The invasion of Ukraine by the army of Vladimir Putin has created the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War Two. The number of people who have lost their houses, families or lives is heartbreaking. The economy of Ukraine has also been severely impacted, with billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure, including schools, libraries, bookstores, destroyed.
Ukraine's culture, too, is under attack. Ukraine's book publishers fight day and night just to keep their business alive and viable. Many have been forced to cease operations altogether.
The military attacks against Ukraine have also forced people to leave the country and become refugees, not only in neighboring countries, but across Europe and around the globe. Millions of refugees are expected to join the Ukrainian diaspora in the next weeks, including many children who need to continue their studies abroad. And for that, they need Ukrainian books. Adult refugees will also want to stay in contact with Ukraine as much as they can and having access to books in their own language is an important way to do that..
Given this urgent need, StreetLib is launching the Ukrainian Ebook Project, which allows Ukrainian publishers and writers to create and distribute their ebooks commission-free for at least 5 years. To be specific, StreetLib is eliminating both the StreetLib distribution fee and the StreetLib Write monthly subscription fee for Ukrainian authors and publishers.
Ukrainian publishers or writers, who want to use StreetLib’s production or distribution service for free, can fill out the form below:
Carlo Carrenho, Head of International Business Development at StreetLib, explains:
This is the absolute minimum we could do and while this might be a drop in the ocean, we believe it is important to do whatever we can to help Ukrainian kids continue their education and help Ukrainian readers remain connected to their language and culture. We urge others to do the same and are open to collaborating to make this happen as well. The real challenge now will be to contact as many authors and publishers as possible and get as many books possible published, distributed and into the hands of readers who need them most.
StreetLib provides a global digital distribution platform and currently distributes over 400,000 titles to over 250 physical and online bookstores, audio and ebook subscription services, and digital libraries across over 50,000 consumer points worldwide. StreetLib has long been the first choice of Italian publishers looking to engage in the global digital reading market, thanks to its distribution partnerships not just with the big international retailers like Amazon, Apple Nook, Google Play, and Kobo but also myriad other retailers worldwide, bolstered by unrivaled digital library reach (OverDrive, Odilo and many others) and subscription service reach (Kobo Plus, Storytel, Bookbeat, Scribd and Youscribe among many).
Contacts us at info@streetlib.com