In 2018, the Polish book market accounted for approximately 3% of the European publishing market. At the end of 2017, almost 42,000 publishers in Poland were registered in the ISBN database maintained by the National Library. No more than 2000–2500 of them are active (they publish several books a year). However, the market is still highly concentrated. Almost 97% of the market is in the group of almost 300 entities. About 600-700 companies publish over ten books annually. Most of the other registered publishers publish a very limited number of books (The Polish Book Institute).
In 2015 Poland, introduced the so-called Public Lending Rights (PLR). These are royalties paid on loans that compensate authors and publishers for losses from the proceeds caused by borrowing books from libraries.
For many years, the major instrument used to support the book market was the 0% VAT rate for publishing and printing, domestic sale of books, newspapers and periodicals bearing ISSN and ISBN numbers, and publications in Braille. From December 2007, VAT for these goods was raised to 5% starting from 2011. Items without ISSN and ISBN numbers have a 8% VAT rate, as well as books, magazines and printed goods imported from abroad. Since April 1st 2020, the VAT rate for e-books and paper books has been levelled to 5% and the rate for e-press and paper press- to 8%. The exception will be regional and local magazines that are published in forms other than electronic. In these cases, the VAT rate of 5% will be maintained. So far, there exist no data on the impact of the VAT raise to the sector.
The Polish Book Institute finances translations of Polish literature into foreign languages in the framework of the Translation Programme © POLAND.
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