The Icelandic Publishing Association helps oversee publishing companies in Iceland and connects readers to new titles. The vice director of the Association, Bryndís Loftsdóttir, provides a unique perspective into Iceland's literary culture, the technicalities of publishing and the industry, and some of the misconceptions and challenges of reading. She clarifies the BBC statistic that 1 in 10 citizens are published: some may be self-published or may have published shorter works or articles. Furthermore, the publishing industry is also struggling in Iceland, despite the culture of storytelling that pervades Iceland's education. The accompanying photograph of Loftsdóttir is included with her permission.
Q - In Iceland, a larger portion of citizens are published than in the States. What do you think contributes to so many citizens being published in Iceland?
A - Even though many books pr. habitants [there are many books published per inhabitants in Iceland], they are still not that many so access to bookstores and the media is rather easy. Also we have the The Artists' Salaries, the government gives 550 months of salaries each year to writers of fiction, poems and fiction for children (devided in 3-12 months between 67 writers this year). For nonfiction we have similar thing that gave 108 months salaries to 21 writers this year. Then we have the ISLIT grants that help us publish translations from all over the world as well as giving publishing grants to more expensive projects.And then we have a great tradition for writing and publishing, we tend not to be so shy about our writings, we even have a saying that we have a book in the stomach – meaning that we have an ide for a book bot it’s not born jet. (ég er með bók í maganum).
Q - What stories or types of books do you find to be most popular in Iceland's publishing industry right now? Why do you think that these are so popular?
A - Crime stories are most populair but I don’t think its growing so much at the moment. I think it’s easy for people to start reading crime stories and then some of these readers get thirsty for other kind of books as well and move over to literature.
Q - What stories or types of books are lacking in the publishing market?
A - I always joke about how we are lacking love in our Icelandic writings, I think there is some truth in that. There has not been a tradition of fantasy writing but I think that with new generation of Icelandic writers, that has been changing. We are even seeing a full-blown fantasy cartoon book (illustrations) this year so I think we are finding those gaps and slowly filling them.
Q - How many new authors per year might you publish?
A - Probably 10-15 new authors appear every year in fiction. Then we have many that start by publishing a book with poems and then move on to writing fiction. We have also always quite a lot of new children’s authors but I haven’t got the numbers
Q - In America, many adults do not read another book after they finish their schooling. How do citizens in Iceland feel about books and reading? Is it of great value here and, if so, why?
A - The tradition of going to bed on Christmas eve with a new book – and the popularity of the book as a Christmas present has a great marketing value. Then we have all the family-get-to-gathers over Christmas, where you see your relatives and it’s always a solid thing to talk about the books you got or the books you’re reading or have red. Long, dark winters are possible a good support to escape into brighter fictional world. We have great libraries. It’s popular, specially for women, to be in a reading club.
Q - Finally, do you have any more information that someone should know about Iceland's publishing culture or do you have any advice for people who want to be published authors? Thank you, again, for taking the time to speak with me today.
A - It is true that books are in the lower VAT [value-added tax that is collected through consumption of goods and services] rate in Iceland, but since raising that rate from 7% up to 11% in 2015 – making Icelandic books bear the 5th highest VAT in Europe – I don‘t think we have anything to brag about. Though it might be mentioned that ever since 2011, e books and audio books have had the same VAT as printed books, by Icelandic law.
The number of published titles has two sides. These numbers you might find are from the National library and include therefore everything that for exc. the government publishes. According to my measures of commercially available books the publication has been:
2010 : 1031 titles
2011 : 935 titles
2012 : 1042 titles
2013 : 952 titles
2014 : 935 titles
2015 : 885 titles
These are the books that are truly published by professional publishing houses. I haven‘t got a clue how somebody found out that this equals that one in every 10 Icelander on average writes a book. Around 35-40% of the above titles are translated so that leaves us on averaged around 600 Icelandic titles that have been published here yearly since 2010. Given that we are around 330,000 in total, I could happily sign that about 1 in every 500 Icelanders writes a book every year and then we have quite a lot of translators, as well.
