings in buyers. It is no coincidence that some projects did not receive proper development. The Terra holding, for example, thanks to serious investments from the European book chain Bertelsman, bought the Yaroslavl printing plant and organized the Terra Book Club network. “They had connections with the authorities in the regions, good places for shops,” says Elena Solovyova. - But they promoted Terra products. But one publishing house cannot provide a normal flow of new products! If a client comes in and sees that the books in the store have not changed, he becomes uninterested.”

There are very few large independent players in the retail sector who are equally interested in promoting the products of all publishers. In Moscow, only the municipal chain “Moscow House of Books” is classified as such, since the owners of the Bookbury and Respublika chains also became publishers. Book retailing is not considered a very attractive business. From one square meter area, a book supermarket generates half as much income as a grocery store, with equal equipment costs. The main expense item for any retail outlet is rent. However, in the book business, some stores pay commercial prices, others pay discounted rates, and others do not pay at all (if the store is state-owned). As a result, market participants are placed in obviously unfavorable conditions: some are forced to include their rental costs in the price of the book, while others can afford dumping. According to Olga Sherman, depending on the format, the level of profitability ranges from 7% to 15%. “From the point of view of operational profitability, today the store format of 200–300 meters is still the most advantageous,” says Denis Kotov, general director of the Bukvoed chain.

While residents of the province suffer from product shortages, retailers are trying to compete for customers at the most competitive markets- Moscow and St. Petersburg. For example, Bukvoed was the first to implement the concept of a bookstore-club with additional services. “We provide services for searching and booking books via the Internet and through a single telephone number,” says Denis Kotov. – Our book clubs are open 24 hours a day, you can use Wi-Fi for free, leave your child in the children's room and undress in the wardrobe. The Moscow House of Books holds events for readers: a children's book festival, a week of Russian fiction. Since the end of 2005, “Shokoladnitsa” coffee shops began to open in Bookbury stores, following the principle of the American book chain Barnes & Noble, where there are Starbucks coffee shops in every store. “We cooperate with several operators, including Shokoladnitsa. They pay us rent, and we get additional clients from them,” says Dmitry Kushaev. – The audiences of coffee shops and bookstores overlap. There is a certain synergy between coffee, tea and books. This model works in large stores.”

We won't stand behind the price

Market participants, from publishers to retailers, attribute all the problems of the Russian book industry to low prices. They say that books are much cheaper in Russia than in the West. “The peculiarity of our market is that a book is a cheap product. People are not used to spending money on it. In Poland, for example, it costs $8–9, but here it is rarely more than $3. Prices for all goods are rising, but not for books,” says Alla Shteinman. Similar speeches have been heard for ten years. According to publishers and traders, the low final cost of a book makes it impossible to develop, since each participant in the chain is limited to a certain level of margin. True, many point out to “crying” publishers that in Moscow a hardcover book costs the same $8 – 10. In the regions, of course, prices are lower, but it is the capital market that brings the main income to publishers and traders.

Some countries have fixed retail prices for books. Initially, the price is already indicated on the cover, the publisher sells the product at a discount, which is then in turn increased by wholesalers and retailers, and the end consumer buys the book at that same fixed price. But in Russia the introduction of fixed prices seems unlikely. Publishing houses usually fight for their existence, but in our country they are actively developing retail, so no matter how much they complain about hard life, free prices are beneficial to them.

“The book market has one feature that is often overlooked: low elasticity of demand. This means that the number of books purchased is weakly dependent on their price. Price will be the main factor in the growth of the Russian book market, while the number of books sold in physical terms will decrease or remain at the same level, predicts Olga Sherman. “Until 2009, book prices will rise by about 20% per year, and accordingly the book market will increase by at least 15%.”

Thus, the main directions of development of the publishing business in Russia are consolidation, vertical integration and rising prices. But development in these three areas will not occur quickly. Poor readers will not allow prices to rise. The path to consolidation will be hampered by the persistence of owners of small and medium-sized publishing houses who are not ready to lose their business. According to Alexander Limansky, industry consolidation will occur at a maximum rate of two or three large transactions per year.

Books are missing shelves

Interview with Arkady Vitruk, General Director of the Atticus Group

Alexander Mamut’s project, the Atticus publishing group, was founded not at the best time: the book market is overstocked, and, according to some sources, a third of all printed books remain unsold. However, the general director of the Atticus group, Arkady Vitruk, is confident that there are ways to develop business that allow publishing houses to flourish even in conditions of stagnation.

Any publishing house dreams of releasing a bestseller - a book that is sold in hundreds of thousands of copies. Any publishing house dreams of opening a writer who can produce several bestsellers a year. But there are more than a thousand publishing houses in Russia, and there are clearly not enough bestsellers for all.

– What, in your opinion, are the most attractive projects that have appeared recently in the publishing industry?

