Feature: Book industry becomes another victim of debt crisis in Greece

Greece's publishing industry has fallen prey to the debt crisis and the uncertainty that has prevailed in the country since the start of recession in 2008.

During the 12th International Thessaloniki Book Fair, one of the top cultural events in the country and a meeting point for Greek and foreign publishers and book lovers, market experts were alarmed at the economic turmoil the sector had fallen into.

After the economic crisis and shrinking incomes, book sales are said to have dropped dramatically across the country.

"People who used to buy a lot of books had to cut from their expenses and make priorities, so books were cut," Greek writer Theodoros Grigoriadis told Xinhua.

In times of crisis, people revert to old practices. The same happened in the book sector as well.

People bought one book instead of three, preferred to exchange with their friends rather than buy a new one or went to libraries to borrow books for free. They also turned to book bazaars to find low budget solutions.

"Books were not exempted from the deep crisis that has affected our country. We can see it in the fair and in the sales. With events like book fairs, we want to enforce the relationship between the reader and the book," Nopi Chatzigeorgiou, coordinator of the International Thessaloniki Book Fair at the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, told Xinhua.

Due to the dramatic decline in sales, booksellers couldn't pay their suppliers, staff and operation costs.

"Since 2008, more than 400 small, independent shops and larger book chain retailers had to shut down," Yannis Konstantaropoulos, CEO & managing director of Minoas Publications and president of the Association of Greek Book, told Xinhua.

According to a 2013 report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), publishers' revenues peaked at 151 million euros (168.9 million U.S. dollars) in 2008 and then gradually decreased in step with the economic recession.

"The book market decreased dramatically since 2009. In order to offer more affordable prices to the customers, we had to cut the retail prices of the books by 15 to 20 percent. So, that has affected the industry by 50 percent in our turnover and by 30 percent in our book production," Konstantaropoulos said.

Market experts claim that their industry was stagnated by the measures taken by the Greek government to meet its commitments made to international lenders.

In January 2013, the National Book Center, set up in 1994 to help authors and publishers and to promote Greek publications abroad, closed down due to austerity budget cuts imposed by the international lenders.

In addition, book pricing was among the greatest challenges they had to face.

The abolishment of the fixed book price law, which describes a very specific retail price maintenance mechanism, introduced by the previous Greek government as a prerequisite from Troika to boost competition, was a heavy blow in the book market.

"With this move, many points of sale were created with books at very low prices. As a result, many small independent shops and larger book chain retailers had to shut down," Konstantaropoulos told Xinhua.

"The fixed book price functions as a protection to that small independent book store that want to promote a new alternative writer, or maybe a difficult book, not only best sellers, to its readers," he added.

Publishers warn that the latest challenge in their sector would be the increase in VAT, which the Greek government is debating with international lenders in order to reach the debt agreement.

"Despite Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis' assurances that books would be exempt from an increase in VAT, we heard that the government is considering increasing the VAT from 6.5 percent to 18 percent," Konstantaropoulos said.

In Europe, books have low VAT, though Greece at 6.5 percent VAT ranks high on this list.

Apart from bookstores and publishers, Greek writers are also a vulnerable group.

"In Greece, writers try to make a living by combining different jobs, never by writing. The income from the book rights are at the worst level," Grigoriadis said. Endit