The bare fact is that since 2008 bookselling in Iceland has gone down 23%. We are, like everyone else, struggling to find new readers, competing with other media about people’s time, and quite possibly losing our defense battle for the Icelandic language.
A - Even though many books pr. habitants [there are many books published per inhabitants in Iceland], they are still not that many so access to bookstores and the media is rather easy. Also we have the The Artists' Salaries, the government gives 550 months of salaries each year to writers of fiction, poems and fiction for children (devided in 3-12 months between 67 writers this year). For nonfiction we have similar thing that gave 108 months salaries to 21 writers this year. Then we have the ISLIT grants that help us publish translations from all over the world as well as giving publishing grants to more expensive projects.And then we have a great tradition for writing and publishing, we tend not to be so shy about our writings, we even have a saying that we have a book in the stomach – meaning that we have an ide for a book bot it’s not born jet. (ég er með bók í maganum).
Q - What stories or types of books do you find to be most popular in Iceland's publishing industry right now? Why do you think that these are so popular?
A - Crime stories are most populair but I don’t think its growing so much at the moment. I think it’s easy for people to start reading crime stories and then some of these readers get thirsty for other kind of books as well and move over to literature.
Q - What stories or types of books are lacking in the publishing market?
A - I always joke about how we are lacking love in our Icelandic writings, I think there is some truth in that. There has not been a tradition of fantasy writing but I think that with new generation of Icelandic writers, that has been changing. We are even seeing a full-blown fantasy cartoon book (illustrations) this year so I think we are finding those gaps and slowly filling them.
Q - How many new authors per year might you publish?
A - Probably 10-15 new authors appear every year in fiction. Then we have many that start by publishing a book with poems and then move on to writing fiction. We have also always quite a lot of new children’s authors but I haven’t got the numbers
Q - In America, many adults do not read another book after they finish their schooling. How do citizens in Iceland feel about books and reading? Is it of great value here and, if so, why?
A - The tradition of going to bed on Christmas eve with a new book – and the popularity of the book as a Christmas present has a great marketing value. Then we have all the family-get-to-gathers over Christmas, where you see your relatives and it’s always a solid thing to talk about the books you got or the books you’re reading or have red. Long, dark winters are possible a good support to escape into brighter fictional world. We have great libraries. It’s popular, specially for women, to be in a reading club.
Q - Finally, do you have any more information that someone should know about Iceland's publishing culture or do you have any advice for people who want to be published authors? Thank you, again, for taking the time to speak with me today.
A - It is true that books are in the lower VAT [value-added tax that is collected through consumption of goods and services] rate in Iceland, but since raising that rate from 7% up to 11% in 2015 – making Icelandic books bear the 5th highest VAT in Europe – I don‘t think we have anything to brag about. Though it might be mentioned that ever since 2011, e books and audio books have had the same VAT as printed books, by Icelandic law.
The number of published titles has two sides. These numbers you might find are from the National library and include therefore everything that for exc. the government publishes. According to my measures of commercially available books the publication has been:
2010 : 1031 titles
2011 : 935 titles
2012 : 1042 titles
2013 : 952 titles
2014 : 935 titles
2015 : 885 titles
These are the books that are truly published by professional publishing houses. I haven‘t got a clue how somebody found out that this equals that one in every 10 Icelander on average writes a book. Around 35-40% of the above titles are translated so that leaves us on averaged around 600 Icelandic titles that have been published here yearly since 2010. Given that we are around 330,000 in total, I could happily sign that about 1 in every 500 Icelanders writes a book every year and then we have quite a lot of translators, as well.
The bare fact is that since 2008 bookselling in Iceland has gone down 23%. We are, like everyone else, struggling to find new readers, competing with other media about people’s time, and quite possibly losing our defense battle for the Icelandic language.