For many publishers these small one-language countries attract very little interest. Their loss. As the digital ascendancy continues so small markets like this will be increasingly fought over
First published in the UK in 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone made its appearance in Bulgarian in the year 2000, courtesy of Egmont Bulgaria.
This month it was the turn of the audiobook in Bulgarian, along with the rest of the series as narrated by Silvia Petkova and premiered on Storytel thanks to a partnership between Storytel Bulgaria and Pottermore Publishing.
Listen to an excerpt from the Bulgarian edition here.
Storytel Bulgaria has since launch carried the English-language Harry Potter audiobooks as narrated by Stephen Fry, as part of 50,000 or so English-language titles in the system.
Storytel Bulgaria Country Manager Lisa Vasileva said the operation now carries over 1,000 Bulgarian-language titles.
Storytel’s interest in Bulgaria surfaced in January 2018 when, as reported by TNPS, it acquired D&D Factory, the operation behind the Bulgarian audiobook service Audioknig.
Storytel Bulgaria officially launched in December of that year –
and by August 18 was already the fastest growing publishing sector in the country.
With a population of 7 million Bulgaria is smaller than London or New York, but its 4.7 million people online make it a potentially rewarding digital market, on par with New Zealand or Ireland.
Storytel, Egmont and Pottermore understand that, but for many publishers these small one-language countries attract very little interest. Their loss. As the digital ascendancy continues so small markets like this will be increasingly fought over.
