Anna Jane (Anna Potapkina) and Fyodor Dostoevsky remain the most widely published authors, as they were a year ago. These are statistics from the Russian Book Chamber for the first half of 2026. The statistics are based on registered mandatory copies of publications. Stephen King is in third place.
Literary critics have been trying to decipher the Anna Jane phenomenon for several years now. Anna Jane is the author of over 50 books, including “My Perfect Tornado,” “White Sparks of Snow,” and “Musical Love Spell.” Why are her books so popular? Perhaps it’s because teenagers today don’t find the passionate love and emotions they experience in the here and now in classic works. Among children’s literature authors, the most-sold authors are Elena Ulieva, a master of therapeutic fairy tales, followed by contemporary poet Andrei Usachev and the timeless poet Kornei Chukovsky.
From January to June 2026, the total circulation of published publications (books and brochures) amounted to 150.8 million copies, compared to 172.5 million copies in the first six months of last year, 2025.
In the first half of 2026, publications translated from 97 languages were registered, including 52 languages of the Russian Federation. Among these publications, books translated from English continue to lead the way, with 4,355 of them published in the first half of 2026. French followed with 714 publications, followed by German with 601, and Japanese with 421.
