BEIJING: Our colleague Thomas Minkus was on site last week at the Beijing International Book Fair and took the opportunity to interview a few of our esteemed colleagues from the global publishing community. Among those he spoke with were Jon Malinowski, president of the Combined Book Exhibit and PubMatch.org, discussing how he’s seen the BIBF evolve over the last five …
China Offers Ample Opportunities, Despite Global Gloom, Say Publishers
By Xing Daiqi BEIJING: The slogan of this week’s 16th Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) is “To see what the world is reading.” But with China’s position as the engine of the global economy reinforced under the present financial crisis, the world is increasingly curious about what China is reading. Still, in spite of the economic downturn, more than half …
Bonus Material: Stats, Video and Images from the BIBF
By Edward Nawotka The keynote speech of the Beijing International Publishing Forum (discussed in our lead article) was delivered by Wu Shulin, vice-minister for the General Administration for Press and Publications (GAPP). He cited numerous figures — as documented by Emma House, the UK Publishing Association’s International Director — which give a picture of the current state of Chinese publishing. …
What’s the Buzz: Flaws in Google Book Search, Dan Brown Videos, China’s Bestsellers
By Hannah Johnson Adding to the pervasive anti-Google rhetoric, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the failings of Google’s Book Search, particularly with regards to metadata. He said, “the book search’s metadata are a train wreck: a mishmash wrapped in a muddle wrapped in a mess.” (via @ColumbiaUP) As Dan Brown hysteria mounts, one UK publisher …
What to Expect at the Beijing International Book Fair
By Edward Nawotka BEIJING: Trying to take in the totality of Chinese publishing is a lot like sitting down to a Chinese banquet and trying to figure out what to eat first. With thousands of publishers, both state sponsored and independent, putting out some 300,000 titles each year (about the same number as in the US), there’s a lot on the …
Bonus Material: Founder Apabi’s Chinese Kindle Clone
By Edward Nawotka One segment of the exhibition that is likely to be of enormous interest to Western publishers visiting the Beijing International Book Fair is ebooks. Last year at the BIBF, Penguin made headlines when it became the first Western publisher to announce an ebook distribution deal for English language titles in China, and it’s likely that this year will …
Will 360 Million Chinese Boycott the Internet?
By Edward Nawotka BEIJING: Today is the day China turned off the internet. Or at least that is the hope of artist Ai Weiwei. Weiwei called on China’s 360 million internet users to “stop working, reading, chatting, blogging, gaming and mailing” to protest the Chinese government’s demand that computers users have to have installed its controversial Green Dam Youth Escort …
Bonus Material: The 2009 Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens
By Edward Nawotka Ai Weiwei’s call for protest coincides with circulation of the 2009 Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens, a protest document that criticizes the Chinese government for having “deprived your netizens of the freedom of speech.” The anonymous group then claims “we are going to launch our attack worldwide on your censorship system starting on July 1st, 2009.” The …
Bonus Material: Ed’s Beijing Blog
All this week our editor-in-chief Ed Nawotka will be blogging from Beijing, where he’ll be meeting with publishers and writers in advance of China’s appearance as Guest of Honor at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. A literary tourist, Ed will also be visiting local bookstores, meeting with literary critics, agents, bloggers, as well as taking in some of the sites. …
Harper UK’s Lucy Vanderbilt on Chinese Opportunties
By Roger Tagholm LONDON & BEIJING: At a time when ‘flat’ is the new ‘up’ in the UK, publishers are eager, some might event say desperate, to find new markets – and as relatively untapped markets go, none comes bigger than China. HarperCollins has been quick to realise this and is already reaping the benefits. At last week’s British Book …