Some 438 million books published in 2021: Minister

ISTANBUL

More than 438 million books were published in 2021 alone in Turkey, the culture and tourism minister has said, noting that the publishing industry in the country has made a serious breakthrough and made significant progress in recent years.

While speaking at the Istanbul International Publishing Week Award Ceremony, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said there is a 5 percent increase in book production when the figures for December 2020 and 2021 are compared, despite the stagnation in the culture industry in the last two years.

“By the end of 2021, the number of book titles produced by our publishing industry increased to 87,231 and the number of books to 438.7 million,” Ersoy said.

He also announced that Turkey ranks sixth in the world in terms of the number of titles assigned ISBNs (International Standard Book Number), and 10th in terms of retail market size, according to current international statistics.

Stating that financial support was provided for translation and publication of 238 Turkish works into foreign languages in 2021 in line with a specific program, the minister emphasized that the number of works that received financial support since 2005 increased to 3,495.