Some insights in the Chinese publishing industry

[Lu]

I just talked to a Chinese author, whose first book was published two years ago. I learned some things about the Chinese publishing industry that I thought might be interesting to some people here as well.

This author told me how after publishing her first book with a well-known publisher, another well-known publisher had asked her to write a sequel. They were willing to give her a grant to cover the publishing costs with.

Apparently authors, non-famous ones at least, have to pay the publishers to print their book. The publisher then takes care of things like editing, cover and interior design and distribution. Do you at least get good editing for that? I asked, because to my knowledge editing in China is usually limited to correcting the 错别字. No, she said. She had actually had good editing, with suggestions on how to make the book better, but that was only because the editor was a friend of hers. She wrote the book in six months, and then pretty much rewrote it after friends of hers had commented on it.

So are the royalties higher then, I asked. No, she said. Royalties are 8%, or if you're very famous and very lucky, perhaps it goes up to 12%. This is about the same as in Holland, where you usually do get insightful editing and don't have to pay for printing yourself.

And then once the book is printed, she said, publishers just ship it off to bookstores without caring much about promotion. After all, their costs are fairly small anyway.

If publishers would try that in Holland, they would very quickly be completely pushed out of the market by vanity presses. My conclusion was that the only reason they can get away with it in China is that publishers hold the ISBN's, and without an ISBN you can't publish a book.

The author told me that this is part of the reason authors have taken to the web. You start out writing some stories, and if they get popular and get lots of fans, a website will contact you to have you sign a contract with them. That way you can make good money. Publishers then look at the internet to see which authors are popular and publish their books. The author said that in publishing houses, some employees are just reading the internet all day, scouting new talents.

I didn't know most of this and thought it was a very sorry state of affairs. A friend of mine translated a book for a Taiwanese publisher and his experience was pretty bad, but it looks like authors (in China at least) have it even worse.

[abcdefg]

That's interesting, @Lu.

 

I had a Kunming friend who was a minor publisher for several years. She changed careers and decided to run a private school instead. (Now has moved away.)

 

Once asked her about that previous line of work, mainly wondering why she got out of it. Told me that one of the factors was official interference. Could not always find out what would meet with disapproval until the final product was released onto the seller's bookshelves. Submitting drafts for review worked some of the time, but not always.

 

That led to some costly recalls and increased overhead. Also led to staying very safe and not taking even small chances. Eventually she settled on only publishing school textbooks. But bidding for those contracts had lots of ins and outs that made it difficult.

 

So it seems like publishing in China doesn't work too well either for most authors or many publishers.

 

Nonetheless, it's always surprising to see so many books for sale here, even in unlikely places such as parks and grocery stores. Digital media and web publishing have arrived in a big way, but still have not entirely taken over the market.

[ChTTay]

There is a Sinica podcast (or two) on or relating to publishing in China. Worth listening to as well.