Moda na Czytanie, created by Piotr Bagiński and Martyna Zagrzejewska, operated at Bracka Street for 10 years. In addition to a wide range of bookstore offers, she organized meetings with authors.
The book market is going uphill
In an interview with the Polish Press Agency Rynek, the director of the Book Institute, Grzegorz Jankowicz, said that the bookselling market is facing enormous difficulties and we are aware of these difficulties. Booksellers cannot compete with large chains selling books online, and they often face the problem of high bookstore maintenance costs.
– We are aware that new technologies are changing our habits and that they make it easier for some people to access information and various goods, but a book is not an ordinary commodity and never will be, and we must make every effort to ensure that it is not treated as such – he pointed out Grzegorz Jankowicz.
The head of CI emphasized that bookstores are not ordinary business entities, but cultural centers where pro-reading activities take place.
– In these places you can meet the book directly, you can talk about literature with people well equipped with expert knowledge, people who willingly share this knowledge with readers – he added.
134 applications were submitted to the bookstore support program for 2024-2025, of which 117 met the formal requirements. Ultimately, Engr. awarded 85 grants for a total amount of PLN 3,400,000. zloty. Most entities received support in the province. Masovian Voivodeship (16), Lesser Poland Voivodeship (10) and Lower Silesia Voivodeship (9). There is still PLN 600,000 left in the program budget. PLN, which will be allocated for further funding awarded as part of appeals to the results of the first recruitment.
According to Grzegorz Jankowicz, local governments can also help bookstores to a large extent. Among the proposals for such activities, he mentioned preferential rent in municipal premises, developing cooperation between bookstores and other city or municipal cultural institutions, strengthening the visibility of bookstores through competitions for the best bookstore and information campaigns.
Entities running small bookstores can apply for financial support, which are understood as stationary stores dealing in the retail sale of books, in which at least 45 percent revenue comes from book sales. They must operate outside national and international retail chains, the offer of which is shaped independently by the bookseller and includes the publishing production of many publishing houses.