– The most successful ones are those that are invisible. Successful projects mean stable sales, and stable sales come through specialized channels. These are textbooks, special literature for accountants, special literature for lawyers. We all subscribe to updating legal databases, and those who publish the printed “equivalents” of such databases are not very visible, but their business is very attractive. They pay for it, no matter how much it costs. If we talk about bright book projects, then just look at the ratings - and they say that detective stories are in first place, and here the Eksmo publishing house comes out on top with their women's detective stories, which they produce in huge quantities. When books are published with a circulation of 200,000 - 300,000 copies, then I think that everything is in order with profit.

– If a writer like Minaev or Robski gets sudden success, is it the publisher’s luck or the result of a targeted marketing policy?

– It is impossible to achieve success without marketing work. Almost all new projects require support. The success of a book with advertising support can be many times higher than without it. Advertising is becoming a bigger and bigger engine of our commerce. The business has grown stronger and can afford to selectively sponsor support for individual projects. Here, each publishing house has its own know-how. Usually the standard set includes, at a minimum, some leaflets, posters, mailings for retail partners, and today the cost of all this is already measured in thousands of dollars. When a publishing house starts organizing some kind of promotion, everything becomes even more expensive, because even when you do it together with some federal networks, it turns out that it is almost impossible to organize a promotion for the entire country. Here the federal network is split into many local networks and stores, because the networks, although federal, consist of segments, and in each of them it is necessary to organize a campaign separately. Such promotions should ideally combine the efforts of film distributors, publishing houses, and toy manufacturers, and then success is guaranteed.

– It is often said that the marketing efforts of publishers are hampered by a basic lack of bookstores.

- This is true. We all strive to discover new names that will become famous tomorrow. But since in some stores there are not enough shelves, any book on the stand of new products is not long enough for readers to understand that special attention is being paid to it. Usually in a store a book remains on this display for two weeks. And if a person who is interested in books tries to go to the store a couple of times a month, then he sees it once. At best, two. It’s unlikely that this is enough for the book to become familiar and for its title to become ingrained in the subcortex.

– What, in your opinion, is the main direction of development of publishing houses today?

– Publishers will now focus on building a vertical chain. They will try to establish relationships with key networks in such a way that they receive Additional services, information so that books from a particular publisher are purchased more efficiently. Plus, they will improve the level of service - increasing the speed and expanding the geography of delivery, labeling books for retail. It’s no secret that in our regions there are a lot of small wholesalers who never get to Moscow and survive by taking books from a large federal wholesaler. Regional players would be happy to switch to direct work with the publishing house if it could provide such services.

– What about your publishing house?

– We have plans to build our own printing house. We expect that, although it will become part of the corporate structure, it will operate within the framework of the market, and our publishing house will become only one of its customers.

– Will you start organizing your stores?

“We are considering this option very carefully, but it is a very expensive thing.” In any case, we will not approach this as publishing stores. Both the printing house and the stores will not be appendages of the publishing house, but independent businesses. But own retail is a big project; it requires appropriate investments and, most importantly, human resources. In Russia, it is more difficult to find human resources than investments.

– When will we hear about the first IPO of a publishing company?

– The scale of the largest players already allows them to enter into an IPO, based on the understanding that this will arouse sufficient investor interest. But you need to prepare for an IPO within three years. If someone is doing this now, then in the best case, in about two years the first placement will take place.

Artem Kazakov, Konstantin Frumkin

Instructions

Come up with a topic for the publication. For the highest financial results, you can conduct marketing research. Find out which printed products people don’t have enough of, and which ones there is an overabundance of. Perhaps you will contribute something new.

For correct management business, you can draw up a business plan. Include calculations, forecasts, possible losses and risks there. If you want to attract sponsors or take out a bank loan to open a publishing house, a business plan is essential.

Proceed to publishing house registration, which lasts about a month. To do this, pay the state fee at any Sberbank branch. Details to be listed cash, check with the inspectorate.

Fill out the application for registration of the product mass media. You can get a sample document from Roskomnadzor. Be sure to include your full name. founder, name of the publishing house, form (magazine, newspaper, newsletter, etc.), topic (political, children's, sports, etc.), frequency of publication, distribution area and sources of funding.

If you are a legal entity, you must provide the Charter to the registration authorities. You can compose it yourself, but to avoid mistakes, contact specialists in this area.

Also in his tax office order an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. If you provide a copy, have it certified by a notary. In addition to the extract, provide a certificate of registration with the Federal Tax Service.

Make a photocopy of the founder’s passport and attach it to all of the above documents. Submit all documents to Roskomnadzor. After 30 days, your certificate of registration will be ready.

Sources:

publishing house registration

If you are starting your own business, do not put off registering until later, thinking that the tax authorities do not have you. Conducting a business legally means registering it. Let's try to figure out what form is best to do this, and how to spend as much as possible on registration less funds and strength.

