Reading Is A Private Affair

Just as Svetislav Cvijanovic had once launched his book-publishing mission in Belgrade, then the "one-horse town of all races, languages and religions, which, uprooted, - lives neither under its own roof nor quart, but on the street, the tavern, infinite taverns with the tree stump and barbecue at the front door or a pig's head in the window", so should a book campaign now be launched in Belgrade, to create a cultural pattern implying Europeization and modernisation. Convinced our commitment was right, we set up the publishing firm "Vreme knjige".

Vreme knjige was prompted by several factors. The social changes disastrously affected the so-called social (state) publishers, not as much because the state subventions were cut down, but rather because of the structure of the very publishers and the profile of their programs. Burdened by too many employees and lacking the equipment for modern and rapid publishing, lacking money to advertise them and help promote new authors, these firms abandoned the concept of clearly profiled editions and, ultimately faced collapse. Simultaneously, the small private publishers, who appeared in the meantime, did not have much to start with. Without the support (and therefore risk and enthusiasm) of the printing-house, without advertising space and the distribution mechanism, they were doomed to the alternative role from the start. No matter how important, this role in forming a cultural pattern in a country is inevitably marginal and can significantly correct something only if there is something to correct, if there is an elaborated global cultural pattern.

Vreme knjige is an attempt of conceived "tradition creating". Under the slogan "Reading is a Private Affair", the whole project is based on restoring the tradition of private property and civil values. The editorial policy is founded on profiled editions rallying the currently predominant local writers, and its precise standard (format, front page, layout) "bind" the reader not only to each individual book, but to whole editions as well.

Vreme knjige wants to restore faith in the publisher. The editions' high-quality, timely publishing of editions (March 1 and October 1), direct distribution to reader, elaborate marketing, are part of the guarantee of that trust.

Part of the guarantee is also the co-operation with a printing-house which simultaneously develops its own image. The printing-house Publikum, which is best equipped for printing high-quality colors, and group FIA are already deeply involved in creating a new cultural pattern. One need only mention the photography monthly magazine L'impossible, the calendar and almanac Impossible.

The projects contracted for the next year and the already published authors guarantee that Vreme knjige's concept is capable of presenting to the readers the most interesting contemporary authors of today, even before launching an advertising campaign. This, we believe, also implies the ability to elaborate a serious cultural pattern, an autonomous value simultaneously linked to setting political and national patterns in many ways.