In Shanghai, shoppers get temperature checks on the way into an Apple store, November 14. Image – iStockphoto: Robert Way

Newly Added: Domestic and Foreign Illustrated Books

‘To Live’ by Yu Hua

Below, you’ll find our usual fiction and nonfiction bestsellers from our associates at Beijing OpenBook, followed by their rankings of international authors on the Chinese market in fiction and nonfiction. You’ll also find, however, the addition of charts on illustrated books—again, first the overall list, OpenBook’s top rankings across the board, and then the list of top performing illustrated books by international (non-Chinese) authors.

We expect this new set of bestseller lists for illustrated books to offer more insights about children’s books, graphic novels, and other illustrated titles in the Chinese book market.

The Rising Place of Youth-Targeted Content

‘The End’ (Book 2 of the ‘Underachieve’ series) by Mu Gua Huang

Our new illustrated book charts have a bit of tweaking ahead, to bring them better into alignment with our other charts, but we’re glad to be making this start today (December 3) and we hope to bring you specific commentary from time to time relative to their rankings, thanks to the team in Beijing.

Meanwhile, October works as a “shoulder season” of sorts each year, in its reflection of the long-standing fondness of Chinese readers for classics. Never a quickly shifting set of charts, our OpenBook fiction besteller list for October features at its top seven books that have been on the list for more than 20 months. In fact, October’s No. 3 title, To Live by Yu Hua (Writer’s Publishing House, 2005), has been on the list for 82 consecutive months, almost seven years.

But for those who like to see contemporary work find its way into modern markets that cling as firmly to classics as China’s readership traditionally does, you’ll be glad to know that the clearing of the school year’s opening means that we should begin to see now some easing of the classical overhang.

One of the best avenues for writers to build a following in China is online literature, which is published online and followed by millions in small serial increments. For those new to it in the West, there are parallels here to what Canada’s Wattpad does on its huge platform of primarily young readers and writers, and much longer running forms such as “soap opera” on television and radio. Gathered up into a single volume, or several, these stories produce big sales as books because they amass such broad followings in their early online life.

‘Break the Cloud’ by Huai Shang

As examples of this, our OpenBook associate Rainy Liu points today to Mu Gua Huang’s Beyond the Outline (China Zhi Gong Press), making its debut on the fiction list at No. 25. Mu’s “Underachieve” series’ second book, The End, is also here, at No. 21 (Beijing Times Chinese Press, 2019). That one is a return to the list, as is Break the Cloud by Huai Shang today at No. 23 (Jiangsu Literature and Art Press, 2019).

Relative to our newly arriving illustrated work, you’ll note the clear importance of visual presentation, illustration, in these works for younger readers. Just look at those two covers and that of Break the Cloud, as compared to that of the venerable To Live.

OpenBook’s team is taken in its October messaging to us by how firmly such young-readership material is taking hold in China.

In this month’s chart, they’ve noted, 11 works of comparatively eclectic character have entered the Top 30. Subclassifications would contextualize them as youth/campus, for example. Eight novels in that grouping are holding spots in the ranking, four of them in the Top 15.

Youth Literature: Still Young

OpenBook dates the development of youth-oriented literature on the commercial Chinese market to around 2000, when the author Han Han led the way, not least by resonating with readers born in the 1980s. This is, of course, part of the movement that also prompted some of the work of author Feng Tang, whose Beijing, Beijing was translated into English by Michelle Deeter for Amazon Crossing.

The trend in sales of work that originates online seems to be driven primarily by female consumers, OpenBook says, who like to purchase print copies of their favorite serially introduced stories.

In some insightful commentary from our colleague Liu, we read, “Since 2014, a new generation of youth literary writers represented by Zhang Jiajia, Dabing, and Zhang Haochen have become popular. Their works focus on heart-warming and healing styles, and are mainly short stories, which are suitable for reading during commutes and after classes.

’30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon’ by Chen Lei

“Nowadays, the pace of life is accelerating, and young people feel that they face a lot of pressure,” Liu says, “so this kind of casual reading is welcomed by many consumers born after 1995 and 2000.

“At the same time, this new generation of youth literature authors not only promote their works, but also focus on marketing themselves, aware of how much digital and social promotion helps to build a fan base.”

Identity marketing, in other words, is hardly unique to Western markets.

And a note from nonfiction: In October, the “30 Minutes” cartoon series by Chen Lei (Jiangsu Literature & Art Press) continued to sell very strongly, holding 12 of the Top 30 spots on OpenBook’s overall ranking. These books are produced in series, the 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon series, for example, somehow dispensing with its taken on China’s history in five volumes.

Below, then, are OpenBook’s overall lists from (month) of bestsellers in fiction and nonfiction, followed by its lists of bestselling fiction and nonfiction in China by authors from outside the country.

At the end of our article, as always, you’ll find notes on how the lists are constructed.

OpenBook’s Fiction Bestsellers, October 2020

OpenBook’s Nonfiction Bestsellers, October 2020

NEW: OpenBook’s Illustrated Bestsellers, October 2020

Foreign Author Fiction Bestsellers, October 2020

Foreign Author Nonfiction Bestsellers, October 2020

NEW: Foreign Illustrated Bestsellers, October 2020

Notes on the Charts

OpenBook is a privately owned industry-data research firm based in Beijing. It functions somewhat as Nielsen and NDP do from the West, and Nielsen Book Research International has worked with OpenBook in Asian operations. With authoritative data and information resources, OpenBook is able to deliver consulting service to partners who would like to explore the Chinese book market and identify suitable partners.

Jiang Boyan LLC advises authors and right’s holders on global intellectual property and investment opportunities.

As of January 1, 2020, OpenBook monitored more than 10,000 online and offline bookstores.

The online channel includes digital retailers such as large self-operated online stores, platform stores, and small- and medium-sized stores. The offline channels include 4,495 bookstores. Coverage includes most of the state-owned and influential privately owned bookstores in 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet are not included in OpenBook’s system.

In 2019, OpenBook tracked around 71.72 billion RMB in sales (US$10.1 billion).

Retail outlets include:

• Traditional bookstores
• Supermarkets
• Campus bookstores
• “Professional” stores, said to be small stores with a specific industrial or trade focus
• Airport stores

In addition, OpenBook is drawing data from online bookstores of three main types:

• The “Tmall” stores of Alibaba (Tmall is described as a marketplace of companies that create storefronts online to sell products including books)
• The “JingDong” Stores of JD.com (similar to Tmall as a marketplace of both individual companies and bookstores operated by JD.com)
• Ten independent online bookselling retailers

China has 500 or more publishers in operation today. Most of them, Trajectory CEO James Bryant clarifies, are government-owned. Private publishers are required to generate ISBNs for their titles from a publishing company that is government-owned—which, in other words, creates a system in which all ISBNs are in one way or another registered through government channels. The government approves each book published in China.

At this writing, the 5:26 a.m. ET (1026 GMT) update of the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center sees 93,113 cases in China’s population of 1.4 billion, with 4,744 fatalities reported to Johns Hopkins by the country’s system.

More China bestseller reports from Publishing Perspectives are here. And more from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here.