How do these notions tally?

Are the most sought-after books always on the best-seller list? Could people be after book titles left out of promotional campaigns? What is it that makes a title/author popular? I tried to find answers to these questions first at the Bukva [Letter] Book Supermarket. I heard people ask sales assistants about works by Valery Shevchuk and Yury Pokalchuk. There were noticeably more customers by the shelves with Oksana Zabuzhko. I then approached Yuliya Shchors, the bookstore's consultant, and asked her to name the titles topping of the best-selling list, be it fiction or journalism. She mentioned Oksana Zabuzhko's Sister, Sister and Field Research on Ukrainian Sex , also The Encyclopedia of Postmodernism ; works by Andriy Kurkov from the Heart Coronation series; Woman as a Test (feminist essays by Solomiya Pavlychko, Oksana Zabuzhko, and Emma Andiyevska), and Dvi Rusi from The Day's Library series.

Among the popular books are also Yury Andrukhovych's 12 Hoops and Moscow Saga, Vasyl Shkliar's Key, and works by Yury Vynnychuk. Ms. Shchors attributed their popularity to the authors belonging with the literary elite, also because their works had enjoyed press and television publicity campaigns She also said that Kyiv's Osnova Publishers' Foreign Classic Series and Pavlo Zahrebelny's historical novels (Kharkiv's Folio Publishers) were selling well with school and college students — primarily because their works are included in the curricula.

Experts involved with the annual project Book of the Year believe that putting out world classics is becoming increasingly promising. Modern readers seem particularly interested in twentieth century authors.

Osnovy editors also refer to The Encyclopedia of Postmodernism as a bestseller. Its copies instantly vanished from the stands at a recent Kyiv-Mohyla Academy presentation.

The Kalvariya Publishers believe that Vasyl Shkliar's Key and Les Poderviansky's Hero of Our Time are the bestsellers. In the last quarter of 2003, Marina Mednikova's Ouch! and Taras Prokhosako's Mysterious Lexicon sold the best.

What, then, is happening at Petrivka? Vendors say people mostly buy literature dealing with law, economics, management, information, and school/college textbooks; also, works by authors included in today's curricula — e.g., Pavlo Zahrebelny, Valery Shevchuk. Besides, not all of the books put out by the Ukrainian publishing companies find their way to the market.

This is how printed matter is categorized at Petrivka, in terms of market demand: 35% applied literature; 27% fiction; 10% textbooks; 15% children's books; 13% reference sources.

Books are sold in Kyiv, averaging between five and ten hryvnias, meaning that such printed matter is in the highest market demand. More expensive editions are priced starting at twenty hryvnias, meaning that not all of the customers can afford them. Market demand, considered from the standpoint of the customers' buying power, is as follows: 10% can pay more than twenty hryvnias for a book; 22% can afford copies selling at 10- 20 hryvnias (precisely the margin for Ukraine's best-selling authors); 39% can afford 5-10 hryvnias, and 29% will pay under five hryvnias.

It stands to logic to ask those writing best-selling books or reviews thereon, Do you really believe that such most popular books can become true bestsellers [considering the Ukrainian readership's buying power today]?

Kostiantyn RODYK, Editor-in-Chief, Knyzhnyk Review, author and coordinator of Project Book of the Year:

Among the winners of the Book of the Year 2003 were Serhiy Zhadan's Big Mac, Yury Andrukhovych's Twelve Hoops and Yury Vynnychuk's Malva Anna , in the prose standings. I'm sure that Andrukhovych and Vynnychuk's books will turn up on the best-seller list. I don't think that Zhadan will be in demand; he is better known as a poet. There is stable demand for fiction among other genres representing Ukrainian literature.

Every new writing is perceived in stages, taking between a year and a half and two years, because none of these publications gets proper media coverage. Also, the book publishing business is in embryonic state in Ukraine. Reich-Reinicki, a popular German emcee and critic, introduces every new edition in his television program, following a public debate, and its copies sell quickly the very next day. We have over a thousand publishing companies in Ukraine, and we hear about only fourteen "best- known" ones. Does The Day present many new books? See what I mean? If only all our publishers could adequately promote their new editions, a lot more people would know about them. Without doubt, people buy books by authors they know about.

Yury POKALCHUK, writer:

Of course, most popular books turn at the top of the best-seller list, but it's also true that some books may sell better today and worse the next day.

I think that what helps an author make his name is not his book — rather, the opposite is true. An elite author must cut a singular figure; he must show original views and preferences. Also, any kind of publicity helps the popularity of a book. Te, Shcho Na Spodi [On the Face of It] had hardly come off the presses when fifty-six reviews appeared, including 21 denouncing it, so it has been reprinted, along with other such works.

Vasyl SHKLIAR, writer:

There are books written by well-known Ukrainian authors. They sell well. Yet there are works written by authors as famous, but having no market demand. Their works were individually promoted by printed media and television companies, and I could mention among them writings winning prestigious contests, such as the Golden Drum and Word Coronation.

There are also "obligatory works" to be written by authors for school and college curricula. These may also turn up among the bestsellers — except that people buy them because they have to, not because they enjoy reading them. And then we hear our schoolteachers complain that they don't know how to help their students develop a taste for reading. I think that our readers mostly need something written about today's pressing realities.

— This author wishes to acknowledge information borrowed from Iryna Kopystynska's dissertation when preparing feature.