By Lin Zhi, Zhang Congcong, Ye Yu
Parenting: influencers become the biggest gainers 亲子家教书：大V出书忙
In recent years, especially since 2019, the book market has seen word-of-mouth titles dominating the best-selling chart. As a result, the number of books written by parenting influencers has increased dramatically. Hunan Education Press’s Mommy Always Has a Way: Zhang Dandan’s Early Education Enlightenment sold 70,000 copies in one month after it went on sale in early November 2019. Hubei Dolphin Media has an even more special angle to the content of its product line. Rather than based entirely on the topics of parenting and family relationship, it uses the infuence of WeChat subscription account founder Ivy Dad, who has a million followers online, to magnify its voice on the sub-topic of education. The publisher’s Ivy Dad’s Conversation with Artist series include content co-developed with piano and violin educator Takahashi Masako, aesthetic education expert for children Su Qinghua and many others, and many of books from this series entered and stayed on the best-selling chart.
Publishers cut into home education subject from the adult book market. In the last two years, publishers who have moved from the adult book market to parenting and home education have been targeting opinion leaders in the field. In addition to its large fan base, whether its experience can be systematically restructured and tested by the market is also the focus point when publishers polish their products. In 2019, the private publishing company X-iron brilliantly utilize the model they are known for in the field of adult publishing in their new endeavor into the new category of parenting. Their excavation of top infuencers spares no efort, and the company’s Your Parent-child Relationship is Worth Tens of Millions is the book version of children education infuencer Rice Cake Mom Li Danyang’s (who has 26 million followers) parenting experience. Although the efect of co-developing with infuencers is obvious, but in the end whether it can become a bestseller depends on the quality of the book itself. In the past two years, publishers whose main publication line is children’s education chose a more niche market, and dig deeper into the category of fnancial intelligence education.
Film and TV adapted books: composite operation across multiple industries 影视IP书：多业态复合运营
Under the background of the internet economy, both old and young writers are facing new challenges. One phenomenon that cannot be ignored is that the publishing industry is prone to be passive and delayed in the discovery and training of young talented writers. It usually lacks the efective mechanism to recognize and understand them. At the same time, constrained by the popularity of the subject, content and genre, the factors that can determine whether a book can become a bestseller are rather complicated. As a result, it is difficult for young writers’ works to exert their maximum value in a timely and efective manner.
Reconstruct publishing process around IP operation. The good news is, in the past two years, in the composite operation of film and TV adapted books, some publishers have realized the importance of re-establishing the organizational structure. From the redesign of the publishing process to the product development, it is not only important for the development of film and television IP to be connectively considered with traditional book development, but also it needs some independent operating space of its own. Publishers include Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House Beijing Center, as well as private publishing companies such as Boji new media, Phoenix Publishing Company and X-Iron are good examples of this. In August 2018, the Fong Hong Publishing Company set up an IP center, which is responsible for the development of books from scratch, the topic ranges from youth, crime and suspense, realism, history, fantasy and so on. The form at of books published was extended from printed books to a variety of others including ebooks, audiobooks, comics, video games, online flms, online dramas, traditional flms and TV series. The outcome is the intellectual property of tens of distinctive works of diverse styles. Beijing X-Iron Publishing Company also set up an IP publication center which is responsible for the development and publication of original IP. In its three years of establishment, the department has achieved double- or even triple-digit annual growth.
Support the creative power of the new generation. Young writers who were born after 1995 (often called "post-95" in China) are undoubtedly the hope of the future literary and IP market. On the basis of continuingly paying attention to the young and middle-aged writers of Chinese literary circle, Fong Hong IP Center vigorously support outstanding post-95 young authors, through the "Young Writers Training Program" and dig for more talented ones. According to the reality of different writers, they help writers and their works achieve rapid and diversifed exposure, and created the IP of the writers and their works, to achieve win-win cooperation between writers and publishers. It is worth noting that in the selection process of works, the IP Center considers the literary nature of the work itself and forms quantitative standards around the theme, originality, character, contrast, structure, plot, logic, conflict, style, rhythm and other dimensions of the story. In addition to the content itself, the IP Center carefully analyzes the operability of derivative development of works, assessing the volume of stories, production difculties, and censorship risks. Based on different types of text, using different criteria, the IP Center fully refers to the current situation of Chinese literature market and franchise market in their hatch of the product.
When it comes to the book-based film adaption, Better Days(directed by Zeng Guoxiang, screenwritten by Xu Yuezhen) featuring Golden Horse Award winner Zhou Dongyu and Yi Yangqianxi of the TF Boys is a must-mentioned film.The film was adapted from Junior You, So Beautiful written by Jiu Yuexi, and was immediately a hit after its release. On the occasion of the film’s release, Beijing Baima Time Culture Development Company launched a new illustrated collection of the book. In order to better achieve the "book-flm linkage", the publishing company customized a number of film-related t-shirt to be sold along with the book and connected the fans of both the book and the flm.
