How to publish vibrant modern comics in conditions of isolation and censorship. “Paper”

The independent publishing house of comics and graphic novels “Bumkniga” has been operating in St. Petersburg for the 16th year. We published excerpts from the most interesting books of the publishing house of the 2010s, for example, a novel about a Leningrad woman who survived repression and the siege, a comic book “My Sex” about growing up, or a comic book based on Karelian-Finnish folklore.

Director and editor-in-chief of Bumkniga Dmitry Yakovlev told “Paper” for the “It Was/It Was” column, as against the backdrop of the closure of other independent projects, censorship and isolation of the country, the publishing house continues to translate and find interesting books in Russia – and what the crises of recent years have taught it.

In this section, “Paper” talks about people who have been changing St. Petersburg for the better over the years. We document how recent years have changed their lives and projects, but have not deprived them of their love for St. Petersburg and its citizens.

— Our publishing house began on the basis of the Boomfest comic book festival. In 2008, we started publishing fanzines and didn’t think at all about where it would take us. In 2009, we registered a legal entity, but for a long time we had to earn money from various other jobs just to earn food.

In 2015, we published very few books and I was thinking about closing the publishing house. Then sanctions were introduced because of Crimea, the ruble fell, the cost of production rose greatly, and it was not clear where we were going.

We made a big financial leap in 2016. We were able to prepare good publishing plans for that year, and it saved us. In addition, by 2016, people adapted to increased prices. As a result, turnover increased by 60% compared to 2015.

By 2019, we were more or less back on our feet and ended the year with excellent results both in terms of the number of books published and in terms of turnover.

— In 2019, it seemed that in another year or two we would be completely on our feet. But 2020 made adjustments, and we sank. However, readers supported us and ordered books. We interacted very closely with independent bookstores; we tried to organize some kind of supporting event for almost each of them: we gave books as gifts, held some kind of raffles.

Already in 2021, having built a good publishing plan and book promotion, we were able to compensate for losses, turnover increased by 65%. Accordingly, we started 2022 in high spirits and made big plans.

The biggest problem we have faced since 2022 is fulfilling our obligations to foreign partners. Until 2022, the system was simple: you find a book you are interested in, find an agent or foreign publishing house that represents it, contact and discuss the terms of purchasing the rights. The term, the amount of the advance at the conclusion of the contract and the royalty rate are prescribed – the percentage that you pay when book sales exceed the amount of the advance.

For us, this system broke down in 2022. We worked through Otkritie Bank – it was immediately disconnected from the international system. Some partners said that they were suspending work and not accepting money from Russia in principle.

We opened an account with Tinkoff and managed to pay someone before sanctions were imposed on him. We paid some foreign copyright holders even more than royalties, because at any moment the opportunity to pay could disappear – and it was better to pay in advance in order to fulfill the obligations. We have now established a payment scheme through an intermediary.

— In March 2022, one of the agents stopped working with Russia for ideological reasons, but at the same time we continued to contact and meet at foreign fairs. In 2024, he resumed working with Russia, but every time he asks the authors about publishing the comic in Russia. Almost all publishing houses and agencies do this now.

We began to choose books for publication more carefully, and we had to abandon some overly experimental projects. We have a lot of comics in our catalog, which often don’t look like comics, somewhat strange editions. Previously, we often received foreign grants for the publication of this or that book, whose commercial potential or sales speed was very low. Many foundations have stopped working with Russia, and without such grants, we most likely would not have been able to publish these books.

At one point we were aiming to publish 16 new books a year. Now we are more likely talking about 12. We need to be quite confident in the book we want to publish.

— Personal motivation floats. The thought often arises: why do all this at all? But there are situations when we see a very large response from readers – during Covid, for example. We saw how interest in our books was growing, and we immediately rushed to the top.

It is people who motivate us to move on. On the one hand, these are our readers who buy books and tell their friends and acquaintances about them. On the other hand, these are our authors who write words of support, and copyright holders who meet halfway and continue to work with us.

At one time, I was spurred on by the fact that we brought a lot of authors to Russia. This was a very important part of the work for us, which ended in 2022. And now, on the contrary, it is demotivating. In fact, books that we find and want to show to the reader now help a lot in overcoming demotivation.

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• Organization of international distribution and participation in the launch of a foreign online store, where you can buy all our books. This project was initiated by the Samokat publishing house in the summer of 2022. We managed to transport a certain amount of books to a warehouse in Riga. Books are ordered mainly from Europe, but there are orders from the USA and Canada and even from Ukraine.

• Bringing our authors to Russia in 2021 Brecht Evens (Belgium) and Ruta Modan (Israel).

• Preparation of the traveling exhibition “Stars of French Comics” together with European comics researcher Mikhail Khachaturov. This project was initiated by the French Institute in Russia in 2020 to promote the French-language culture of hand-drawn stories.

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— The reputation that we have earned for 15 years on the international market has greatly helped us cope with the crisis. We know almost all the authors we publish and agents personally, many of them came to Russia, and we regularly met at various international festivals.

They watched our work not from a distance, but were directly on site – to the point that some of them participated in unloading circulation. If we are talking about independent comics, then many people know about us and have heard some kind words.

We always fulfilled our obligations. We have very good relations with printing houses, they accommodate us halfway, and the same applies to bookstores.