“درود به همه”

“Greetings to all”
Reza Najafi

“This is one of the wonders of our time. Fifty years ago, during the reign of Reza Shah, when the population of Iran was not even thirty million, the number of book copies in this country reached up to three thousand, more or less. But now, with the population of Iran being more than double or even triple, we are faced with a circulation of only a few hundred copies. What is the reason for this?”

Al Davoud, the manager of the Iranian Law Department at the Center for Islamic Encyclopedia and a researcher in the field of history and literature, said in a conversation about the state of the book industry: “The main problem is still the shortage of circulation and the increase in prices. You see, during the time of Naser al-Din Shah when Iran had a population of only 6 to 7 million and books were printed using lithography, the circulation was 750 copies. But when I spoke last week about publishing my collection of articles with Amir Kabir Publications, they only announced a circulation of 300 copies, which is both sad and tragic.”

The leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran usually refer to the increase in the number of published books each year as evidence of the positive state of publishing and reading in Iran. This is indeed a fact. The number of book titles in Iran has had a remarkable growth.

Increasing titles confirms publishing statistics. However, these statistics are only a part of reality. Without considering other components such as circulation, page numbers, and total number of books published in a period of time, examining the prevalence of book printing and publishing is impossible.

The number of published book titles from the beginning to the end of the 1980s has doubled and reached 64,600 in 2009. Officials attribute this increase solely to an increase in reading books and claim that Iran is ranked among the top countries in the world in this regard, surpassing many European countries.

A look at other statistical sections published by the House of Books institution reveals that the claims of officials are clearly contrary to existing realities; an increase in titles could have meant an increase in reading, but the number of published books also doubled.

The total number of published books, especially in the second half of the 1980s, has had a downward trend and has decreased by approximately 32 million copies between the years 1985 and 1989. The reason for this sharp decline in the number of book copies is due to the past years.

In 80 AH, the average circulation of books in Iran was 5,234 copies, which decreased to 2,768 copies in the first 9 months of 91 AH, with a decrease of about 49%. The total number of books published in Iran has reached 228.55 million in 85 AH and 198.6 million in 89 AH.

In the past years, the average number of book pages has also decreased each year. According to the statistics of the Book House in 85, a little over 47 billion printed pages were released to the market in the form of books. This amount has decreased by 12% in 89, with approximately 40 billion pages.

In other words, despite the doubling of the number of published books, the total number of printed texts available to potential readers in Iran has decreased by several billion pages.

The decrease in the total number of books and printed pages has occurred while, according to the statistics of the Iranian Statistical Center, the population has increased by approximately one million people every year in the 1980s. Therefore, the necessary infrastructure and resources for increasing the level of reading have not been provided, and any statistics claiming otherwise are not believable.

The manager of one of the largest and oldest companies in Iran, in a brief interview with one of the media outlets, referring to the decline in the number of books published in Iran, said: “The average number of published books has reached the border of two hundred copies and some prominent Iranian publishers sadly include this number on the back cover of their books, which is a cause of sorrow and grief.”

While hopes for the growth of book production and distribution were increasing after the efficiency of the Reformist government in the summer of 1376 and the expansion of thought and publication, in the same years, restrictions were also heard from non-governmental institutions for some authors and certain topics, and some movements were seen to prevent the spread of book publishing.

According to statistics, the highest number of book readers in 58 (1979) was an average of 11,363 copies one year after the victory of the revolution.

In contrast, the lowest circulation was in the last year, 92, which reached 2,075. According to research and statistics, the number of books has decreased from the fifth government to the tenth government, but the highest average number of books belongs to the governments of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani and the lowest number of books belongs to the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During the presidency of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (fifth and sixth governments) in the period of three intermediate ministers (Seyed Mohammad Khatami, Ali Larijani, and Mostafa Mirsalim) which covered the years 1368 to 1375, the total average number of books was 41,716 copies.

But what has caused the decrease in circulation? It is clear that the low number of book buyers is due to people’s lack of interest in reading. The introduction of new technologies and the internet have lowered the reading rate, and on the other hand, censorship is the main obstacle. However, Mohsen Bagherzadeh, the director of Tous Publications and one of the experienced publishers in Tehran, in an interview with Sharq, believes that although “censorship and the expansion of technology” are important reasons for the decrease in circulation, the main factor that has caused the decline in book sales is the lack of security for publishers to print and sell their books: “Now even with a circulation of a thousand copies, we do not have any guarantee for sales. There is no guarantee.”

According to him, the average circulation of our publications from before the revolution until about 10 years ago was 5,500 copies: “In previous years, our publications have also been published with a circulation of up to 30,000 copies. For example, the Chakhof collection, although it had a large number, also had a circulation of up to 10,000 copies and has been printed multiple times. This means that people were buying books. There were also periods where we published books with a circulation of over 10,000 copies for a population of 40 million. On Fridays, Tous Publications’ bookstore would face a large number of visitors. We had regular customers. This means that new titles would come in during the week and customers would purchase them, following various subjects.”

Jalal Zekayi, an expert in printing and publishing, also spoke to the Shargh newspaper about the important factors of this phenomenon: “Different critical perspectives that have existed towards books in the past, controls imposed by the government, economic instability and wrong government policies have led to a decline in book readership.”

This cultural expert adds: “These reasons reached their peak in 2012; economic pressures, which were only part of it, including the imposition of sanctions and the increase in book costs, the inadequacy of the government in managing the publishing crisis, and especially the uncontrolled price of paper, have had an impact in 2013, which is the lowest year in this statistic.” Zekaii confirms this opinion that the number of book publications in Iran is not accurately reported: “Many publishers even publish fewer books than the number stated on the book’s identification card. This is because if they write 500 copies, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance will not buy 100 copies from them. There is no possibility for supervision either.”

Mohammad Yaraghchi, the manager of Panjareh Publications, in an interview with ISNA, attributed the main reason for the decrease in book circulation to inflation and the economic difficulties of the people. He stated, “The main reason for the decrease in book circulation and reaching a print run of 400-500 copies is primarily due to inflation, which has made books more expensive. Therefore, in these circumstances, people try to purchase more essential goods for their livelihood.”

He added: “The reason many publishers’ books have reached 500 copies is because the circulation of books in the country is not more than this throughout the year; whereas previously, the number of copies of books was around 2000, but in the current situation and considering the low circulation of books, if a publisher prints 2000 copies of a book, it will probably remain in the warehouse for three years, while inflation is growing every year. In addition, when the number of copies of a book increases, the publisher must also pay more copyright and translation fees, which is not feasible with the low circulation of books in a year.”

The summary of the matter is that the decline of book readership in Iran is due to various reasons; from low literacy rates in Iran, the high cost of books, the introduction of competitors such as the internet, films, and television into society, to censorship and difficulties created by government officials for publishers and writers. It seems that until these issues are addressed, book readership will not return to its former position and may even continue to decline.