Dan Brown’s Chinese Publisher, Huang Yuhai, Feels Lucky

By Wen Huang

Huang Yuhai , founder of Shanghai 99

SHANGHAI: Yesterday, 9-9-09, was an auspicious day for the Chinese, who hold the number nine to be lucky because it sounds the same as the word “longevity.” For 52-year-old Huang Yuhai it was especially good, as it marked the five year anniversary of the launch of his publishing house, Shanghai 99 Reader’s Culture Co., Ltd. Huang feels lucky: In just five years, Shanghai 99 has grown from a mere start-up company to one with sales that topped $26 million in 2008.

The company started by publishing domestic writers, but has since become best known for its translations. Last year, Shanghai 99 published 200 titles, 65% of which were translations of the most famous names from the West, including Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Stephen King and Dan Brown.

Brown has proven just as popular in China as elsewhere in the world, with his books selling more than two million copies in Chinese editions.

Though Huang was not the original Chinese publisher of the DaVinci Code, he has since acquired the rights to all of Brown’s titles in China, including The Lost Symbol. Like the rest of the publishing world, is counting on the book be a huge bestseller and expects it to give his firm a welcome boost amid this economic recession when the Chinese translation is published later this year.

Shanghai 99′s success in a hugely competitive, even booming, market is no accident. A veteran editor and executive, Huang’s resume includes 28 years working with large Chinese state-owned publishing houses, as well time with Bertelsmann AG in China.

Meeting with him over a Zino Platinum cigar in his offices in Shanghai’s crowded Xujiahui district, a bespectacled Huang opened up and shared, quite candidly, his experience and thoughts on the company that he founded in 2004: ”My experience with both Chinese and Western publishing and my extensive connections are the keys to our success,” Huang said. ”I was trained in the US, France and Spain. I go abroad several times a year, learning every aspect of the Western publishing experience. I’m very well versed in western publishing, distribution and marketing means. Since I’ve always been in China, I know the advantages and disadvantages of the market.”

Huang raised the money for Shanghai 99 from his contacts in the Chinese publishing industry; raising 30% from the large state-run companies, such as People’s Literature Publishing Houses, Xinhua Book Stores and the China Arts and Entertainment Group affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, and the rest of the funds from individual investors, such as bestselling author Yu Qiuyu, financial writer Wu Xiaobo and Huang himself. In all, he was able to put together 30 million RMB (US $440,000).

The Chinese central government retains a strictly guarded state monopoly over publishing, but in 2004 relaxed its control over the media industry and permitted private enterprise to engage in the book distribution business. “Initially, we couldn’t say we were book publishers,” said Huang. “We simply positioned ourselves as a book distributor. We opened a website and a book club to sell books, all of which were allowed by law,” he explained.

Today, Shanghai 99′s Web site — 99read.com — is one of China’s largest online bookstores, featuring more than 300,000 titles and is responsible for 65 percent of the company’s total book sales. Huang says online bookstores fill a need in China. Unlike the situation in the West, there are very few bookstores in small and medium-sized cities in China, and new books always arrive late to these markets. ”Our websites and online book clubs have eliminated those time and space restraints. We deliver the latest titles to people all over the country.”

Meanwhile, the company’s 99 Read Book Club — which charges no membership fees and has no minimum purchase requirements — is the largest as well as the only nationwide book club in China. The Club targets readers between the ages of 16 to 23, who now make up 65 percent of the total membership. ”This age group constitutes the largest group of readers in China,” said Huang. “Their reading interests are more progressive. They might not have the largest income but they read much more.”

More than half — 52% — of its membership is concentrated in Southern China in the vicinities of large southern metropolises, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou. As part of its marketing, Shanghai 99 Readers also has relationships with 2,000 high schools in the southern region, reaching four million students. In all, the combined number of registered users to Shanghai 99′s online bookstore and book club members is over two million, and the Book Club delivers about 10 million catalogs to its members each year.

Of course, the Web store and Book Club were ancillary to the core business, which remained book publishing.

“In publishing, we said we were merely providing consulting work to state-owned publishing houses, while in truth, we were publishing books ourselves,” said Huang.

Tomorrow, we finish our profile of Huang with a look at how Huang built one of the few public-private partnerships in Chinese publishing, as well as the evolving Chinese book market.

VISIT: The website for 99 Read Book Club

Wen Huang is a journalist and translator. His most recent work is a translation of The Woman from Shanghai: Tales of Survival form a Labor Camp by Xianhui Yang, published in August by Pantheon in the United States.