The rules and conditions of book publishing and distribution in the post-Yugoslav states significantly vary from case to case basis. Slovenia and Croatia, due to their relatively stable post-secession/post-war economy, continued with their substantial allocation of government funding for publishing and even, to some extent, the entire book-market sector. A similar model, although on a smaller scale, was adopted in Montenegro. This approach is based on a completely correct assumption that literature and culture in general – especially the so-called “high culture” – do not stand a chance in the market economy, if left to their own devices. The negative aspect of the above-outlined scheme is that publishers avoid the unfunded manuscripts like the plague, especially if they belong to the per se non-commercial genres like poetry or essayism. If, for some reason, you find yourself outside the well-oiled publishing-budget scheme, it is as though you don’t even exist.
In the remaining post-Yugoslav states, taking into account just the general economic indicators and systemic functionality thereof, the situation is substantially worse. The publishers are forced to turn to foreign funds, programs and grants, or – like the Belgrade’s mastodon Laguna – become completely market-oriented, monopolizing the publishing network all together.
As it could be expected, the first and still scarce alternatives to the established order sprung out from this region but, taking into account the global indicators, more are expected to appear. Predictably, alternative models have originated from several non-commercial genres – primarily, poetry. A good example of such an independent micro-publishing – a samizdat of sorts – under monopolistic conditions of post-transition capitalism is the Belgrade’s “Citizens’ Association Knjižuljak”. Knjižuljak, focusing on the post-Yugoslav region, has published a dozen poetry books and brochures, including the reprints of Yugoslav poetry classics, such as Poker by Tomaž Šalamun. The financial model is based on subscribers – the end-users, for whom these books are intended. With a sufficient number of subscribers willing to prefinance future titles, a similar scheme – considering the average circulation of poetry books – could be quite viable. The distribution chain is circumvented by directly sending the printed works or, distributing them from one hand to another: the book, without publishing houses and bookstores scooping up the profits, reaches its readers.
It should also be mentioned that similar projects are yet to find their stride, with a lot of hard work and sacrifice waiting ahead in order to truly develop into a viable alternative to the market-funds dictate. However, it seems that these models are increasingly becoming a necessity, and that numerous low-circulation titles with a potentially high-artistic value, are going to reach us precisely through these somewhat forgotten channels. Lest we forget, alternatives need to be built and worked on. And the freest of creations are made starting from scratch.
