You’re a veteran trade show director of industries including broadcasting and chemicals. What applies to this job, and how do books differ?
The one business I’ve worked in that might apply is jewelry, but that industry is very high margin, where selling requires a lot of convincing, and typically, you only have to do it once. The book industry is based on getting the odd success that really boosts everything else. Publishers hope the stuff that doesn’t make much money will have a long tail. To be honest, in my experience, it is a business model that not many industries would go for.
Chinese publishers are returning to the fair in large numbers for the first time in several years. Why?
We went to Beijing last summer and found they were very keen to find out what they needed to make the show successful. I pointed out that translating Chinese is complicated, the fees are quite high, and there’s the perception that publishers are censored, which restricts books they can buy. And while publishers may be encouraged to promote certain types of books, readers in the West don’t want copies of Mao’s “Little Red Book.” I said, “Be practical. Look at what sells big in the West and then think, Okay, what have we got that’s a bit like that in China? Bring that.” I didn’t suggest they try to copy Western books, because that’s not going to work. They’ve got to be true to themselves. But if they are authentic, genuine, and curious, the business will likely follow.
