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The paper is based on a survey that was conducted among publishers in Slovakia, Iceland, Lithuania and Slovenia in May and August 2020. The paper looks at how publishers reacted to the COVID-19 crisis in their respective countries, what was its impact on book sales and how did the publishers adapt the production of new books to changed circumstances. In addition, the paper analyses changed attitudes of publishers towards e-books and other digital book formats that become more popular in lockdown times. The research revealed that COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in decreased sales of printed books in all four small book markets. However, sales of e-books and audiobooks slightly increased during that period. This increase in digital sales did not contribute significantly to overall results of book industries due to its small market share in all four countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines and presents the scale and structure of recent (2012-2018) academic publishing in Croatia, with a focus on academic books and journals, the participation of institutions and publishers, scientific fields and disciplines, and invested financial means. As Croatian academic production to a large extent depends on subsidies, the paper is based on the analyses of data from seven years of subventions, which the Croatian Ministry of Sciences and Education allocates to national academic publishers, regardless if they are academic institutions or privately owned publishers. Conducted analyses provide detailed insight into the model of supplyside academic publishing and into national academic publishing in general. The topics -- academic publishing and system of subsidies -- have rarely been addressed in recent research. Thus, this paper offers new insights for researchers (e.g. providing knowledge about the scale and structure of academic publishing), provides evaluation possibilities for policymakers (e.g. to design the tools for monitoring and improving the system of public subsidies), and provide comparable perspective for national academic publishing in the context of European academic publishing setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with four cultural and historical features of book industry that still determine the nature of book business. The paper concentrates on how these features impact book industries in linguistic communities with a relatively small number of speakers. The paper also examines the reasons for absence of the publishing education and contemporary publishing research in the world of academia. In its final part, the paper shows the reason why, at least for the time being, e-books will not outperform printed books and stresses that current developments have triggered not only new research on contemporary books, but also created a set of threats and opportunities for book business in small language communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the study of museum publishing in Estonia in 2011-2015 that aims at establishing the production trends and the characteristic features of the publishing process. Production data was gathered from the Estonian national bibliography database, information about the organisation of the publishing process was collected via interviews and a survey. The data collection identified 467 non-periodical and 7 periodical publications, including mainly printed books (catalogues, museum guides, conference collections, etc.), dominated by scholarly content and art books. E-books were mainly represented by relatively few publications of educational materials and scholarly texts, issued both on paper and in pdf format. The first stages of the publishing process (writing and editing) as well as distribution are usually done in-house in all the studied museums. The larger museum publishers also handle the design and layout themselves whereas the smaller museums use outsourcing. Translation and printing is usually outsourced by all museums. Making their future plans, the museums consider wider use of print on demand as well as strengthening of marketing activities. Straipsnyje pristatomas muziejų leidybinės veiklos Estijoje 2011-2015 m. tyrimas, kurio tikslas - nustatyti leidybos produkcijos tendencijas (leidinių skaičių, didžiausius leidėjus, leidinių rūšis ir kalbas), taip pat leidybos proceso savitumus. Duomenys apie leidybos produkciją buvo surinkti iš Estijos nacionalinės bibliografijos duomenų bazės. Bibliografiniai leidinių aprašymai buvo užfiksuoti XSL formatu ir išanalizuoti naudojant „MS Office Excel" programą. Rezultatai buvo surūšiuoti pagal autorius ir pavadinimus, grupuojant leidinius į neperiodinius ir periodinius. Nuo 2011 iki 2015 m. Estijos muziejai išleido 467-is skirtingų rūšių neperiodinius leidinius ir 7 