Rotpunktverlag lanciert Crowdfunding wegen “Durstrecke”
Published: Thursday, Apr 4th 2024, 12:40
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Rising costs and falling demand are causing problems for the Zurich-based Rotpunkt publishing house. The publisher launched a crowdfunding campaign on Thursday to raise 100,000 francs.
Over the next 29 days, the Zurich-based Rotpunkt publishing house wants to raise 100,000 francs. "We have to overcome a lean period," publishing director Patrizia Grab told the Keystone-SDA news agency. The company is struggling with rising production costs, including the printing and binding of books. These have increased by around 20 percent, according to Grab. The publisher cannot simply pass on the extra costs to its customers.
In addition, business was good during the coronavirus pandemic, but it slowed down afterwards. "People have other hobbies again," said Grab. The publishing funding from the Federal Office of Culture is also not enough to fill the gaps. Cutting back on publishing is also not an option: "We can't just skip a season, otherwise we'll lose visibility."
For the publishing director, it is also clear that the visibility of books tends to decrease in the media and that social media would not work so well as a counterbalance for a publishing house with a rather older audience. "We are not a Tik-Tok publisher," said Grab, alluding to the Booktok trend. A community of book lovers has formed on the platform. The focus is on fiction. Rotpunkverlag specializes in non-fiction and hiking books.
Not the first publisher with crowdfunding
Publishers in Switzerland have already relied on crowdfunding in the past, such as the comic publisher Edition Moderne or Dörlemann Verlag, which publishes literature and non-fiction books. There is no fear of wear and tear, as Rotpunktverlag is planning a one-off campaign. "We are convinced that we can manage it," said Grab.
Sales in the Swiss-German book market stagnated in 2023, as reported by the Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association at the beginning of March. Total sales amounted to 586.4 million Swiss francs, an increase of two percent compared to the previous year.
However, this increase was only due to the inclusion of new transactions in the report that were not included in previous years. Fewer books were sold overall. Retailers were able to maintain sales by increasing prices.
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