Many of us turned to books to relax, find some comfort or escape reality in a tremendously upsetting year. The year that I am talking about was none other than 2020 when the coronavirus hit the whole world, posing a great health danger to people, especially the vulnerable ones.

With the impact of the lockdowns imposed on us to halt the spread of the virus, 35% of the world started to read more according to a 2020-dated infographic released by Global English Editing. And according to the infographic, book sales in Türkiye increased by 30%, which shows that Turkish readers also increased their literary intake during the lockdowns.

Despite the surge in reading rates and book sales, the publishing industry took a huge hit during this period as there has been a significant drop in physical book sales, and many bookshops have been forced to shift their business to online.

Destek Publishing, known as Destek Yayınları in Turkish, one of the most well-known publishing houses in Türkiye, managed to overcome the challenging pandemic period with significant growth by quickly adapting its sales to external conditions.

Classified as the most profitable publishing house in Türkiye by Forbes in line with its annual turnover in 2017, Destek Publishing and Destek Productions was founded by Yelda Cumalıoğlu in 2006. It publishes a wide range of issues from fiction and nonfiction to graphic novels and mangas. Since the day it was established, the company has been adding fresh, magnificent colors to the world of ideas in literature, research and investigation, biography and memoir.

Destek Publishing and Destek Productions is the parent company of four publishing houses: Destek Publishing, Karakarga Publishing, Genç Destek and Beyaz Baykuş. It brings together 4 million books with readers annually and sells the books of Turkish authors to many countries, especially Azerbaijan, Georgia, France, Greece, Germany and, England. Its books are also translated into many languages, including English, German, French, Uzbek and Russian.

We sat down with Destek Publishing's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Kaan Cumalıoğlu to learn more about the vision and mission of the publishing house along with the secrets of their success in the literary world. Noting that Destek Publishing was founded in an environment where publishers are much more traditional than today, Cumalıoğlu said that their publishing house, unlike others, set out with the goal of being an open-minded company that gives a chance to different writing styles, thinks outside the box, has a broad vision and offers opportunities to new writers.

According to Cumalıoğlu, Destek Publishing has taken its place at the top of the publishing industry by boldly taking risks in the kinds of books they publish. The company has adopted giving a chance to talented writers who are not given the opportunity to express themselves because they do not have fame in the literary world as their principal.

"What matters to us is not the reputation of an author, but the claim of the work they wrote. We use all the means at our disposal to enable our authors to reveal their originality. We also give chances to different genres and styles that we are not accustomed to. Therefore, we have all kinds of books and authors of all styles. We see this as our wealth and we continue to maintain this attitude in our new books," he said.

Cumalıoğlu informed that their employees also come from different cultures and have different opinions. "Thanks to this diversity, we can publish books that can appeal to people from all walks of life.

"Besides, we, as Destek Publishing, are far ahead of many businesses in terms of our number of female employees. Seventy percent of our employees are women, and this keeps our creativity alive as well as adding aesthetics to the works we produce.

"With all these publication policies, Destek Publishing has achieved its objective to have an open mind in the industry," he added.

Parent company

Destek Media Group is one of the prestigious institutions in the publishing world with the publishing houses within its body. Cumalıoğlu also provided information about these houses.

While publishing the works of Nobel laureates, Destek Publishing also creates a brand new audience with their young writers. Without aiming to meet anyone's expectations, it insists on pursuing the unexpected and surprising. By breaking the rules and crossing lines, it opens doors to new ideas and new talent and keeps the pulse of the industry pumping.

Karakarga Publishing destroys the idolized cliches with its own lines. Freed from the imposed cartoon characters, it offers a blank page to the illustrators of unusual, original and inspiring stories. "As Karakarga Publishing, we draw, write and print without having to choose what everyone chooses, without worrying about loving what everyone likes, without trying to be like everyone else," Cumalıoğlu says.

Beyaz Baykuş, on the other hand, embarks on a journey to lands beyond the visible with inspiring books from science to art, from ecology to philosophy in order to understand today's world better and to create the world of the future. The publishing house pursues fresh ideas and different perspectives, knowing that each piece added to the whole is valuable and unique, according to Cumalıoğlu.

Genç Destek Publishing gives the unruly young authors of literature the opportunity to dream and construct as freely as possible without having to look like anyone else. "We believe that those who do not think and write like us have a genius. We do not hesitate to go beyond the cliches, we are not afraid of the emergence of new trends, we are not ashamed of the language spoken on the street, and we do not find anyone who uses a pen to express their dreams objectionable," he added.

Among the notable international authors that have published books with Destek Publishing for fiction and nonfiction are John De Martini, James Richards, David Icke, Tristan Gooly and Guy Finley. Also, the Turkish translation of its book "The Secret of Letting Go" published by Destek sold over 240,000 books in Türkiye.

Ethan Hawke, Alfred, Guy Delisle, Lucas Hariri, Gregory Mardon and M.K. Perker are on the other hand some of the notable international authors that have published graphic novels with Karakarga.

Toward success

Destek Publishing both fulfills the bulk book requests of distributors and booksellers with business-to-business service and makes special deliveries directly to consumers with business-to-consumer service. Namely, in addition to sending books to domestic and international businesses via e-commerce and their book sales site, Destek Publishing enables readers to find the book they want wherever they are in the world.

Destek Publishing has also achieved significant success during the pandemic period, growing by more than 50 percent. During the period, they adapted very quickly to the change and threw their strength behind the use of online sales channels more effectively, according to Cumalıoğlu. "We overcame this period by making our own sales site more active and using other e-sales channels efficiently."

Moreover, the publishing house sends books by Turkish authors to all corners of the world and makes agreements with various publishing houses to translate Turkish books into local languages. After starting to launch Turkish authors’ works in foreign countries, they received orders from countries they had expected little interest in Turkish books, according to Cumalıoğlu. "Recently, we sent Turkish fiction, nonfiction and language books to Georgia as a result of the good work we did with Georgia's largest bookstore chain. On this occasion, we learned that there is a serious Georgian population who is curious about Turkish culture and Turkish literature. On the other hand, we also saw a large demand for books from the Turkish population living in Georgia buying from Georgian booksellers," he explained.

In line with their policies, the publishing house ensures that its authors' books are translated into many languages, giving readers the opportunity to read the books in any language they wish. "For example, in addition to having Turkish author Hakan Mengüç's books translated into different languages, including Bulgarian, by working with publishing houses of many countries, we also printed and delivered his book "Hiçbir Karşılaşma Tesadüf Değildir" ("No Encounter Is By Chance") in Turkish, German and English," Cumalıoğlu added.

Briefly, Destek Publishing has been managing to steal the hearts of its readers by satisfying them with its catalog featuring titles that are sure to meet everyone’s expectations. Why don’t you pay a visit to the website of the publishing house to check out their catalogs comprising a wide range of genres, different authors and languages to find suitable books for yourselves to increase your literary intake?