Instructions

As a rule, an entrepreneur is faced with a choice: register as individual entrepreneur(IP) or create a legal entity (usually a limited liability company - LLC). Both options have their advantages.

An individual entrepreneur is registered for only one person, but in fact has all the rights of legal entities, freely uses the proceeds, and is not required to have an authorized capital. However, he is liable for the obligations with all his property. He has no right to engage in the sale of alcohol. The process of registering an individual entrepreneur is simpler and less expensive.

To produce a register seal, the manufacturing organization requires a package of documents from a legal entity. Much depends on the type of organization and the type of printing ordered. If you are registering an LLC seal, the list of documents will differ from the UE seal.

Here is a list of required documents for seal registration:

A copy of the organization's charter (by a notary),

A copy of the certificate of state registration of the organization,

Which confirms the election of the leader,

Document confirming the decision to produce a seal,

Application with a sketch of the seal.

If future printing contains trademark, then you will be required to provide another notarized copy - a registration certificate and other documents. The list of documents for registering a seal is not officially approved by law, so check the full list with the manufacturer of the seal.

Stamps for external document flow of a legal entity must be registered in the seal register. This is a seal, a corner stamp in which bank details are affixed, as well as stamps and seals of branches and offices of secondary importance. These are the most important seals of your company.

Russian legislation provides for mandatory registration of any periodical publication with a circulation of 1000 copies or more. This legal procedure consists of submitting the necessary documents to the state regulatory organization - the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communications, Information Technologies and mass communications. Roskomnadzor specialists will check the accuracy of the information provided and enter information about the newspaper, magazine, almanac into the register of print media.

You will need

- Application for registration of print media;
- original payment document confirming payment of the state duty;
- power of attorney for the right to submit documents to Roskomnadzor and obtain a certificate of registration of print media;
- a notarized copy of the certificate of registration of a legal entity;
- a notarized copy of the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation;
- a notice written in free form about the actual address and telephone number of the founder.

Instructions

Select the Roskomnadzor branch to which you will submit documents. To obtain permission to publish regional, city, district newspapers and magazines, contact the territorial administration of the region where the editorial office will be located. If your print media is intended for residents of several regions or all of Russia, then information about it must be submitted to the central office Federal service in Moscow.

Specify the address you need territorial administration and working hours. This can be done on the official website of Roskomnadzor or by phone published in the local directory. Talk to specialists from the Federal Service, take an application form for mass media registration, find out the amount of the state fee and the bank details for its transfer.

Prepare documents for registration. The complete package includes:
- application for registration of print media;
- original payment document (receipt, bank payment order etc.) on payment of state duty;
- a power of attorney for the right to submit documents to Roskomnadzor and obtain a certificate of registration of a printed media outlet, issued to the representative of the founder;
- a notarized copy of the certificate of registration of a legal entity (extract from the Unified State Register) in the case where the founder of the media is such;
- a notarized copy of the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation in the case where the media was founded by an individual;
- a notice written in free form about the actual address and telephone number of the founder (for contacts).

Provide the documents to the Roskomnadzor department. Your application will be reviewed within a month. If the documents successfully pass the verification, your print edition will be assigned a unique registration number. You must publish it in each issue on the imprint page.

note

Sometimes the following documents may be additionally required:
- original layout (for printed media with erotic content);
- written consent of the copyright holders or their heirs (for print media whose names include surnames individuals and derivatives thereof);
- written consent of foreign copyright holders (for print media, the name of which includes the original name of the publication published in another state).

Helpful advice

Roskomnadzor may refuse registration of a printed media outlet in several cases provided for federal law about the media. After receiving a written refusal to register, you can correct the violations and resubmit your application.

Sources:

About the media
registration of printed publication

Tip 7: Situation analysis as an essential tool marketing research

Enterprises of various sizes from time to time face crisis situations, the solution of which requires an in-depth analysis of the current situation. In such cases, a very effective remedy for ruin is situational analysis. It becomes a good source for subsequent planning of activities to overcome the crisis and the development of a new enterprise strategy.

Tip 8: How to properly send a manuscript to a publishing house

That's it now large quantity people dream of making money by publishing books, but many fail at the very first stage - sending the manuscript to the publishing house. Find out about simple rules, the implementation of which will speed up the review of the book and influence the editor's decision.

Instructions

Create a text document and title it “About the Author.” In the document, please indicate the following information: full name, contact phone number (both home and cell phone), information about publications, if you have them, title of the work, length (number of characters with spaces), genre. It is advisable to indicate each item on a new line and separate information about the author and work with two spaces.

Write a synopsis of your work. Synopsis is summary. You may cut some chapters or reduce details. Find out the publisher's requirements for this item. Some require an abridged version, some require only the first chapters. A number of leading publishing houses, for example EKSMO, do not ask to send a synopsis at all.

Write an announcement. The announcement should not contain more than a page of text. You should briefly summarize the essence of your creation, answering the question “What is my book about?”