The 25th National Book Expo came to a close Sunday in Taiyuan, capital of West China's Shanxi province. During the three-day Expo, 250,000 books were on display to the public, and almost 200 reading activities were held.
Details of the Expo show new trends in Chinese publishing circles. While the country is facing a reading crisis, publishing companies are looking for breakthroughs in order to gain more readers in the internet plus era.
Publishers factoring risk for Expo, less is more
More and more press companies decreased the number of books on display. But with a lack in quantity comes a plus in quality of the books. Publishing companies are looking to strenghten its marketing schemes, especially the noted time-honored press companies.
In the past, Jiangsu People's Publishing Ltd. used to display more than 500 books during the Expo. This year, they put up around 200 books. According to Hu Delin, assistant director at Jiangsu People's Publishing Ltd., the main purpose of the Expo is to show products and exchange experiences with other companies. In that case, only the most competitive products can win public attraction.
"Press companies are becoming much more calculative. If they bring in too many books, they risk losing the book's condition with transportation issues. If the books are damaged they won't attract readers, and they become a waste," said Hu.
SDX Joint Publishing Company and Zhonghua Book Company also reduced the number of books on display only putting up latest best-sellers or books that have been recently published.
Yu Wenjun, vice director of Zhejiang People's Publishing Ltd. said, "nowadays, publishing companies are developing fast in traditional bookstores and online bookstores; but the fact is less new books are hitting the shelves. Without key products, your company will be neglected by both the readers and bookstores."
Copyright-free public domain books are getting a makeover
Copyright-free public domain books, such as 300 Selected Poems of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Grimm's Fairytales, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway used to be the frequenters in Chinese book expos because of their cheap price. Nowadays, it's rare to find these types of books at the expo anymore.
According to Song Zhijun, vice director of Zhonghua Book Company, copyright-free public domain books are no longer competitive in the market directly due to the impact of free e-books. Publishing companies spend more time planning and designing such kinds of books.
"To publishing companies, it's not a good signal. Although copyright-free public domain books will not disappear from the market, we have to pay more attention on plans and designs. Without innovation or characteristics, we cannot make a profit from these books anymore," said Song.
This year's Expo saw most of the copyright-free public domain books on display featured new retranslations. Lu Zhizhou, a senior editor in Yilin Press Ltd., told Chinese media that the translation on the copyright-free public domain books is really important. Adding that some classic translations are outdated for today's reader.
"Several publishing companies published classic books like The Federalist Papers and Journal of the Federal Convention. While their translations are fine, the books still have abstruse content. So we invited noted translator Yin Xuan to retranslate the two books. Yin Xuan added annotations in some parts to meet our readers' needs,” said Lu.
Pocket books are on the rise
Large-sized luxury books are no longer the main character in the Expo. Instead, publishing companies are launching simple packaged pocket books to compete with e-books.
Five publishing companies of China South Publishing and Media Group recently launched a series of 50 pocket books. The series covers classic works from politics and philosophy to literature and culture.
After a mass investigation, Zhang Qinghua, vice general manager of China South Publishing, decided to publish a series of pocket-size separable books. Each book keeps 50,000 to 80,000 words printed on picked thin paper.
"Fragmentation and superficiality are the characteristics of online reading in modern society. It might be convenient for readers, but the content usually lacks selection and editing. Traditional books are too heavy for readers. So there comes the pocket book. The books are light but qualified in content. In the future, it will be a new trend in the field of publishing. It will be an important competitor of online reading as well," said Zhang.
