It was held in Zhengzhou, Henan Province from April 26th, 2008 to May 60th, 2008.

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Subtle Changes of Zhengzhou National Book Market in 2008

Iron donkey 2008-05-10 00: 08: 51from: iron donkey (Hangzhou)

Source: Beijing News

Celebrities remain the same, new books remain the same, and the just-concluded Zhengzhou National Book Fair looks no different from the past. But many readers and book reporters still feel a little different from before. There are fewer good books and celebrities are not so sensational. The book market seems to have changed a little in detail. What are we busy with in the publishing industry?

Book market observation

A few days ago, the 18 National Book Fair ended in Zhengzhou, which was uneventful. As in the past, this festival, which we call "National Book Fair", still consists of a long list of names: Ma Weidou, Yang Zhenning, February River, Wang Liqun, Wang Meng, Li Ling ... celebrities are still there, and new books are still popular. Except that there seems to be fewer and fewer good books we like, the national book market looks no different from previous years.

However, just as there is no undercurrent under the calm water waves, the calm book market seems to be unable to cover up the restless heart of the publishing house and even the publishing group. Jiangxi Publishing Group merged with China Peace Publishing House, and Jilin Publishing Group merged with China Federation of Industry and Commerce Press. After the successful listing of the first batch of publishing institutions, the new national book market was held. Although no one said it, almost everyone's enthusiasm for capital far exceeded their concern for the book itself. The word "listing" has become a self-evident subtext behind a series of press conferences.

Press conference: new and old celebrities don't win

According to incomplete statistics, during the National Book Fair, there were almost 100 press conferences organized by publishing units, most of which were promoting new books. However, an interesting phenomenon is that except for the works of several cultural celebrities such as Wang Meng, Shen, Ma Weidou and Li Ling, most of the press conferences are new works by little-known newcomers; What's even more unusual is that most of these new works are health books, health books, financial books, stock trading books and self-help books, except for a few traditional literary works such as Empire in the Qin Dynasty, Father of the River and Mother of the Sea, and Battle of the Peak. In short, they are all books that were not paid much attention to by the media before, but the market performance was quite hot. So this leads to a strange situation that makes people laugh and cry: journalists have participated in one press conference after another, only to find that there is almost nothing to write about.

Like the books of the conference, the guests of the conference seem to have started to update. As an observer with traditional ideas, I regret to find that Shen and Li Ling, which are highly praised by scholars, and the harmony that ordinary readers pay attention to, have not attracted much attention in the book market. On the contrary, in the lectures of several stock trading books, the speeches of several guest analysts attracted the crowd, and at the press conference of the novel "Floating and Sinking", the publishing house simply invited a group of foreign executives as guests.

The types of new books promoted by publishing houses are becoming more and more popular, and the identities of conference guests are becoming more and more diverse. These seemingly unremarkable changes are actually a small hint to our book market: in the days when no celebrities become famous, our hopes for super bestsellers will be dashed this year. Under the background that reading is becoming more and more utilitarian, the publishing industry will add fuel to the fire and worry that our reading ecology will become more single.

Listing: the gap between dream and reality

The change of the press conference reflects the utility and anxiety of publishers, and behind this anxiety, it is not difficult to find publishers' enthusiasm for the capital market. After two years of dullness, in 2008, publishers began to feel that the world was hopeful again, because a beautiful stock market was calling ahead.

During the National Book Fair, I chatted, drank tea and ate with many publishing houses. When everyone talks about the word "listing" during the dinner, their eyes always shine with different lights: they are both eager and cautious. Urgency is because "listing" not only means great development, but also the last way out for many publishing institutions, while caution is because of the situation of the first batch of listed cultural enterprises, and after obtaining strong funds through listing, the pressure will follow. On this point, Gong Shuguang, chairman of Hunan Publishing Investment Holding Group, said it most clearly.

Hunan Publishing Group is one of the most striking groups in Zhengzhou Book Fair: their booth area is huge, they organized many press conferences, and their chairman Gong Shuguang even gave a keynote speech. The purpose of such a high-profile appearance is actually very simple, that is, to express the attitude and strength of entering the capital market. Gong Shuguang said that in order to achieve listing within two years, efforts should be made to break the single book business and strive for multimedia and full-process listing. This positioning clearly shows that the first batch of listed companies have small plates and simple listing business. However, it should be noted that the capital market certainly loves the perfect and gorgeous shell, but what is more important is the performance. For those publishers who are eager to go public, it is probably not useless to spend a little more effort to integrate their business. Let me give you a simple example. Several listed cultural enterprises have made several socially influential books and bestsellers in this market. From this perspective, obtaining capital is only a small first step, and what to do after listing is likely to be a more urgent topic. For publishing institutions, while grasping the dream of listing, we should keep in mind the gap between dream and reality.

Book market phenomenon

The publishing trend is uncertain.

The annual National Book Fair has just completed another mission in Zhengzhou. I chatted with several representatives of publishing houses and bookstores who participated in the ICIF and found that everyone's views on the ICIF were roughly divided into two parts. One is that it is more and more urgent to reposition the book fair, and the other is that the trend of book publishing this year is still unclear.

In the past, the main function of book fairs was to place orders, supplemented by promoting reading and communication. However, after more than ten years, with the smooth communication, the function of ordering food is also weakening. A marketing manager of a publishing house who has participated in the exhibition for nine years in a row said that after the ordering function is weakened, it is necessary to strengthen the information exchange function and the reading promotion function. It stands to reason that the book fair, which changes venues once a year, must have the original intention of promoting local reading, including the reader conference set up by China Publishing Group for the first time, all for promoting local reading. But did you achieve your original goal? The marketing manager said, "I still feel like I'm in the industry." She believes that the book fair must position its function on the readers. In this regard, the Shanghai Book Fair has clearly reached the front of the book fair.

Back to the book itself, it is difficult to see the annual publishing trend at this book fair, which is different from the annual publishing hotspots at previous book fairs. When I opened the activity brochures distributed by the organizing committee, I found that most of the activities were life books, and the life books led by health care really became an instant hit in the second half of last year, which can be used as a continuation.

But one thing that can't be ignored is that there are not many books that may lead the fashion trend, and they basically feel very dull. The boss of a publishing company thinks that the whole book sales situation is not good in the first half of this year, and the soaring price and the approaching Olympic Games have diverted the sales of reading.