2008 Beijing International Book Fair
The 15th Beijing International Book Fair shifted to the neighboring city of Tianjin this year, as major venues in the capital were tied up with Olympic and Paralympic events. Despite the change of venue, the fair was attended by more than 1,300 foreign publishers and 500 mainland publishers. By the time the fair wrapped up on September 4, copyright licensing deals had been signed for around 5,000 titles.
The range of international publishers at the fair was testament to China's growing importance as a market for international publishers. As well as large multinationals such as Penguin Books and Reed Elsevier, a number of small and medium publishers attended the fair for the first time. Fifty-one countries and regions were represented, including the US, UK, Europe and most countries in Asia, including North Korea. Greece, the country of honor, has a particularly large presence.
Selling the rights to publish their books into China was the name of the game for most foreign publishers, though a handful of publishers had other aims. UK company Sandpiper attended the fair for the first time to explore the market for remainder books in China, while new imprint Singing Dragon was specifically looking to sign martial arts books from China (see interview below).
Most foreign publishers were less interested in signing the rights to Chinese books, but many acknowledged that this side of the trade is growing. Senior government officials announced the government would introduce a number of initiatives to promote this trade at the 2008 International Publishing Forum that preceded the book fair on August 30 (see policy and regulation).
Others were looking to expand their presence across Asia. Like Gianni Malkogiannis, managing director of mm publications, an ELT specialist that has published books in China in cooperation with Higher Education Press since 1998.
"We've done excellent work because our partner is a good company. We're not interested in finding other partners in China," he said. "We aim to expand our presence in this region. The Beijing International Book Fair is more than just a fair for China. There are publishers here from Korea, Japan and the whole of Asia."
A number of publishers were not pleased with the move to Tianjin, as many high level Chinese buyers only spent one day at the fair before returning to their base in Beijing. However, many publishers had finalized deals by the third day of the fair and many acknowledged how far the Chinese publishing industry has come in recent years.
"China is one of our key markets. We've seen an enormous improvement in how Chinese publishers deal with us, with how much they have learned about the trade," said Clare Hodder, head of rights at Palgrave Macmillan. "They now think a lot more about sales, while before they wanted to publish works of great academic brilliance. In some ways, that means it has become more difficult for us but I think it has become better overall."