Popular science for adults: integrates knowledge with art 成人科普：整合博物+艺术元素
Compared with the generally depressed adult book market, popular science for adults, though rather niche, has become a relatively bright part in the adult book sector in recent years. CITIC Press’s This Is China was reprinted seven times that year, becoming a dark horse in the adult popular science book market for the past two years. The book is the first full-landscape Chinese geography book in the category of adult popular science.
The in-depth development of the brand has become the consensus of leading publishers of adult popular science books. The Nature Watch Series run by the Commercial Press for many years has launched Illustrated Book of the Fishes on Market and Souvenirs Entomologiques of the City. The market response was very positive. Famous for being ‘small but beautiful’, private publishing company Unread has always a quite nuanced taste on its selection of popular science titles. Because of the unique packaging and marketing strategies, the sales figure for "niche" popular science books are also quite good. In addition, Unread also continue its tradition of having "long names" for their books, and the names are quaintly amusing. HinaBook, known for its good taste on production selection and development, has continued to maintain its good taste in the category of adult popular science.
There are a few more other new publishers whose performances in the segment of the adult popular science are astonishing. Among them, United Bass is an original imprint that Beijing Joint Publishing Company paid great attention in recent years. It is committed to discover titles that are both informative and interesting, and has a special interest in works that can offer interdisciplinary interpretations of the world. In 2019, the Zhongqing Lion imprint coordinated with educational and cultural institutions in order to jump into the circle, expand its infuence, and attract more like-minds. This is becoming a three-dimensional path actively explored by popular science publishers. The compounding of adult science publishing of design, readability and experientiality has more obviously become a trend in the past two years. Yilin Press, Chemical Industry Press and Electronic Industry Publishing House all have their signature books in the adult popular science market.
(Cont inued on F06) (Continued from F05)
The Bad Kids brings more attention to local original suspense fictions 《隐秘的角落》带动本土悬疑剧作“出圈”
The huge popularity of the web drama series The Bad Kids boosts the sales figures of the book it was adapted from, which went top to the best-selling chart of the suspense genre long dominated by foreign writers. The positive market response of The Bad Kids is undoubtedly a highlight for Chinese suspense fctions.
The silent plougher of the original book market
Even though works by super-best-selling authors such as Medical Examiner Dr. Qin have sold more than 3.5 million copies, local suspense and reasoning novels seem to have been left out of the picture as a whole, compared with those by overseas writers. In the view of Wang Jiaojiao, deputy editor-in-chief of the publisher 99 Readers, original reasoning novels started only in the last few decades, and the readers were used to reading Japanese reasoning and European/American detective novels, and those foreign novels usually have quite good quality, which made it more difficult for original works to succeed in the market. In addition, many Chinese writers including Zijin Chen have frankly confessed their infuence from foreign masters such as Keigo Higashino. Therefore, given the current supply on the book market, original Chinese suspense novels are not the first choice of many readers.Despite the difficulties, there are still many writers and publishers who did what they believe should be done. Examples include the Midnight Collection, founded in 2006, which aims to build China’s most professional detective novel publishing platform. It started to publish original Chinese novels since 2010, and at present has a collection of works written by Lu Qiuhui, Lu Yehua, Shichen, Jiding, Hu Yanyun and so on. The Ark series by Douban is a collection of suspense and reasoning fictions that Douban Read created after years of content accumulation. It aims to discover more unique and freshly new local suspense fctions and pays particular attentions to the creation of a mixture of both suspense and daily life atmosphere. 99 Readers launched its own suspense imprint Black Cat Library, and signed a number of hard-core reasoning readers including Lu Yehua, Shi Chen. Zijin Chen, after being famous, had generously shared the experience of being inspired by reading Keigo Higashino, but he also emphasized the importance of find one’s own style. He believes that compared to the irksome storied set in a foreign land, plots that are drawn from contemporary Chinese life that surrounds every reader have a power that can touch the inner-world of people.
The underestimation of writers and their fghtback by innovation
Under the siege of Japanese reasoning novels, how can original Chinese reasoning works fight back? Firstly, textual innovation and interdisciplinary cooperation are needed to expand the fan base. Many local authors are already thinking ahead of their time, and the form of reasoning in their works is unique. Therefore, fnding ways to expand the reading community is something that responsible publishers should be considering. Secondly, it is important to set up awards to encourage original novels. There are few awards for suspense and reasoning novels in China, and currently the award set up for novella and short stories by book reviewer Hua Sibi is the only famous one. Thus, the Black Cat Library and culture brand QED jointly founded an award for new suspense novelists. Thirdly, the overall level of original reasoning is actually greatly underestimated. In the novelist Hu Yanyun’s view, many Chinese works are in fact better than some frontlist novels in the West and Japan, in terms of the quantity and quality. Their visibility, however, is much weaker. Zijin Chen believes that, no matter what you write and what you read, "the only criterion to judge the quality of a suspense novel is whether it is enjoyable to read. The book is nothing as long as it is not enjoyable, despite the deep thoughts and brilliant logics".
