This year, the Kaunas Book Fair was held at the “Žalgiris” arena – and although on Friday publishers complained that the flow of buyers was not as large as they had hoped, sales recovered on Saturday, the halls filled up, and some purchasing trends became apparent.
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One of the most prominent trends was not even surprising. The people of Kaunas love books related to the history of Kaunas and personalities associated with this city. This was noticed by representatives of the publishing house “Tyto alba.” As stated by the PR manager of this publisher, Raminta Jonykaitė, the best-selling book at the fair was Viktorija Vitkauskaitė’s book “Homes and Fates.” Currently, the third print run of this work is already on sale, and in Kaunas, it has gained a new life. Another book related to Kaunas published by this publisher was rediscovered – Giedrė Milerytė-Japertienė’s “When Kaunas Was Kaunas.” Also popular were two books published by the publisher dedicated to Valdas Adamkus’s jubilee – many people approaching the publisher’s stand said that the president’s roots are in Kaunas, so they want to delve into his life. “What do you have about Kaunas?” – this is a question often heard by the staff at this publisher’s stand.
Also popular was Tomas Dirgėla’s book “Tomas and Domas” – this was evident from the seemingly endless line of people wanting to get the author’s autograph.
Meanwhile, representatives of the publishing house “Aukso žuvys” said they did not even bring some books related to Vilnius history to Kaunas, as they doubted these would find readers here. The most popular here were books by Nobel Prize laureate Jon Fosse. Not only the latest “Septology,” but also previously published books by the author. This was confirmed while preparing this publication – one buyer who purchased “Septology,” seeing another work by the author “Protein” placed nearby, also bought it.
Kaunas loves science fiction
“People of Kaunas are science fiction readers,” confidently said Virginija Rudytė, the publicity and distribution coordinator of the publishing house “Kitos knygos.” After last year’s book fair held in this city, they already noticed this trend and focused on this genre this year as well, also organizing a discussion about science fiction.
The best-selling books at this year’s fair were Pierce Brown’s “Red Rising” and “Golden Son.” Also well sold was the second collection of Howard Phillips Lovecraft in Lithuanian, “From Beyond.”
Meanwhile, the publishing house “Balto” decided to apply a clearance strategy at this fair – many books were sold with discounts, so there was a constant queue of buyers. The best sellers here were books by Lithuanian author Ilona Madelaine living in Switzerland and works of the romantasy genre.
Representatives of the Writers’ Union publishing house said they did not notice any significant differences at the fair compared to events in Vilnius. The best-selling book at their stand was Aldona Ruseckaitė’s “Night Conversations,” second place went to Ukrainian writer Artur Dronio’s book “Hemingway Knows Nothing.” Third place in sales was Gianluca Gotto’s “Something Wonderful Will Surely Happen.”
M. Adomėnas’s return
At the publishing house “Baltos lankos,” it was not even necessary to ask which book was the most popular at this fair – readers grabbed Mantas Adomėnas’s book “Barbarian Invasions,” which was released a few days ago, and a presentation of this book was held on Saturday.
The sales manager of this publisher, Algimantas Šakalys, said that the bestseller of the fair could also be considered the Lithuanian edition of SenLinYu’s work “Alchemised,” which has sold in huge print runs worldwide. The new Jo Nesbo novel “Wolf Hour” would also be among the top three bestsellers. Donald Bisset’s book “Upside Down” was also selling very well.
“Visicką Kaunas loves,” said Dalia Linkevičiūtė, project manager of the publishing house “Laisvės knygos.” The latest book from this publisher – “Death Does Not Spare the Living” by Justinas Visickas – the author was signing autographs at the stand on Saturday, alongside another author publishing books with this publisher, Šarūnas Černiauskas, who was signing copies of the book “Caught Paluckas,” co-written with Andrius Tapinas. According to D. Linkevičiūtė, the sales of J. Visickas’s books were strongly boosted by the event held at the fair, where the author participated.
