Economic books sell well, no matter their prices and the publishing house editing them, says Georgeta Munteanu, head of Mihail Sadoveanu bookstore from Bucharest. She specifies that 75% of the books sold daily are related to economics.
"Most buyers of economic books are students and company employees. Some economic works and courses are currently for sale and in high demand are the books published by Editura Economica (Economic Publishing House), ALL, Niculescu, Editura Tehnica (Technical Publishing House) and Universul Enciclopedic," Munteanu says.
Reference books, such as economy, law, medicine or media-related works are still in demand and, subsequently they sell very well, says Lucia Balan, bookseller with Mihai Eminescu bookstore. "Everybody must keep informed and if one needs one particular book, they pay any price to buy it," Balan says.
Editura Economica is largely considered as the main publishing house editing economic works and courses. It is part of Grupul Editorial Economica, which also includes Editura Economica Distributie, Editura Economica Preuniversitaria and Editura Economica Divertis.
The publishing house sells books through Editura Economica Distributie, a private company with entirely Romanian capital, founded three years ago. "About 90% of the books we sell are economic works," Ioan Balgradean, director of Editura Economica Distributie, maintains.
The company at the beginning focused on university courses, as most clients were professors with the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, who edited their lectures for the students.
Professors from other universities based in Iasi, Cluj and Constanta later resorted to the services of this publishing house. "Our target readers are economic university students. Beside the works a student needs, we offer reference books for economists, accountants or auditors, as well," Balgradean says.
"The economic works available in Romania are mainly courses, written by professors teaching at economy-related universities, and translated books, which are world-renowned works on management issues," Doru Padurariu, managing editor of ALL Beck publishing house, maintains. ALL Beck publishes only law and economic books, with the latter accounting for 20% of the total published books.
Half of them are translated works, while the other half are written by Romanian authors. The books issued by Editura Economica are the main competitor of the economic works published by ALL. Padurariu says that the prices of the ALL books for the students are lower than those of the books published by Editura Economica, while the prices of the other books are higher.
Competition on the market of books for students is out of the question, as it is ruled by the principle of compulsion.
One particular university professor requires the students to read the course books he had written and were published by one particular publishing house and the student subsequently has to buy that particular book.
As for the rest of the market, ALL Beck publishes literature for managers and companies. The books are mostly how-to's and are accessible even for those working in this field but lacking an economic education, Padurariu says.
Rentrop & Straton Publishing House and Business Consultancy Group aims at one particular market segment: the managers. The group was born in 1995 in Romania and founded a German-Romanian joint venture with Bonn-based VNR Verlag fur die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG.
"We started with "Idei de Afaceri (Business Ideas) magazine, which is conceived after a German model, but is not a mere translation. We take some German ideas that can be applied in Romania and present them to those willing to start up and develop a business," Cipriana Matache, the group's executive manager, said.
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