Despite falling demand, rising prices for materials and an increase in the cost of production, Moscow publishers continue to conduct their business, produce new products and look for ways to solve current problems. One of the players in this market is the multimedia publishing house VoiceBook. In addition to the usual illustrated hardcover books, it produces dictaphone books, interactive books for learning foreign languages, family quests, games, mobile applications and other author's products for the development of children in new, unusual formats. The founder and CEO of the company, Evgenia Hanoyants, told the editorial board of "Made in Russia" about how to develop the publishing brand line, what promotion channels and development opportunities exist today and what helps to solve strategically important tasks in a difficult economic situation.

According to her, in order to raise a reading generation, it is necessary to interest children in reading from an early age. But today electronic gadgets attract a child much more than even the most vividly illustrated edition. Here the multimedia format should come to the rescue — new tools that help parents to interest their children in the phenomenon of the book itself, to cause a "wow effect". Thanks to him, the child learns new things more deeply and remembers information better. Such a psychological reaction should also contribute to the fact that, having come to school, children no longer experience rejection to textbooks and a list of literature for the summer, the book is perceived as something truly fascinating and interesting.

"Interactive allows you to popularize children's literature. There are many multimedia formats — for example, "Fairy Tales in the style of great artists" with a 3D museum in the format of a separate free application and an audio guide. The illustrations for them were drawn by modern authors in the style of Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Surikov, Petrov-Vodkin, etc., and the art critic tells why when creating a particular character, paintings of a certain master, specific colors were used as a reference. Another unusual product is interactive books for learning foreign languages with paired images voiced by professional speakers, native speakers in Russian and English. There are about a hundred words in the publication itself, and there will be more than a thousand in a special mobile application for it, which is under development," says Evgenia Hanoyants.

The expert notes that the project "Fairy Tales in the style of great artists" in 2019 turned into an exhibition organized in one of the Moscow art spaces. Later it was shown at the City Day in Irkutsk, in Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi. Cities have no problems meeting such interesting educational and entertainment projects, especially since nothing is required from them except the site.

"The city's support is also felt at specialized events. The Agency of Creative Industries under the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of Moscow City organizes the Created in Moscow section at the International fair of Intellectual literature non/fictio No. 24, in which 18 independent Moscow publishers selected by the agency on preliminary applications will be able to present their products for free. This is a unique opportunity not only to communicate with the audience, but also to get acquainted with buyers from other regions, potential partners and investors. VoiceBook is preparing a special program with a presentation of Pushkin's "Tales of Tsar Saltan" in the style of Kazimir Malevich and a lecture by an art critic about it, two books on safety for children with the participation of a specialist from the search and rescue team "LizaAlert", as well as works of fiction about a rescue dog and a guide dog based on real events. Guests will be able to get to know the guide dog and its owner, a visually impaired specialist in training such animals, personally," the expert shares.

According to her, sales of Moscow publishing houses fell by half compared to those indicators that were relevant during the pandemic. Paper and cardboard have risen in price. People are not ready to allocate an increased budget for the purchase of books. A business option that allows you to keep prices at the same level is to reduce your own marginality, advertising costs. Credit and investment funds are attracted to finance projects, but now federal and city authorities are paying more and more attention to these problems and are developing new projects for the development of independent publishing houses that do not have decades of accumulated capital and "airbags" like larger market players.

"Not only offline events - book fairs, exhibitions, but also collaborations, joint projects with partners working for an identical audience help in promoting today. These are brands of children's clothing, children's bed linen, toy manufacturers. The word "entrepreneur" speaks for itself: this is a person who is able to do something even in a difficult, unforeseen situation, to keep the business. Despite the challenges of the time, publishers today also have opportunities to develop, continue to meet the needs of the audience, release new products that cause resonance, offer exciting educational programs to children, instill in them eternal values, ideas about what support, love, friendship, mutual assistance are. Everyone decides for himself how to use these opportunities," Evgenia Hanoyants summed up.

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Dmitry Soroka

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

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