Larysa Masimova

The impact of readers as target audiences of publishing houses in Ukraine on PR communication is not clearly understood. The goal of this research is to examine the role of readers in the communication process between publishing houses and customers. The readers become an important source of information about the events of the book publishing market and book novelties. The article shows the results of the poll of visitors of the largest book festivals in Ukraine – Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv and Book Forum in Lviv for 2017–2019. These respondents (200 interviews per event) are not only the main consumers of book products publishing houses, but also they are the source of information about new books and activities of Ukrainian publishing houses themselves. According to the results of the poll, visitors of book fairs pay attention to the advice of their colleagues and friends, which are an important source of information about the events of the book publishing market and book novelties. Almost 50% of respondents create and distribute user-generated content about the events of the book publishing market. This activity is explained by the lack of information about the book market news of more than half of visitors. The results of the research confirm that readers are important publishing communications subjects, consumers are active advocates of the publisher’s brand, friends and colleagues actively create the content about the events of the book publishing market in Ukraine.

Inclusive literature as a component of the process of real involvement of people with disabilities in active social life remains out of the attention of researchers. The paper aims to study the state and existing problems in publishing literature for people with disabilities and the use of inclusive topics by Ukrainian publishers. The results were obtained due to the theoretical comprehension of the empirical materials, which were based on a survey of 42 operating various domestic publishing houses. The vast majority of them expressed an understanding of the importance of publishing literature about people with disabilities and accessible editions for them. One-third of those surveyed publishers have experience in publishing inclusive literature. About 24% of respondents have books in accessible formats. They mainly used such publishing or engineering technologies as books with large print, picture-books, and books with pictograms. The study also found that among a few current insurmountable restraining factors of development of inclusive literature is the commercial inexpediency of such projects. The results of this study will contribute to the formation of collective public opinion on the importance of inclusive literature and, consequently, the attraction of the financing of inclusive publications of patrons, sponsors, crowdfunding platforms, etc.