Marketing platforms and publishing houses have attempted to launch new books in digital and paper forms simultaneously. Photo: FILE

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Publishing houses across China had a concern that digital books might whittle down sales of physical books. However, their attitude is shifting. Five years ago, less than 200 publishing houses had formed partnerships with Amazon Kindle. The figure now exceeds 700. Meanwhile, the number of e-books offered on the Kindle Store has surged tenfold. During the first half of 2018, seven out of ten major books have had simultaneous print and digital launches.

Such transformations are driven by reader demand and digitization. More people are rotating between physical books and e-books, and they show greater willingness to pay for e-books, according to a survey. The market feedback is also positive. E-books have boosted the total sales of the publishing sector. Fu Mengruo, head of digital content of Kindle China, said that some readers purchase both forms of publication, but some are fans of a sole form. Marketing in two dimensions can double the books’ influence and exposure, so that “books can reach more readers and make more profits.”

In addition to digitizing classic books, marketing platforms and publishing houses have attempted to launch new books in digital and paper forms simultaneously. “In this way, marketing platforms can promote two formats at the same time, which will yield twice the results with half the effort. Readers have different choices, so they get a good user experience. In terms of publishing houses, their staff can improve efficiency and reduce repeated workload, because they only need to prepare texts and information once,” said Tang Jiafang, director of copyright issues and digital publishing for Shanghai Translation Publishing House.

Fu believed professional attitudes and internal procedures, two factors he talks about frequently, to be the main difficulty in synchronously releasing books, adding that “major obstacles are connected with copyright acquisition and assignment, because some editors and writers subscribe to the view that publication of e-books will hurt paper book sales. Also, the past production procedure no longer fits for digital publishing and a series of adjustments are inevitable, thus publishing houses can find it hard to make a profit. These factors also contribute to the lack of passion for releasing digital books.”

A simultaneous release demands rigid scheduling. To achieve this goal, operations managers need to shift to a digital publishing perspective while optimizing their operating procedures.

The proportion of digital books is still marginal to the number of paper books published in China each year, said Zhang Dawei, a professor from the Department of Journalism at Fudan University.

Publishing houses have created a sense of urgency, but sector rules are yet to be established. Many writers and publishers are concerned that the less costly digitized books, if the pirated copies go viral, may hurt their image among readers, particularly when it comes to those books with tremendous commercial value. Therefore, they sometimes choose not to release e-books, Zhang said, adding that the most primary and fundamental task is to raise public awareness of copyright issues.

People embrace more access to information and knowledge. The past few years have witnessed the rapid development of paid knowledge-based products and audio books. Will paper books suffer a downturn? The answer of deputy director of Amazon China Liu Shu is no. She suggested that such emerging products will drive paper book sales. “After a school lesson, we used to digest the knowledge through plenty of after-class reading and learning. Knowledge sharing is a form of lesson that is destined to boost paper book sales. Also, some books are suitable to be metamorphosed into audio files, while some help readers more in paper form,” Liu said.

The development from paper books to e-books emblematizes the publishing sector’s efforts. The industry sought new reading modes and greater possibilities, thus supplying knowledge to their readers in a better way.

 

This article was translated from People’s Daily.

(edited by MA YUHONG)