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Becoming the Baltics: Novelist Rein Raud Reflects on the Literary Life of His Region
The novelist and scholar discusses the distinct literary characters of the three Baltic nations.
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Publishing in the Baltic Region 2018: All Our Coverage
We take an extended look at the publishing scene in the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—which will be the market focus for the 2018 London Book Fair.
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‘Fire and Fury’ Is Hot in Germany and France
Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury' was the top-selling nonfiction title in Germany and France at the end of February and was #13 on the combined fiction and nonfiction list in the Netherlands.
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Children’s Books in China 2018: The Rise of the Pop-Science Segment in China
Mention “pop science” in China and one blockbuster comes to mind: The Magic School Bus. It has remained the #1 children’s title since its launch in 2010, with online retailer Dangdang selling nearly half a million copies in an average year. On Singles’ Day—which is the equivalent of Black Friday in China and falls on November 11—no less than 250,000 copies of books in the series are shipped from Dangdang’s warehouse.
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Children's Books in China 2018: The Continuing Story of the Children’s Book Market in China
Eleven years ago, in 2007, China Children’s Press & Publication Group (CCPPG) participated in the Bologna Book Fair for the first time. Their booth in Hall 29 was small, shabby, and minimally decorated and very few visitors dropped by.
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Children's Books in China 2018: China Children’s Press & Publication Group
This publishing house is embarking on a major, and unique, transformation of its publishing program and editorial mind-set. For president Li Xueqian of CCPPG, current changes in the industry demand an aggressive move.
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Childrens Books in China 2018: Untangling the Import Issues (and Rumors)
As of today, Peppa Pig remains a bestseller in China. Winnie the Pooh continues to sell, and so does Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There has been no restriction on these titles or on other foreign publications and translations.
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Children’s Books in China 2018: Everafter Books Publishing House
When it comes to partnering with major overseas publishing houses, few people are more knowledgeable than founder and publisher Huang Xiaoyan of Everafter Books. After all, she was involved in the high-profile joint ventures of Macmillan Century and Hachette-Phoenix.
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Children’s Books in China 2018: Beijing Yutian Hanfeng Books Company
Beijing Yutian Hanfeng’s full-color 222-page catalogue is a testament to the company’s dedication to design and art: every page, highlighting a particular series of books, is beautifully illustrated and meticulously designed.
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Children’s Books in China 2018: Beijing Bright Culture Development Company
For 16-month-old Beijing Bright Culture, making an impact on the market is the top priority, and Jef Nys’s Jeremy series (or Jommeke in the original Belgian) is the answer. “We have published only 25 out of the available 278 volumes, meaning that we have a built-in long seller in our portfolio,” general manager Liu Qian says, adding that “this #1 Dutch-language comic series sold over a million copies annually, and we want to not just match that figure in China but exceed it.” About 500,000 copies have been sold since its launch, in July 2017.
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Children's Books in China 2018: Beijing Baby Cube Children’s Brand Management Company
Baby Cube was founded by husband-and-wife team Yang Wenxuan and Liu Hong. The company grew out of their past professional experience in online retailing and literary publishing and out of their community outreach work focused on helping children to start reading. “It started as a reading club in 2010 when my daughter was little and grew by word of mouth and through social media, where I recommended picture books and carried out reading promotions,” Liu says, adding that “investments from various sources made company expansion and our publishing program possible in 2015.”
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Children's Books in China 2018: A Wide-Ranging Selection of Original Works from China
With nearly 100 Chinese publishers and at least half that many illustrators attending the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in March, a big contingent will be representing the land of 1.38 billion people. Most of the publications they are bringing to the fair focus on common themes and age-old plots expressed through the best and most unique of China’s traditional art styles. The result is original works that are quintessentially Chinese but also universal, contemporary, and engaging.
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Children's Books in China 2018: IlluSalon Nurtures and Promotes Illustrators
IlluSalon, the biggest international illustration platform in China, works with around 4,000 illustrators from more than 50 countries. For Hou Mingliang, founder of IlluSalon and host of the Global Illustration Award (as well as president of Kids Media), young and professional illustrators–with good education and training–are changing the face of the Chinese illustration industry.
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Children's Books in China 2018: Key Colours Competition China: A Unique Model
The €7,500 grand prize of the inaugural Key Colours Competition China, which was awarded in August 2017, went to Wang Yuwei’s Mr Cat and Little Fairy; five other books received honorable mentions. All six works will be published in Chinese by Beijing Yutian Hanfeng, with print runs ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 copies, and in Dutch and English by Belgian publisher Clavis, with 3,000 copies for each edition.
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Children's Books in China 2018: Survival in China: The Bear Grylls (Middle-Grade) Story
As of February 2018, 12 volumes of Bear Grylls’s Mission Survival series have been published in China, with overall sales exceeding 6.8 million copies. The numbers are a surprise to many, including some at the Jieli Publishing House, though not to editor-in-chief Bai Bing.
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Children's Books in China 2018: Promoting Wordless Picture Books in China
“The more words, the better” is a general truism of the Chinese children’s book market. Chinese parents and educators always want more words for children to learn and more paragraphs to relay additional information. A book’s value often is tied to the quantity of text on its pages.
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Children's Books in China 2018: Thinkingdom Children’s Books
“Helping every kid to become a book lover” is the motto at Thinkingdom Children’s Books, which was established in 2002 to translate classic and award-winning children’s books. Less than one year later, it published two well-known authors: Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window) and Shel Silverstein (The Giving Tree, The Missing Piece, and The Missing Piece Meets the Big O).
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Children's Books in China 2018: Jieli Publishing House
The phrase “in the right place at the right time” seems tailor-made for Jieli. Its Usborne China imprint, launched in January 2017, came at an opportune moment when the Chinese market was ready for higher-priced toy- and game-based board books and novelty titles.
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Children's Books in China 2018: Hunan Juvenile & Children’s Publishing House
Hunan Juvenile steadfastly pursues its goal to be “a kid’s best friend” by introducing quality content from far and near. Last year, the 36-year-old publisher released more than 600 new titles, including originals such as China’s Silk Road picture books, literature titles such as Tang Sulan’s Little Lotus and Stories Told by Mei Zihan, and the Wide View pop-science series. A total of 23 titles won various awards in China, and annual sales exceeded 400 million copies.
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Children's Books in China 2018: Social Media Marketing: Working the Platform
The past few years have seen social media, propelled by the all-purpose WeChat app and the Weibo microblogging service, become an indispensable promotional and sales channel in the Chinese publishing industry. Critics point to challenges facing publishers who depend on social media marketing. Advocates, meanwhile, view the current dip in effectiveness of social media marketing as evidence of a period of adjustment common to any new channel.
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