What kind of year was 2023 in the Armenian book market? Тhe year was summed up by the publishers

Newmag has published 40 books in 2023, and more than 140 works in 5 years of operation. Among the works of this year, there are many fiction, historical, political and social science books. Gnel Nalbandian, editor-in-chief of Newmag publishing house, mentioned that the translations were world bestsellers, very important books and scientific research, the need of which is felt by the society for sure. In the past year, the Artsakh tragedy had a very heavy impact on society, which could not but affect the publishers as well.

"We tried to maintain our tempo and rhythm, we should not be hopeless. Last year we held all our traditional summer and winter festivals. We held a French book festival for the first time. This year we are going to publish one book a week, about 52 books. One of the features of our marketing policy is to organize presentations for all new books. We believe that the book should not remain on the bookshelf, that's why we approach the reader". 

A few days ago, Newmag published "The Fury" by Alex Michaelides. We sold a thousand copies in three days. Newmag managed to translate, publish and bring the novel to the Armenian market on the same day as the whole world, emphasized Nalbandyan. "We also presented the author’s message to the Armenian reader. We also make it a tradition to invite book authors to Armenia. For example, Frédéric Encel, a French political scientist and regional expert, will be in Armenia with our colleagues in a few days."

Newmag has translated Encel's comprehensive work “Paths of Power”. In the book, the author refers to Artsakh, the Artsakh war, and Meghri. Such books are important in order to get an idea of how European experts look at important issues in Armenia. "We had a preliminary meeting with political scientists before his visit. Then there will be other meetings with political scientists at the Dvin Hotel."

According to Gnel Nalbandian, in 2023 the Armenian reader preferred to read detectives, Aznavour's books. Readers are also interested in Armenian and political works. Last year, Newmag paid a lot of attention to children's festivals. "Last year, children's literature was a very important direction for us. Children's literature is a complex field, we did not enter that field for a long time, but we thought of standards for children's books, what font size, font, combination of text and image should have. Also, we tried to help parents to choose easily, for this purpose, we put special age indicators on books."

Now the publishing house is preparing for the Winter Fest. Books also have seasons, the reader prefers to buy a book of a genre in every season. "For example, “Gone with the Wind” is a great gift for Women's Month, lighter fiction is a must-read for summer vacations, and professional, political books are especially cool in the fall, when passions heat up in real-life politics as well." In the spring season, we present motivational books. We will present four Armenian authors at the winter fest, which are self-improvement and motivational books. We try to make sure that our writers and specialists also write motivational literature. Readers also like to give our books as gifts. That's why we pay a lot of attention to the book cover and paper. For example, young people give each other our sports books a lot."

On the eve of the day of donating books, the "Grqaptuyt" contest is launched, which is carried out by "Armenpress" news agency in cooperation with partner publishers: "Newmag", "Edit Print", "Antares Media Holding", "Bookinist", "Zangak". The competition consists of several stages. For one month, there will be various tasks and puzzles on the "Armenpress" Facebook page, the correct answers will receive gifts in the form of books.