Publishers Adapting to China Realities
Patience is key in market with low fees, high hurdles
by Teri Tan -- Publishers Weekly, 9/11/2006
When it comes to China, publishers should think long-term and be visible to the target market. That's the advice most participants at this year's Beijing International Book Fair are more than happy to share. "You simply cannot think of appearing at BIBF just once and expect your business to take flight," said Janet Fritsch, president of the American Collective Stand. "Most of the American publishers you see here were at last year's fair, and the majority has already confirmed returning next year." Copyright director Lynette Owen of Pearson Education shared Fritsch's sentiments, adding: "On the down side, price and rights fee are low here, and that is a double whammy for anybody venturing into this market."
Yet few publishers are complaining about the price or fee. In fact, licensing was brisk at the fair. At Laurence King Publishing, rights manager Janet Pilch was at her fifth BIBF and now considers China a booming market for her titles. "We closed 21 deals since last year's fair," she said. Over at the other end of the U.K. Collective Stand, rights manager Valerie Saint-Pierre of Octopus sold about 50 titles, mostly in the lifestyle/DIY/reference segment. "We have been in China in the past 15 years and we're now shifting our focus from selling rights to working on protecting our copyrights."
History and military titles are popular, too. London-based Amber Books has licensed about 50% of its backlist to 15 publishers. Michael Heitzman of Minnesota-based MBI has sold about 10 titles, mostly on military matters. "American publishers may have to do some restrategizing on what types of books would sell in China, but on the whole, there is a huge interest in American publications," Heitzman said.
With the 2008 Beijing Olympics on the horizon, sports medicine and physical education books are becoming more popular. International development director Chad Hoffman of Human Kinetics said, "China is presently our fastest-growing territory in terms of quantity of rights sold. Fee-wise, it isn't really that much lower than, say, in Korea."
Educational materials were also drawing interest from Chinese publishers and Jim Peoples of Peoples Education and Thomas Seavey of Highlights for Children were both overwhelmed by the interest shown in their reading, vocabulary, mathematics and science titles. At Brill Academic Publishers, copublishing is the buzzword. Brill has just started doing yearbooks (on human rights, economy, Chinese society, environment and law) with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Concern over copyright protection is nothing new. For Trish Morrison, international licensing director at Thomas Nelson, looking for allies with the same respect for intellectual property takes precedence. Having been back to China twice since the last BIBF, she has sold 20 titles and is focused on solidifying relationships with her local partners.
Big Apple Tuttle-Mori, the biggest rights agency in China, pointed to "a new type of piracy—the 'edited' edition—in town: it involves selecting chapters from international bestsellers and compiling these into an 'edited' version," said president Lily Chen. "On our part, we try to educate the publisher on the proper ways to 'behave' and the need to go through the proper channels," adds v-p Luc Kwanten.
