Top News     

Swedish counselor advises Chinese publishers on overseas markets

China.org.cn, August 29, 2013

• Chinese publishers and authors should understand the overseas market before they plan a plunge into it, a Swedish culture counselor at the 20th Beijing International Book Fair said Wednesday.

  "I think that the publishing houses in China have big roles to play in getting Chinese authors abroad," said Eva Ekerorth, the Counselor of Culture forthe Swedish embassy in China. "It demands a long term strategy. You have to be visible in the right place and at the right time, including attending book fairs, festivals, networking with foreign agencies and publishing houses. All of that demands quite a lot of resources."

  "Even if you have really good authors, good illustrators, good books, good projects, if you don't know the market you are going to, then it's difficult. If you don't have such resources, it will be wise to cooperate with PR companies or agents or local writer association in the country you want to establish authors first because they understand local demands. But all in all, for production, you have to have good contents."

  "We are living in a globalized world. Information flows from east to west and from west to east, it's very difficult to be invisible to the society we live in. On the other hand, if they don't know who you are or another person is, how would anybody want to read you?".

  According to Bowker, the world's leading provider of bibliographic information management solutions, from 2000 to 2012, there are 59,172 China-themed books published around the world. The United States has the most, with 20,508. The U.K. is the second, with 15,262 titles.

  The Bowker statistics also show that China-themed books have been awarded prizes every year since 2000. In total, 238 China-themed titles have received honors, 26.5 percent of which are novels and 22 percent are children books. Other Chinese-related subjects have also been popular among awarding committees. Of all the books awarded prizes, 9 percent of social science books, 8 percent of history books and 7 percent of politics and travel books were on subjects related to China.

  The 20th Beijing International Book Fair is being held at the China International Exhibition Center (New Venue) from August 28 to Sept 1 2013. The exhibition area covers 53,600 square meters, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will take part as the Country of Honor. More than 2,000 publishers, copyright agents and exhibitors from 76 countries and regions have come to the exhibition booths to trade.

Copyright © China.org.cn. All Rights Reserved