"I hope not. Many of us are still in love with books," he says. Petra Škarja, entrepreneur and bestselling author. "But if an unknown Slovenian author wants to publish his own book, it is almost impossible in traditional publishing houses. They would rather publish a book by Steve Jobs than an unknown Janez Novak. In this way, even great Slovenian stories - disappear into oblivion."
She designed an innovative business model for publishing Slovenian authors. "Because there are Slovenian stories that deserve to live forever." This is also the slogan 5KA Publishers. She started working for Katapult, which does all her administration, law, accounting, stock management, warehousing, packaging and shipping. In this way, the beginnings were without high investment and almost risk-free.
"Testing the business idea of a publishing house would have required too much time that I was not willing to invest, too much risk that I was not willing to take, too much knowledge that I did not have and too many areas that would have stressed me out. The Catapult solved all that for me. So I can do what I love to do - write and edit books," says Petra, who, as an enthusiastic user of Katapult, is now also actively involved in the content creation and strategic development of the business accelerator in Zasavje.
5KA Publishing House receives regional gold and national silver awards for innovation, they have published almost 50 books in four years, and last month they toasted a record - 615 books were shipped from the Catapult in one month.
They will continue to support talented Slovenian writers who understand the magic of the book and the power of the written word. And in doing so, they will capture extraordinary Slovenian stories that will be written down - to live forever.
"As long as we write, our culture will exist. As long as we write, we exist."
More about 5KA can be found at: Zalozba5ka.com
P.s.: Their book HALCOM - Looking to the future was named the best Slovenian business book of 2024 on the big stage of the Book Fair!