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The second most popular book at this publisher was the second part of Marius Ivaškevičius’s “Expulsion,” titled “Christ and Genghis Khan.”
Interested in neighbors’ books
The head of the publishing house “Alma littera,” Dovilė Zaidė, and category manager Aušra Kazanavičienė highlighted several authors whose books were particularly popular at this fair. Among translated books, attention was drawn to Joanna Bator’s book “Together Together,” who will visit the “Open Books” festival this year; people also came specifically knowing they wanted this book, as well as the Ukrainian bestseller by Illarion Pavliuk “I See You Are Interested in Darkness.” The print run of Nino Haratischwili’s book “The Eighth Life” is coming to an end. Latvian author Zane Daudzina’s book “Childhood in the Communal Apartment” is also finding its readers. Fredrik Backman has loyal readers – his book “My Friends” is also among the bestsellers of this publisher at the fair. It is noticeable that the popularity of Asako Yuzuki’s previously very popular book “Butter” is gradually declining.
Among Lithuanian authors, the phenomenon for the publisher’s representatives is the two parts of Apolinaras Čepulis’s book “River of Fate.” As with every book by this author, Gina Viliūnė’s book “Death in the Bernardine Garden” sells very well. On Saturday, an event presenting Petro Ruseckas’s book “Serfdom” took place, which immediately boosted the sales of this book at the fair.
Daiva Latinienė, project manager of the publishing house “Obuolys,” said that one of the biggest bestsellers of the publisher at this book fair was Anya Niewierra’s detective novel “Camino.” This is not surprising, as this novel became a bestseller in many countries worldwide, and the author visited this year’s Kaunas Book Fair. As always, esoteric books sell very well at the “Obuolys” publishing house. New releases were also selling well – Vytautas Balsys’s “Summer Snow. Bohemia Diary” and the story about a Lithuanian moving to live in Italy – Rokas Mikutis’s “I Want to Live in Italy!”
As for Arvydas Juozaitis, although a book presentation event was held, he himself was waiting for his readers at the fair, with his popularity noticeably declining.
“It is clear that it is a sports city”
Rasa Morkūnaitė, PR manager of the publishing house “Lapas,” said that the best-selling items at the fair were the publisher’s new releases. One of them is Peter Pomerantsev’s book “How to Win an Information War,” reflecting current events and the information war. Another is the legendary music producer Rick Rubin’s book “Creativity. We Must.” The first book in this publisher’s “Antrotexts” series, Matthew Engelke’s “How to Think Anthropologically,” continues to sell very well. By the way, the last copies of the first print run of this book were sold at the fair. “It is clear that Kaunas is a sports city,” said R. Morkūnaitė about the interest of Kaunas residents in Floriano Gazano’s book “Broadway Vitas,” dedicated to Vitas Gerulaitis.
She, like representatives of the publishing house “Balto,” said that it was clearly felt at this fair that people are looking for discounted books. By the way, after “Lapas” bought the publishing house “Vaga,” books previously published by “Vaga” appeared at the publisher’s stand. The book “300 Questions and Answers About Sleep” by Laura Bojarskaitė and “Gestalt Practice” by Phillo Joyce and Charlotte Sills attracted attention at the fair.
At the publishing house “Hubris,” there were clearly two favorite books at this fair. The obvious sales leader was Ernst Hans Gombrich’s “A History of the World for Young Readers.” Also popular was Sigmund Freud’s “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.”
The publishing house “Jotema” is currently waiting for the latest Dan Brown book “The Secret of Secrets,” which is due to be released in November – it is unquestionable that it will become the publisher’s bestseller of the year. Meanwhile, at this fair, the new Chris Carter book “You Won’t Find Me” is selling very well – this author is one of the bestsellers at the publisher, and his popularity was further boosted by his recent visit to the Vilnius Book Fair. Penelope Douglas’s “Trust” is also selling well. Although it seems that almost all Lithuanian readers have already acquired George Orwell’s books, works by this author remain among the bestsellers at this publisher’s stand – also at the Kaunas Book Fair.
