Profitable chains and textbook sales mask falling real turnover, a distribution squeeze and a revolt over the country’s flagship literary event.
Serbia’s publishers are approaching the autumn selling season with an unusual strategy: withdrawing from the country’s biggest bookshop.
Laguna, Delfi, Kreativni Centar, Čarobna knjiga, Dereta, Kontrast and four other publishing and bookselling companies said this month that they would not attend the 69th Belgrade International Book Fair. Their trade association cited unfavourable commercial terms and the removal of publishers’ representatives from the fair’s board. Vulkan, the other mass-market heavyweight, has stayed away since 2020 and runs promotions through its own stores instead. The final line-up remains unsettled, with applications open until August 20. N1
The quarrel matters because the fair is not merely a cultural ritual. It is a concentrated annual sales channel in a country where discounting is intense and consumer budgets are tight. Attendance fell from a record 203,350 in 2024 to 134,750 last year, a drop of almost 34 per cent, even as the number of direct exhibitors slipped only from 424 to 416. Belgrade Fair, 2024 and 2025
Behind the spectacle lies a market that is prolific, fragmented and surprisingly concentrated all at once. Serbia published 12,943 book and brochure titles in 2024, up from 12,471 a year earlier. Almost two-thirds were produced in Belgrade; 43.6 per cent fell under linguistics, philology and literature, and 82.4 per cent were in Serbian. Some 1,661 businesses were registered for book publishing in 2025. But title and registration counts are not unit sales, and Serbia has no comprehensive, audited sell-through series comparable with those in larger European markets. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia and Bloomberg Adria
Company accounts therefore offer the best, if imperfect, view. The 359 businesses registered as specialist book retailers generated RSD8.19bn in revenue in 2025, against roughly RSD7.8bn in 2023. Aggregate profit fell from RSD406.9mn to RSD308.4mn over the same period, leaving a net margin of less than 4 per cent. Since consumer prices rose by 4.6 per cent in 2024 and 3.8 per cent in 2025, the increase in sales did not keep pace with cumulative inflation. The industry is resilient in nominal terms and shrinking slightly in real ones. Biznis.rs, official inflation data for 2024 and 2025
Two vertically integrated systems dominate trade books. Laguna publishes commercial and literary fiction while the affiliated Delfi network supplies national shelf space, ecommerce, reader clubs and promotional events. Vulkan combines a large publishing list with its own bookstore chain. In 2025 Delfi reported revenue of RSD1.89bn and Vulkan’s retail company RSD1.81bn. Together that equalled about 45 per cent of all revenue recorded for specialist book retail; the figure is a proxy, not a pure market share, because both chains also sell gifts, stationery, games and other merchandise. Niš-based Hijeroglif, with revenue of RSD898mn, is the largest regional challenger in the available retail ranking. Biznis.rs
Publishing is a two-speed business. At the lucrative end are schoolbooks, where demand is renewed every September and purchasing decisions are less discretionary. Klett, part of the German education group and operating locally alongside the Novi Logos and Freska imprints, reported 2025 revenue of RSD2.47bn — more than either Vulkan publishing, at RSD1.70bn, or Laguna, at RSD1.22bn. Seven of the ten highest-revenue publishers in a 2024 ranking focused mainly on textbooks, required reading or children’s books. Klett, Vulkan, Laguna and Bloomberg Adria
Klett is the clear education leader; Data Status, Bigz Školstvo, Eduka and the state-owned Zavod za udžbenike are among the other important schoolbook players. In children’s publishing, Kreativni Centar, Pčelica and Publik Praktikum have built durable niches. In general trade publishing, an industry estimate puts Laguna and Vulkan together at 50 to 55 per cent of fiction sales. Their advantage is not only scale but control of the route to market: a publisher that owns the shop, website, customer data and promotional calendar can retain more margin and give its titles better placement.
Serbia nevertheless supports a lively independent tier. Booka and Geopoetika are strong in contemporary and translated literature; Clio and Arhipelag in serious non-fiction and literary work; Dereta and Kontrast span classics and commercial lists; Čarobna knjiga and Darkwood serve comics, fantasy and collector markets. Makart provides a counterweight in logistics and distribution, saying it works with about 300 sales outlets across the country. These companies shape literary taste beyond what their balance sheets suggest, but they are most exposed when access to shelves, promotional events or public-library purchasing becomes uncertain. Makart
The squeeze is arithmetical. A typical Serbian book sells for roughly RSD1,200-RSD1,500, or about €10, while retailers and distributors can demand discounts above 50 per cent. Paper, printing, rent, wages and delivery have all become dearer. Publishers respond with shorter print runs, faster stock rotation and relentless promotions; bookstores respond by becoming lifestyle shops. The current home pages of both big chains devote conspicuous space to toys, drinkware, figurines, stationery and gift products alongside books. For the retailer, that diversifies gross profit. For the publisher, it means books compete for space even inside a bookshop. Bloomberg Adria, Delfi and Vulkan
The most visible demand trend is not the disappearance of print but its rediscovery through a screen. BookTok and Bookstagram propel romance, fantasy and translated young-adult titles; publishers say popular psychology leads demand, followed by crime and romance. Younger buyers often discover a title digitally and still want the physical object, particularly special editions, manga and giftable books. Bloomberg Adria
Digital reading remains small, constrained by the Serbian-language catalogue, payment habits and piracy. Audio is the more promising wedge. Knjigapriča began commercial sales in 2022 and describes itself as the Balkans’ largest audiobook platform; its mobile listing now advertises more than 300 titles. Bookmate is bundled by telecom operator Yettel, while specialist producers are targeting Serbian-speaking families abroad. Audio’s immediate opportunity is therefore additive — commuters, older listeners, children and the diaspora — rather than a replacement for paper. Biznis.rs, Knjigapriča and Yettel
The likely winners over the next few years are easy to identify: education publishers with recurring demand; integrated trade groups with direct customer relationships; children’s and genre specialists with recognisable lists and loyal communities; and digital services that can aggregate a small language market across national borders. The vulnerable middle consists of undifferentiated publishers dependent on someone else’s shelf and on discount-driven bursts of demand.
That is why the confrontation over the Belgrade fair is more than an argument about stands and parking. Large groups can reproduce a fair inside their own nationwide stores and websites. Independent houses cannot so easily reproduce the discovery, footfall and shared cultural attention that a national event supplies.
Serbia is not ceasing to read. It is replacing one grand public shop window with a handful of private ones — and the struggle over who controls the shelf is only beginning.
