Individual grants will be between 50,000 to 250,000 kunas.
The Ministry of Culture has published a public call for proposals for business programs for entrepreneurship in the field of bookstores and book publishing. In total, two million kunas have been allocated for the program, reports Poslovni.hr on June 8, 2017.
The grants will be approved for up to 85 percent of eligible costs of the proposed projects; the lowest individual grant will amount to 50,000 kunas and the highest to 250,000 kunas. Individuals and businesses registered for book-publishing and book-selling activities have the right to apply for the grants.
This money will support the opening and equipping of bookstores by covering part of the costs of buying or renting business premises, as well as by covering part of the operating expenses for up to 12 months. The grants can also be used for bookstore decoration, the buying of shelves and other furniture, for IT equipment, and for improving bookstores by redesigning existing premises and improving current business models.
The Ministry of Culture will also support employment and self-employment in the field of bookselling. It will co-finance 50 percent of the gross salary of a newly-employed person, up to 5,000 kunas per month per person, for up to 12 months. The financial support will also be given to promotional actions – fairs and festival events that encourage the sale of and exchange of books and reading in general, as well as programmes to increase the presence of books in the media, with emphasis on the new media, and a range of other activities, including the development of new book distribution channels.
The government’s action comes at a convenient moment when the bookselling business in Croatia is going through a serious crisis. Algoritam, the largest bookstore chain in the country, recently closed the doors of its many bookstores, leaving many towns literally without a single bookstore. This has also caused significant problems for book publishers since they now have fewer outlets from which to sell their books.
The number of books sold in Croatia has been falling for years, and successive governments have failed to provide substantial help to publishers and bookstores, who are in a particularly difficult situation since they have to pay high costs for renting shops in town centres and shopping malls, far greater than they could reasonably be expected to be able to pay from their revenue. Some local authorities have decided to subside part of their costs, but the decline in the number of bookstores and books published continues unabated.
