Turkey

Turkey claims the 12th place in 2014 in the world regarding the number of published books and the capacity of its publishing industry. The director of the General Directorate of Libraries and Publications, Hamdi Turşucu, said that the number of book fairs in Turkey has increased and their quality has improved, which pleases him and the directorate. He underscored the equality of the investments made to manpower and books for future generations, and said that the proof of it can be seen at book fairs.

Bookmate has gained attention recently as the e-book subscription app grows overseas.

It seems that readers aren’t the only ones to notice the Russian-based company. Bookmate won the Digital Minds Innovation Award at the London Book Fair last week. Hundreds of companies were in the running for the award, but Bookmate made it to the final with five other companies. Each company spoke to a group of digital publishing leaders, and the winner was picked by popular vote.

Turk read an average of 7.5-8 books per year, according to the Federation of Professional Associations of Publishers (YAYFED) Chairman Bayram Murat, who always ensures his attendance as a speaker at the annual Istanbul Book Fair.

Turkey is 13th globally by way of gross revenue gained from the book publishing sector, he said, adding that each year these figures remain constant. Murat also said this year they are expecting that the TÜYAP Book Fair to be better than former years.

Reading books has become one of the main expressions of dissent in Turkey following the police clampdown on more active forms of protest against the increasingly autocratic government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Taksim Square Book Club, which convenes demonstrators in Istanbul’s Taksim Square to publicly and silently read together, is generating some [...]

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