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North American Report
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UPDATED: June 7, 2008 NO. 24 JUN. 12, 2008
Booked up and Ready to Go
Chinese publishing giant is writing a new chapter in the U.S. market
By CHEN WEN
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SPREAD THE WORD: A visitor reads a book presented by CIPG at this year's BookExpo America (CHEN WEN)

A booth at the south hall of this year's BookExpo America (BEA) at the Los Angeles Convention Center has five very unusual attractions. Fuwa, the official mascots for August's 2008 Beijing Olympics, greet all visitors to the China International Publishing Group (CIPG) exhibit, and by all accounts they are causing quite a stir at the largest annual book trade show in the United States.

But the colorful mascots were only part of CIPG's presence. The Chinese publishing giant presented more than 400 book and periodical titles on China published by the 16 domestic and overseas publishing companies and institutions affiliated to the group, according to Guo Xiaoyong, Vice President of CIPG.

"International book shows are effective channels to introduce China to the outside world," Guo said, adding that by participating in the exhibition, the Beijing-based publishing group also aimed to learn about the latest trends in the international publishing industry as well as seek potential cooperation with its foreign counterparts.

CIPG, also known as China Foreign Languages Publishing and Distribution Administration, has become China's largest publisher and distributor of foreign language publications since it was established in 1949, the founding year of the People's Republic. Statistics show that the seven publishing houses directly under CIPG, including the Foreign Languages Press and New World Press, publish around 3,000 titles of books in over 20 foreign languages every year.

In 1984, CIPG established the Cypress Book (U.S.) Co. in San Francisco to distribute books and periodicals, especially those published by CIPG, said Du Wei, President of the company. According to Du, the company now also offers administrative and logistic services to the other two San Francisco-based U.S. companies-the Long River Press and China Books-in which CIPG has controlling stakes.

In 2002, with the idea of localized publishing in the overseas market, CIPG joined hands with Hong Kong Sino United Publishing (Holdings) Ltd. to establish Long River Press in the United States. "The idea was to make use of local publishing resources, like the local editorial staff and distribution channels, to promote the publishing of books on China," Du told Beijing Review.

To secure a mature distribution channel for the joint venture, in the same year, CIPG and its partner purchased China Book & Magazine Co., then a near bankrupt company which was the only outlet for selling books and magazines in China during the 1960s. Now called China Books, the company continued to serve as an outlet for distributing books and periodicals coming from China, said Du.

"It's still hard for books coming from China to be distributed in the United States because there is so much competition," said Chris Robyn, Editorial and Managing Director of Long River Press. Having been working with the publishing house since it was started and been in the publishing industry altogether for 13 years, Robyn now finds a lot of competition from U.S. publishers. "There are many American companies publishing books about China and all the university presses have books about China," Robyn said.

But for Long River Press, which operates in the United States while having a parent company in China, the prospect looks bright. "Long River tries to be a kind of bridge," Robyn said. He explained that what they are trying to do is not only to use Western editorial staff, but also rely on Chinese publishing partners who can help with lower production costs.

Robyn and his colleagues are now working with their Chinese counterparts, both under the umbrella of CIPG, in book publishing. They discuss topics and share ideas. A book co-published by Long River Press and Foreign Languages Press--In the Realm of the Gods: Lands, Myths and Legends of China--is one of their recent successes.

For this book, the Long River Press did the editorial design while the Foreign Languages Press verified the background information to make sure of accuracy. "It's been on market for less than two months and we have over 500 copies sold. It's doing very well and we hope that we can keep this kind of formula," Robyn said.

Last year, Long River Press entered into an agreement with Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, one of the largest book distributors in the North America. It is now the first and only Chinese-owned press to have such a relationship with a major U.S. distributor. The result is dramatic, as Robyn pointed out that since joining the Consortium, their sales have increased by 300 percent.

(Reporting from Los Angeles)



 
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