pavadinimų periodinius leidinius. Statistinės analizės rezultatai parodė, kad muziejai daugiausia leido spausdintas knygas, įskaitant parodų katalogus, muziejų vadovus, konferencijų rinkinius ir kt. Leidybinė veikla dažniausiai buvo orientuota į mokslinį turinį ir meno knygas. Elektroniniu formatu buvo išleista palyginti nedaug publikacijų, skirtų mokymo medžiagai ir moksliniams tekstams, prieinamų tiek popieriniu, tiek PDF formatu. Muziejų leidėjai vertina platų elektroninių leidinių platinimą ir geresnį jų prieinamumą; jie apibūdino elektroninę leidybą kaip greitesnę ir pigesnę spausdinimo alternatyvą. Muziejuose, kurie dar nepradėjo publikuoti elektroniniu būdu, trūko šiai veiklai būtino personalo arba jų leidybos apimtys buvo labai ribotos. Šie muziejai taip pat suvokė, kad jų tikslinės grupės nebuvo suinteresuotos elektroniniais leidiniais. Kitos leidinių rūšys, įskaitant žemėlapius, plakatus, vaizdo įrašus, garsines knygas ir spausdintą muzikos partitūrą, sudarė labai nedidelę visų leidinių dalį. Daugiausia muziejaus leidinių buvo išleista estų kalba arba (daugiakalbių leidinių atveju) estų kalba buvo įtraukta kaip viena iš leidinio kalbų (iš viso 436 leidiniai). Siekiant bendrauti su užsienio lankytojais, daugybė leidinių išleidžiama anglų kalba arba įvairiomis kitomis kalbomis (240 leidinių, arba 51 proc.). Duomenys apie leidybos proceso organizavimą buvo surinkti rengiant pusiau struktūruotus interviu su ekspertais iš dviejų didžiausių muziejų leidėjų - Estijos nacionalinio muziejaus ir Estijos dailės muziejaus. Be to, buvo atlikta darbuotojų, dirbančių leidyba užsiimančiuose muziejuose, apklausa. Atlikus statistinę muziejų leidybinės veiklos analizę, paaiškėjo, kurie muziejai užsiima leidyba (28% visų Estijos muziejų), iš jų 53 publikavo daugiau nei vieną leidinį. Klausimynas buvo išsiųstas 51 muziejui (išskyrus didžiausius muziejus, kuriuose buvo rengiami interviu). Atsakymai buvo gauti iš 27 muziejų. Pirmieji leidybos proceso etapai (rašymas ir redagavimas) bei platinimas dažniausiai vyksta naudojantis „vidaus" paslaugomis visuose į tyrimą įtrauktuose muziejuose. Didesni muziejai patys užsiima dizainu ir maketavimu, o mažesni naudojasi užsakomosiomis paslaugomis. Ver timo ir spausdinimo paslaugas paprastai užsako visi muziejai. Planuodami savo ateitį muziejai orientuojasi į platesnę spausdinimo pagal užsakymą veiklą, taip pat rinkodaros veiklos stiprinimą. Muziejai vertina vidinę leidybinę veiklą kaip savarankišką, greitą, lanksčią ir patogesnę nei alternatyvūs leidybos būdai. Apklausos respondentai pabrėžė, kad nepriklausomybė suteikia galimybę įgyvendinti muziejaus misiją ir publikuoti leidinius, kurių nė viena leidykla nepriimtų dėl labai mažo skaitytojų skaičiaus ar vietinės svarbos temos. Ribotas platinimas, nedidelis darbuotojų skaičius ir ribotos finansinės galimybės buvo įvardyta kaip pagrindinės kliūtys, trukdančios vidinei leidybinei veiklai. Gauti rezultatai buvo palyginti su britės Sarah Anne Hughes tyrimų apie Jungtinės Karalystės muziejus ir vokietės Madeleine Winter tyrimų apie Vokietijos muziejus duomenimis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article includes an overview of the development of e-publishing in Estonia. The treatment is based on the analysis and comparison of existing research, mainly student papers; statistical data from the database of Statistics Estonia and the National Library of Estonia, articles in the periodical press and homepages of various institutions. The beginning of the article presents the description of the publishing industry during the 2000s. In accordance with the development of economy the book production has moved from the peak in the mid-2000s to recession in 2008-2010. The declining market led to the decrease in print runs (since 2008) and book title production (since 2010). The number of publishers, however, increased even during the crisis. The small-language market is of no interest to international companies, so the book industry works on local capital. Estonia is characterised by early adoption and wide use of the Internet. The web publishing by organisations, associations and individuals is widespread since mid 1990s, but commercial publishers remained aside of this trend. As in many other European countries, especially small countries, the publishers were uncertain about the application of copyright in the digital environment and technological skill gaps. These worries were largerly overcome by the establishment of e-publishing service providers in 2010, which led to the take off in the publishing of e-books. The number of e-books produced and the sales have increased a number of times, but their share of the book market is rather marginal. The book buyers and readers still hold to traditional book form. The official cultural policy, however, favours e-books and supports different projects