Book forums are held, new reading infrastructure projects — book shops and libraries — are opened in all regions of Russia on Oleg Novikov's and the Russian Book Union's initiative. The head of the leading publishing group is against violation of the author's rights on the Internet and for creation of the legal content on e-book websites. Education: Moscow Aviation Institute.
In 1991, he founded the Eksmo bookselling company together with Andrei Gredasov and became its Director General. In 1993, the company launched its publishing activities. In 1996, he became a co-owner of the Novy Knizhny trade network (later renamed Chitai-Gorod). In 2004, he became a co-owner of the Bukvoed chain (later merged with
Chitai-Gorod). In 2008, he became a shareholder of the LitRes group of companies. In 2018, he left the position of the Director General of the Eksmo publishing house, becoming the President of the Eksmo-AST publishing group.
The biggest in Russia Eksmo-AST publishing group publishes books in all genres. The publishing houses led by Oleg Novikov discovered and presented to Russian readers such authors as Zakhar Prilepin, Dmitri Glukhovsky, Eugene Vodolazkin, Boris Akunin, Darya Dontsova, Tatyana Ustinova, Vladimir Pozner, Victor Pelevin, Paulo Coelho, Haruki Murakami, Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, George Martin, Umberto Eco, Ray Bradbury and many others. In 2020, he became a shareholder of the merged Chitai-Gorod — Bukvoed book chain.