China's publishers eye global market

The mainland, the world's second-biggest book market after the US, has long been a consumer of works from other countries, and now it is making a push to export its own literature abroad, helped by the e-book revolution.

Industry players at the Frankfurt Book Fair said they had observed a change in Chinese exhibitors' focus from acquiring foreign rights to selling the products of the mainland's developing publishing sector.

With sales of nearly US$18 billion, the mainland is the largest buyer of rights and licences for books published overseas.

Now mainland publishers, most state-controlled, are jumping aboard the central government's "Go Out" policy instituted in 1999 to promote mainland investment abroad.

Beijing is encouraging publishers to develop digital content to create more competitive firms and prepare them for stock market listing. It has urged banks to provide loans and pushed for agreements with wireless operators like China Mobile to propel the digitisation of publishing.

"While there has long been demand from international publishers to license works to China, there is also a huge drive underway to license titles in the opposite direction," said Tom Chalmers, managing director at IPR License, a digital marketplace for book rights.