"Harry Potter" in Ukrainian? Yes (soon), thanks to Ivan Malkovych

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Soon Ukrainians will be able to determine for themselves what has endeared a generation of kids to the magical Harry Potter and the series of books by J.K. Rowling about the young.

On January 9, A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha, the respected publisher of Ukrainian language children's books, announced it had purchased the Ukrainian-language rights to the first book of the Harry Potter series and an option on the rest.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" caused a sensation in the publishing industry - and among children, as well as adults, who purchased it in numbers that demolished previous sales records for children's books - when it was introduced in 1997. The series that followed, three books to date, has remained popular not only with the under-13 crowd but with youngsters and oldsters alike.

Ivan Malkovych, founder and president of A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha, the first private Ukrainian children's publishing house established after the collapse of the Soviet Union - which will celebrate 10 years in business in August - said that while he didn't expect sales in Ukraine to attain the astronomical rates that were seen in the West in the year after "The Sorcerer's Stone" hit the racks, he is certain that a niche market exists.

He said that he believes readers interested in the fantasy genre developed by other renowned British authors who told stories of magical lands and encounters - such as J.R.R. Tolkien and Lewis Carroll, who are famous, respectively, for "The Hobbit" and "Alice in Wonderland" - would take to the books.

The business deal comes after extensive and difficult negotiations, explained Mr. Malkovych, who was a poet and not a businessman before becoming a publisher of kids' books.

"Obtaining the rights took a lot of time and a lot of correspondence," explained Mr. Malkovych. "At first the British publishers even kept mispronouncing the name, 'Ukraine.' But then again, why should they be familiar with us?"

Only after he made the publishers understand that Ukraine is a large country with a large market was the agreement completed.

A Russian-language version of the book has been out for about a year in an initial run of more than 100,000, which will make selling the Ukrainian book more challenging because those in Ukraine who couldn't wait to get their hands on the story - and were not fluent in one of the languages in which it was published prior to that - have already read the Russian edition. Mr. Malkovych said he would have to advertise loud and hard to get his Ukrainian version noticed.

He explained that the low cost of the Russian-language version already on the Ukrainian market also causes a potential problem of price-competitiveness for his company. A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha cannot afford the large initial print run that the Russians could, and does not have the international market that an offering in the Russian language does.

In addition, Mr. Malkovych must contend with a Ukrainian value-added tax (VAT) of 20 percent. In Russia book publishers are tax-exempt, which is a central reason that Mr. Malkovych is considering publishing the book in Russia.

"Unfortunately, we will probably be printing in Russia. We can save nearly 30 percent on the cost that way," explained Mr. Malkovych, who underscored that the creative process, including illustrations to be done by Mr. Malkovych's long-time illustrator, Vladyslav Yerko, will take place in Ukraine.

In addition to a competitive price, Mr. Malkovych believes a key to the book's success on the Ukrainian market hinges on the quality of the translation. He intends to remain absolutely true to the original story, as is required by his contract, but would like to see an element of Ukrainian culture and national psyche appear in the dialogue.

For example he envisions the pleasant Hagrid speaking in the native accent of the Halychyna region of Ukraine with the same good-natured candidness often exhibited there.

The persons tasked with fulfilling Mr. Malkovych's vision are Viktor Morozov, a Lviv philologist, and two editors, one of which is Toronto-born Motria Onyschuk, who previously had translated A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha's "The Cat and the Rooster" into English for Knopf Publishers, owners of the English-language rights.

Mr. Malkovych, who would not disclose what he paid for the rights to the blockbuster Harry Potter series, other than to say that it involved a fixed fee plus a percentage of the royalties, explained that he believes it is important that such a globally popular book be published in Ukrainian in order to keep Ukrainian-language speakers apace with the development of modern literature and to send a signal to Western publishers that the Ukrainian language cannot be ignored in their global distribution campaigns.

And while that point was a primary reason he pursued the Ukrainian rights so vigorously, another more basic one was simply that the book will sell because it has universal appeal and will touch Ukrainian children in the same way it has affected youngsters in much of the West who have now been exposed to four books about their beloved young wizard and his friends (and foes) at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"It is a modern book, which seems at first glance not to incorporate modern themes, but it is quite the contrary," explained Mr. Malkovych. "These are normal kids who turn out to have magical abilities. Our kids are given hope that they, too, might have magic within their grasp. It gives them faith in themselves."

First million copy printing

Also in celebration of the 10th anniversary of A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha, Mr. Malkovych has re-issued seven of the most popular children's stories and folk tales produced by his company over the years. It is the first ever 1-million-copy printing of children's books in Ukraine, which was made possible by support of Ukraine's postal service, UkrPost, in a joint project called "Mini Dyvo" (Mini Wonder).

The books are almost pamphlet-like in size, but more importantly they can be had for a single hryvnia each, which makes them accessible to all Ukrainian children. And they will be available everywhere, almost literally, because UkrPost has agreed to sell them in all of its more than 15,000 post offices nationwide, which are found not only in the largest cities, but also in the most remote and tiny villages.

"Our books are often called the best, but more often they are called the most expensive," said Mr. Malkovych, explaining why he had decided to pursue the project.

In 10 years A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha has published some 400,000 copies of nearly 50 different children's book titles, folk tales, fables and stories from lands near and far, including, of course, Ukraine, but also from Russia, Poland, Germany, Holland and England.

Mr. Malkovych, who continues to write poetry for adults and children alike and has done many of the translations of foreign folk tales found in the A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha collection, said the reason he started to publish was quite simple:

"I wanted an alphabet book for my son, one that began with 'A for anhel' [(angel], and not 'A for akula' [shark - which was how Soviet alphabet books began]. I also wanted thick cardboard pages that small children would not immediately destroy," explained Mr. Malkovych.

And thus A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha was born. The name, keeping true to Mr. Malkovych's original intent, comes from a story by Ivan Franko, "Hryts's School Lesson," in which a young school child when asked by his father what he had learned in school that day replies "a-ba-ba-ha-la-ma-ha," when in fact meaning to say "abetka" (the alphabet).

Mr. Malkovych's first book, "Abetka," which still is available today, became a thick, cardboard-paged success after a well-known book distributor bought 3,000 of a very large run of 50,000 books.

Ten years down the road, Mr. Malkovych said he believes that the high standards he sets for himself and his co-workers and the quality they produce, are what has allowed A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha to keep working for as long as it has.

"Our credo has always been high quality. We wanted kids to pick our books because they were the most interesting - the cover, the illustrations and finally the story they would read later - which would, not coincidentally, also be a Ukrainian-language book," explained Mr. Malkovych. "We wanted those kids to develop a fondness for Ukrainian books."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 13, 2002, No. 2, Vol. LXX

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