English-language books on Ukrainian market: The recent uptick of book sales

Western European book markets are experiencing a rise in English-language literature sales. In some countries, foreign literature is outselling local and national titles. While the demand for foreign language literature is growing in Ukraine, there are no signs of it becoming dominant.

This article explores the recent uptick of foreign-language book sales in Ukraine and where to find new releases.

English-language book sales surge on local European markets

The 2024 London Book Fair featured a discussion on the European growth in English book sales. According to Ingram, an American book provider, sales rose in Spain by 30% — from 51 million pounds in 2021 to 67 million in 2023. During those same two years, sales grew from 102 million pounds to 130 million pounds in Germany, and 45 to 47 million pounds in the Netherlands.

The trend didn’t come as a surprise to everyone. In 2022, according to the UK Publishers Association, UK book exports grew by 8% for a total volume of 4.1 billion pounds. At the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Andre Breedt, the Managing Director of Nielsen Book, emphasized how TikTok’s popularity amongst young people is influencing the rise of English-language book sales. Nielsen Book is a British company that analyzes book sales, and is the market leader in metadata supply, discovery, sales measurement, consumer research, and commerce solutions.

 

In some European countries, the recent interest in English-language books has negatively influenced local publishers and translators.

Ukrainian bookstore opinions

Representatives from Ukrainian bookstore chains have observed a rising demand for foreign language literature. This trend is largely driven by globalization and Ukraine’s efforts to integrate into the European community. As more Ukrainians become proficient in foreign languages, particularly English, many bookstores are expanding or establishing dedicated sections for foreign language books.

Anna Mohyr, the PR manager of the Ye Bookstore chain, says the selection of English-language books offered by the chain doubled between February 2022 and May 2024. In 2023, the sale of foreign-language publications doubled from 2021. In the first quarter of 2024, readers purchased 50 percent more foreign-language books than they did in 2023. Currently, sales of foreign literature account for 5% of the chain’s quarterly revenues.

Ye Bookstore prefers to sell contemporary fiction and nonfiction English-language books. Their selection process is based on an analysis of new releases and bestsellers, books by top publishers, art albums, and books popular on TikTok.

Foreign-language literature makes up approximately 10% of books in the Sense bookstore on Khreshchatyk Street. On Arsenalna Street and in the bookstore’s online shop, English accounts for about 7% of available products. Sense bookstore verified that their online shop and two storefronts are all experiencing month-by-month rises in foreign-language literature sales. 

The Sense bookstore representative also notes the great demand for books by Ukrainian authors in foreign languages, including English. Readers are often looking for texts by, for instance, historians Serhii Plokhy and Oleksandr Palii. Requests for fiction are also common, though unfortunately there are few translated editions of Ukrainian fiction on the global market.

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Yevhen Volovychenko, the CEO of Yakaboo bookstore chain, notes that about 10% of their titles are imported from abroad. While having a great selection of books, Yakaboo offers their readers an additional option: delivery upon request. The chain’s only offline store, located on Khreshchatyk Street, caps its English-language books at 10%. This year, Yakaboo’s sales of foreign-language books are up 4% from last year.

Volovychenko notes that readers maintain a consistent interest in scientific and professional literature in foreign languages, largely due to the lack of specialized publications in Ukrainian. There is also significant demand for bestsellers and fiction, along with works by Ukrainian authors translated into foreign languages. Many readers — primarily foreigners — purchase books for personal use or as gifts for friends abroad. However, foreign distributors have not yet begun to purchase Ukrainian books in English translation on a large scale.

10 years ago, the Bookling bookstore chain exclusively sold foreign-language books in Ukraine. At first, these were publications for language learning that later included material for everyday reading. Bookling bookstore was one of the first to supply the Ukrainian market with English fiction and nonfiction.

The founder of the book chain Oleh Odolsky said that while demand for foreign language books is on the rise, the overall presence in the Ukrainian market remains small.

Bookling currently sells 70% of books in Ukrainian and 20-25% in English. These numbers reflect changes to their business model and not a decrease in demand.

Oleh Odolsky adds that Ukraine, unlike some European countries, is not at risk of experiencing the dominance of foreign language literature. Odolsky estimates that the share of foreign language books in the capital’s well-established bookstores could reach around 10%, as observed in Sense on Khreshchatyk Street. In other bookstores throughout the country, this percentage ranges from 1% to 5%.

This threshold has everything to do with language proficiency. While almost everyone in the Netherlands knows English, only 1.1% of Ukrainians are fluent in English. These numbers will be slow to shift since it takes years to learn a language. 

The increasing demand for foreign-language books is clear at Dinternal Education, a company that publishes and distributes English-language literature.

Dinternal Education is an exclusive imprint of Pearson, a multinational corporation headquartered in the UK that focuses on educational publishing and services. They develop and publish textbooks and adapt global learning resources to fit the educational context of Ukraine.

A Dinternal representative told Chytomo that the biggest challenge facing foreign-language distributors is having books be readily accessible to Ukrainians. These significant obstacles are reflected in foreign book prices as imports and logistics are not cheap.

“In England, new releases come out at lightning speed. It is hard to plan deliveries in such a way that we get all the books we want in one order, and it takes 2-3 months for certain releases to get to us.”

The many bookstores we spoke with confirmed that foreign language literature is purchased by a varied audience. It includes students and teachers who need literature for studies and professional development, employees of various industries who read specialized publications, people learning a foreign language, and foreigners.

Has the withdrawal of Russian books from the Ukrainian market increased the demand for foreign language literature?

According to Anna Mohyr, foreign languages including English offer people a wider variety of choices of literature and authors. Foreign options are replacing the role once filled by Russian literature. A Sense bookstore representative echoed this statement.

Most of the bookstore chains agree that the ban on Russian publications in Ukraine has steadily increased the number of books for sale in foreign languages. 

Ukrainian author and translator Ostap Slyvynsky believes that the ban of Russian books from the Ukrainian market is not the primary reason for the increasing interest in foreign language literature among Ukrainians. According to Slyvynsky, a significant factor driving this demand is that the generation of people who are fluent in foreign languages are already adults, and they are eager to read in those languages.

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Translation: Iryna Savyuk

Copy editing: Terra Friedman King