Self-help books: traditional Chicken Soup for the Soul no longer trending 心理励志类图书：“鸡汤”已过时
In the age of social media, readers are prone to be trapped in all kinds of anxieties. With the help of new distribution channels such as Tik Tok and new online retailers such as Pinduoduo, the ways of promoting books are vastly expanded. As a result, the sales fgure of self-help books (e.g. those tell you how to manage your emotion or be successful) is showing a clear trend of turning up, and more and more publishers join the publication of self-help books.
As more publishers enter the market, self-help books are becoming more professional
In addition to trade publishers, some professional publishers also enter the market. For example, the Huazhang imprint of Machinery Industry Press built a "Huazhang psychology" brand combines together the publishing, training and consulting of psychology.
In the relatively easy-to-enter self-help book market, the phenomenon of copying successful predecessors is quite common. Interestingly, along with the popularity of multimedia channels such as Tik Tok and Pinduoduo, The Way of Wolf (wolves are seen as enterprising and to some degree aggressive in China) published in 2017 sold more than a million copies in the first half of 2019. Books such as The Way of Wolf become the regular subject in short videos on Tik Tok. The price and cost of these books are usually low but the conversion rate is extremely high. In addition to the self-help book targeted at people with relatively low income and thus sold at a lower price, imported and translated works still have the advantage in the rest of the self-help book market. It is worth mentioning that currently readers’ need for self-help books has gone beyond the rhetorical "Chicken Soup for the Soul" or physiological works that are too academic to read. The market needs more titles closely integrated with life examples, and those can provide practical solutions to the type of problems that readers face in their lives.
Self-help books move towards being professional psychological books
The hardback edition of Murphy's Law published by Beijing Wentong World Books in May 2019 has sold more than 200,000 copies by now, and the paperback edition, which came out in July 2019 sold more than 500,000 copies. In the view of the companyv’s general manager Yu Chenghao, the number of publishers in the market of psychological self-help books has been increasing in the last two years, and the import and translation of foreign titles in this genre on market has gradually become saturated. He also mentioned that there are two routes for the topic selection of psychology-related books. The first one is to draw closer to professional psychology books, and the second is to more rhetorical and inspirational ones.Because of the relatively high price of professional books, more and more publishing companies began to extend to the feld of psychology.
Areas for publishers to explore: life and health education 生命健康教育类科普童书趋热
The sudden outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the importance of health and safety education at all levels and in all kinds of forms. Even before the breakout, life and health education has been one of the popular topics in children’s book publishing, but the scale and attention it received was limited. Children’s books on the topic of life and health education can be divided into the following three categories. First, literary or picture books that use stories to convey the view of life. The second is popular science picture books that focus on building a healthy habit or lifestyle. Lastly, there are popular science children’s books that have the content of more professional medical science to it.
Quickly after the breakout, publishers of children’s books began to respond by planning on books that tell children the story of fght against the coronavirus and pandemic-control related knowledge. The publication of life and health education books began to heat up. For example, China Children’s Press&Publishing Group launched picture books entitled The Coronavirus is Gone! And the Hugging the Earth and Lighting up Lif eseries. 10 Ways to Fight Monsters, published by Beijing Science and Technology Press, helps children learn protective knowledge in a gentle and childlike language. At the same time, the original anti-epidemic children’s books also show responsibility on the international stage. For example, the rights to Fighting Epidemic with A Child's Heart & Big Eye Heartwarming Picture Books series by Jiangsu Phoenix Children’s Publishing House has been exported to Nepal, Lebanon, Vietnam and other countries.
In the post-epidemic period, children’s books on life education and health education, as well as medical science and disease-related topics, received more attention. For example, China Publishing Association organized the selection of “2020 China Publishing Association Good Books for Children on Life Education Theme”, and held the release and award event during the 2020 Beijing Book Fair.
Children’s books such as life education and health education also need to balance professionalism with readability. Xiao Xiao, editor of Dolphin Media, said parents had begun to pay attention to the topic of children’s health before the outbreak. This has evidence in the huge amount of children’s health content on social media and the rise of children’s health KOLs. However, there is a delay in the publishing of children’s book on the same topic. The outbreak of the virus has accelerated the trend to focus on health issues. As far as the planning of such books is concerned, professional works will be more difficult to read while popular science books that are easy to read may be more superfcial. It is difcult to balance between the two. According to Wang Zhinan, editor of the Mysterious Island imprint from Guangxi Normal University Press, children’s books on health education have always been there, and publishers should have a more rational view on the heat brought by the epidemic. It’s right to seize the opportunity to publish what the market needs, but publishers should not follow it blindly. Only when publishers pay attention to the work and topic itself and never lose the principles can valuable and high-quality books be produced.
( translated by Xiao Jianpeng)