All the world at the Shanghai fair

By Cecily Liu in London (China Daily) Updated: 2014-11-24 10:20

China will play an increasingly important role in the global publishing market due to its great demand for Western contents. [Photo / Provided to China Daily]

Success of children's books gives global publishers a good tale to tell

China's vibrant publishing market has attracted a surging number of foreign publishers to the country to trade rights, showcase their creative content and exchange views with their Chinese counterparts.

Such high level of interest is particularly present in the children's book market, a fast-growing and significant segment, and more exchanges took place during the three-day second Shanghai International Children's Book Fair that started on Thursday.

"There is a huge demand for content, fueled by multimedia opportunities, which is pushing children's books to the top of the best-selling book categories in China," says Randy Wang, the fair manager.

In each of the past two years, sales of children's books in China grew 11 percent, and in the first six months of this year, half the 100 best-selling titles were children's books, Wang says.

As more than 90 percent of the content for children's books in China is imported, international publishers can be assured of a continued high level of interest at the fair, he says.

Chinese publishers that purchase the rights usually do the translations and other work on the books.

The fair is the only show of its kind in the Asia-Pacific, so its growth has contributed to an eastward shift of book rights sales globally, and has helped many medium-sized and small Western publishers break into the Chinese market, he says.

"What surprised me was the opportunity last year's show has given to medium- and small-scale publishers, which sold a lot of rights at the show."

This is because in the past China's import of foreign rights often took place at international book shows, so Chinese publishers that attended them often made the most well-known Western publishers their key targets.

But now that foreign publishers of all sizes attend the Shanghai fair, Chinese publishers can more easily strike deals with them, Wang says.

Nosy Crow, a British publisher, took a dozen titles to the fair last year and managed to sell all of them to Chinese publishers. A large majority of these titles were digital, and the rest traditional paper publications.

The inaugural fair last year was attended by 154 exhibitors from 15 countries and regions, of which almost half were international publishing houses. The show, with exhibition space of 10,000 square meters and more than 50,000 new children's books on display, was attended by 17,400 people over three days.