Mark's Say, March 2017
The first Taipei International Book Fair (TIBE) was held in 1987 which made this year’s fair the 25th. Spread over six days, it is one of the largest trade book fairs in the world with over 621 exhibitors from 59 countries. For many years, Australia has enjoyed a reasonably strong presence at TIBE but after recent cuts to Australia Council and Austrade funding, this year’s stand was only the size of a large cupboard. Adjacent to our country’s cupboard was a grand New Zealand stand of around 100 square metres and opposite, in an even grander space, were the French, brimming with Gallic pride. The New Zealanders weren’t exactly modest, with Upstart Press’s director Kevin Chapman taking every opportunity to make fun of Australia’s representation. In spite of this, Australian trade officer Samantha Huang was making a valiant effort to talk up Australian publishing.
Although local book sales are down significantly on last year, Taiwan is still a large book market and I was pleased to be a guest of TIBE 2017. I was invited to speak at a seminar on the future of the bookshop organised by Taiwanese writer and intellectual Yang Zhao, and I took the opportunity to speak to a number of Taiwanese publishers and agents during my time at the fair.
Joanne Yang of China Times Publishing has just acquired the international rights to children’s author and illustrator Marc Martin’s books (Marc painted the wonderful mural in our new Readings Kids bookshop on Lygon Street). China Times Publishing have also published other Australian children’s books including Libby Gleeson’s Banjo and Ruby Red and Aaron Blaby’s Pig the Pug, as well as adult fiction titles such as Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites.
After years working as an editor, Emily Chuang started her own company, Emily Publishing Company, which mainly publishes translated works. It has already published books by Australians Graeme Simsion and Brooke Davis with modest success – she’s waiting for the film of Simsion’s The Rosie Project. She’s found the going tough but continues on.
Some photos from around TIPE and Taipei, including the opening ceremony, Shaun Tan in translation and a visit to the iconic Murder Ink bookstore
Chuang, together with agent Gray Tan, was instrumental in getting Text Publishing’s Michael Heyward to come to a rights workshop in Taiwan last year. It was here that he picked up a highly celebrated Taiwanese novel, The Stolen Bicycle by Wu Ming-Yi. Text will publish the English translation in Australia later this year. Tan represents a range of authors in both the Taiwanese and Chinese markets including Australian children’s authors Garth Nix and John Marsden. Gray also represented E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey in Taiwan where it sold a million copies. (It was banned in China.) I was glad to learn that Tan will be appearing at the Sydney Writers Festival as part of the Australia Council’s Visiting International Publishers program.
Florence Lin of Business Weekly Publications actively seeks Taiwanese rights for books. This company published Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees which sold 80,000 copies in Taiwan and was one of our own bestsellers here at Readings last Christmas. They recently acquired Saroo Brierley’s Lion. Lin told me she hopes the film comes soon to Taiwan to help with book sales.
Through my conversations, I learned that Taiwanese publishers have limited opportunities to promote books. There are no review sections in any of their media and they ultimately rely on the large book chains to promote their books, particularly the impressive Eslite. The opportunities for Australian publishers and authors to break into the Taiwanese market are there however, but this won’t happen if we continue to operate out of a cupboard at its book fair.