that provide free access to Estonian classical literature and modern authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes a research project conducted in Sweden and its initial base-line results that were produced by investigating statistical data from general statistical sources, representative surveys o f the Swedish population, and from public and academic libraries. The project looks into the change introduced into the book sector by e-books. Sweden was chosen as a special case - a country with a high literacy level and high penetration of information technology into everyday life of people. A t the same time, the spread of e-books is at the very start and it seems that the diffusion of e-books, their production, distribution and use are affected by the problems characteristic of a typical small publishing markets. The authors present the goals of the project and the theoretical framework. The data were collected in 2012 and demonstrate the relatively low scale of e-book publishing and use. Libraries emerge as the main channel of access to e-books for readers. The usual problems of e-book production and distribution that are visible in other countries are observed in Sweden as well: e-books legally are not books, but services of licensed software and thus excluded from the privileges enjoyed by paper books; readers demand more e-books but are not ready to pay for them the same price as for traditional books and prefer to acquire them through free channels. Publishers seek to maintain the monopoly o f e-book distribution and fear piracy. Libraries lose independence of acquisition and collection management. The choice of e-books by readers is determined by access to technology, age and education as well as reading habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most European e-book markets are currently being created. Publishers are going through a transitional phase and together with the printed content creators becoming the designers of e-content. The integration of technology into business processes is becoming an important business challenge together with the creation of new publishing products. All this is possible only through mutual work of other sectors in the creative industries. The paper tries to show the possibilities a small publisher has and identify the obstacles to the development of such markets. It discusses the advantages of a traditional publisher compared to new entrants, the skills that a traditional publisher develops and implements. One of the obstacles for the development of a small market is a high VAT rate for e-books throughout Europe. A special emphasis will be put on the Croatian market, which upon the entrance to the European Union had to apply a new tax policy regarding books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with publishing the Lithuanian digital serials in the terms of book science. A comparative analysis of publishing digital serials in a ten-year period in Lithuania has been made, and publishing tendencies of these publications are presented. The research data have been obtained by a longitudinal analysis of the Lithuanian digital serials since 1996 by the methods of information search, document analysis and publishers' survey. Electronic serials have been analyzed according to the dynamics of publishing, type of publications, publisher, periodicity, purpose, topic, economic models, formal perfection and design. The research data of 2012 are compared with the data of analogous research performed in 2001. In the economic, content and form dimensions, the development of publishing the Lithuanian digital serials, started ten years ago, at present is a successfully developing field of professional activity comprising publications of various types, periodicity, and topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the analysis of scientific papers and sources, the presumptions on the future of digital book are analyzed and most important of them are picked out: the birth of the digital computer (as the medium of the digital book reading and creating), the rise of hypertext (as a new influence upon reading and writing digital books) and the foundation of the internet prototype (as a new medium for publishing and accessing digital books). The most important facts in the history of digital book are picked out and analyzed. According to product life cycle theory, the evolution of the digital book is proposed to be divided into several stages: the stage before the digital book (the presumptions of origin, 1946-1971), the beginning of the digital book (first stage, 1971-2001), and the growth of the digital book (second stage starting from 2001). The present situation of the digital book in the product life cycle is shown and some future prognoses are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]