“Heavy Books” vs. “Light and Inexpensive Information”. Conditions of Book Production in Poland after 1989

This report is part of a larger research project entitled Polish literature after 1989 in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory led by a team of sociologists, experts in culture studies and literary scholars. The authors use Bourdieu’s theoretical tools to describe a segment of the Polish literary field, focusing on different aspects of the production, distribution and sales of books. Based on collected materials (353 interviews with individuals from the analyzed field – publishers, distributors, booksellers, government workers – published by Biblioteka Analiz in the series Rozmowy o rynku książki [pl. Conversations about the Book Market] in the years 2001–2012), the authors aim to describe the process of the emergence of a professional publishing industry from the ephemeral and chaotic publishing movement of the 1990s. The authors analyze a number of aspects of the transition from publishing movement to book market – from book design and the editorial level through print run planning, marketing the book, displaying and selling it, to issues such as printing the price on the cover and the introduction of VAT on books. Using the definition of the term “book market” proposed by Marek Tobera and Bogdan Klukowski, the authors argue that in the first years after the political transformation in Poland a professional book market did not exist, due to the lack of a professionalized system of information exchange between the sectors of production, distribution and sales. It was only with the advent of computerization that the evolution of a professional book market gained momentum.
 

This report is part of a larger research project entitled Polish literature after 1989 in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory led by a team of sociologists, experts in culture studies and literary scholars. The authors use Bourdieu’s theoretical tools to describe a segment of the Polish literary field, focusing on different aspects of the production, distribution and sales of books. Based on collected materials (353 interviews with individuals from the analyzed field – publishers, distributors, booksellers, government workers – published by Biblioteka Analiz in the series Rozmowy o rynku książki [pl. Conversations about the Book Market] in the years 2001–2012), the authors aim to describe the process of the emergence of a professional publishing industry from the ephemeral and chaotic publishing movement of the 1990s. The authors analyze a number of aspects of the transition from publishing movement to book market – from book design and the editorial level through print run planning, marketing the book, displaying and selling it, to issues such as printing the price on the cover and the introduction of VAT on books. Using the definition of the term “book market” proposed by Marek Tobera and Bogdan Klukowski, the authors argue that in the first years after the political transformation in Poland a professional book market did not exist, due to the lack of a professionalized system of information exchange between the sectors of production, distribution and sales. It was only with the advent of computerization that the evolution of a professional book market gained momentum.