E-publishing becomes a serious topic

While organizers don't yet know how many books they've sold this year, many publishers are looking to the future and examining the potential impact of electronic publishing.

The annual Shanghai Book Fair has come to a close, and while organizers don't yet know how many books they've sold this year, many publishers are looking to the future and examining the potential impact of electronic publishing. While many are optimistic, some say there's a lot to do in order to nurture a mature e-publishing industry.

The speed of piracy in publishing is sometimes astonishing. The Chinese version of American writer Khaled Hosseini's latest book "And the Mountains Echoed" just went on sale here at the beginning of the month. And even before the book fair opened, people could download a pirated Chinese version for free. And many visitors to the book fair told ICS that when it comes to reading e-books, they will definitely choose the free ones.

In a survey conducted by the city's press and publication authority before this year's fair, nearly two thirds of the respondents said the only books they read online are free ones. Publishers are calling for immediate action so the e-publishing industry won't collapse before it has a chance to grow.

Wu Hong, vice editor-in-chief, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, said, "It's unavoidable to have so many pirated books on the market. I think all local publishing houses should cooperate to combat piracy and build a market with a more rational order."

Kan Ninghui, vice director of Shanghai Press & Publication Admin, said, "The e-publication has nothing supportive so far. What we do is just something on the surface. If we can better develop e-books, that is, let e-books better elaborate the contents of the traditional books, it'll be better for the entire industry."

People in the publishing industry say that in the United States, e-books have been outselling traditional paperbacks for more than two years. And while no similar figures are available for China, publishers here are already looking for solutions.

Mei Xuelin is the president of a local education publishing house. He says a publisher has no future in the digital era if it simply transfers from paperbacks to e-books. And Mei already has a model to follow. He showed us two scientific e-books that were published by his domestic and foreign counterparts. They both include explanations of complicated terms, colorful layouts and videos that can illustrate the contents. Mei calls them examples of a real e-book.

He said, "The book can hardly be replaced. From a technical perspective, videos or explanations attached to the e-book may not match well with the content in a pirated version. And when it comes to education, readers will tend to believe the legal copies in terms of content. Such e-books are much more complete than the traditional versions. So, we can make the price the same as the paperback.

So far in China, an e-book usually sells for 40 percent of the paperback version's price. Publishers say it will take time before Chinese readers will pay even that much for e-books. But they say paperbacks and e-books will be compatible in the long run... as long as there are better ways of dealing with piracy, and better technology to produce the e-books themselves.