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According to Publishing in China, 2nd ed., in 2007, book sales in China were $7.3 billion, average spending on books, magazines and newspapers was $4.50 per person; while in the U.S., trade book publishing was a $25 billion business and per capita book spending was $90.00. According to Xue Ye, president of the China Private Book Industry Committee, there are over 10,000 cultural companies in China, they produce about 30,000 titles a year, half of the titles on the Chinese bestseller lists come from these companies. GAPP is a ministry level government agency, the rank of its head is Minister, but on one page, it is translated as the director, on another page, it is the president, while in the organization chart of GAPP on page 13, the agency has one Minister and ve Vice Ministers. 123 92 Pub Res Q (2011) 27:9092 For any foreign publishers who want to explore the Chinese market more than simply selling translation rights, Publishing in China, 2nd ed. will provide a complete survey of the Chinese book and magazine markets and a detailed description of the industry structure.
Pub Res Q (2011) 27:9092
DOI 10.1007/s12109-010-9194-z
Xin Guangwei: Publishing in China: An Essential Guide
2nd Edition, Cengage Learning, Singapore, 2010, 383 pp, Hardcover, $ 79.95, ISBN 13: 978-981-4253-91-8
Xiao Chuan Lian
Published online: 4 January 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
U.S. companies are turning to China for growth. According news reports, in the rst half of this year, General Motors made $734 million after taxes in China, about one third of the companys entire $2.2 billion net income. This year, China will become General Motors largest market. Stores of Starbucks in China have higher operating prots than in the U.S., the company plans to triple the number of its stores in China in the next ve years and make China its largest market outside the U.S.
Compared to the U.S., however, book market in China is small. According to Publishing in China, 2nd ed., in 2007, book sales in China were $7.3 billion, average spending on books, magazines and newspapers was $4.50 per person; while in the U.S., trade book publishing was a $25 billion business and per capita book spending was $90.00. Certainly, the Chinese book market has great potential: if the per capita spending on books increases by mere $0.10, the Chinese book market will grow by $130 million. Publishing in China, 2nd ed. describes the current foreign investments in the Chinese publishing market and offers valuable advice on market entry and survival strategies. So far, more than 80 foreign publishing companies have established ofces in China. There are some successful stories in the magazine industry, such as IDGs China Computer World and Hachette Filipacchis Elle. In the book industry, however, we see the failure of Bertelsmann in its book club and bookselling investments.
The author, Mr. Xin Guangwei, provided detailed and insightful analysis of these different fortunes. Mr. Xin is the acting editor-in-chief of the Peoples Publishing House in Beijing, before that, he worked at the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), which is the government agency supervising the publishing industry, and served as vice president of the China Institute of Publishing Science a think tank under GAPP.
X. C. Lian (&)
Pace University, 551 Fifth Avenue, Room 805, New York, NY 10176, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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Currently, printing and distribution sectors in China are open to foreigners, but publishing itself is off limits. There are only 579 book publishers in mainland Chinaall state-owned, while Taiwan has 7,000 publishing houses and Hong Kong has 500.
A main topic of the book is the current status of translation rights sales between Chinese and foreign publishers. Unlike other industries where Chinese companies enjoy huge trade surplus, the Chinese publishing industry is running a decit: Chinese publishers bought translation rights to 5,506 American titles in 2003, 3,932 in 2005; but American publishers acquired no more than 20 Chinese rights each year before 2005, and bought translation rights for only 147 Chinese titles in 2006 and 200 in 2007. GAAP has launched a campaign to encourage Chinese publishers to sell more foreign rights and has established a special fund to subsidize translations. This book has several interesting chapters analyzing the rights trade between China and the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Books translated from the U.S. are much more popular in China than books from any other countries.
For foreign publishers looking for opportunities in China, the phenominon of cultural companies would be of special interest. These cultural companies are book packagers in that they come up with a book idea, recruit an author, and put together a complete manuscript ready to print, then team up with a state-owned publisher, use that publishers name and ISBN to get the book out to the market. According to Xue Ye, president of the China Private Book Industry Committee, there are over 10,000 cultural companies in China, they produce about 30,000 titles a year, half of the titles on the Chinese bestseller lists come from these companies. Cultural companies are also very active in buying translation rights from foreign publishers and authors, each year they introduce 2,000 foreign books into China. For example, Shanghai 99 Readers Culture Co., Ltd. is the home of Dan Brown, Stephen King, Philip Roth and Stieg Larsson. Another packager, Thinkingdom Media Group, recently acquired the Chinese rights to Gabriel Garca Mrquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude and paid a rumored sum of $1 million. Many state-owned publishers start to pay attention to new business developments. Last year, Phoenix Publishing and Media Group, a major publishing conglomerate in China, invested 100 million RMB ($15 million) for a 51% stake in Beijing Republic Linkage Books Ltd., a packager of many bestsellers including China Can Say No. Mr. Xin has a section on this subject in the book.
The translators of the book have done a nice job, but some inconsistencies did occur. For example, the buying and selling translation rights are sometimes translated as import and export, which would cause confusion with the actual book importing and exporting business (according to Mr. Xin, in 2007, China imported 3.7 million copies of foreign books, worth $78 million; while exported 7 million copies of Chinese books, worth $33 million). Another example of translation problems is the different references to GAPP or the General Administration for Press and Publications. GAPP is a ministry level government agency, the rank of its head is Minister, but on one page, it is translated as the director, on another page, it is the president, while in the organization chart of GAPP on page 13, the agency has one Minister and ve Vice Ministers.
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For any foreign publishers who want to explore the Chinese market more than simply selling translation rights, Publishing in China, 2nd ed. will provide a complete survey of the Chinese book and magazine markets and a detailed description of the industry structure. The book also touches upon the publishing industries in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. This is an essential guide; there are no other English language current books on this important subject in the market.
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Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011