Annual reports from the nation’s three largest book distribution channels — Books.com.tw, Kingstone and Eslite — suggested the best-selling genres of the past, such as health or finances and money, are no longer as popular in Taiwan, with coloring books topping the best-seller chart instead.
“Now, Taiwanese people like coloring books aimed at healing the mind, such as Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book, published by Yuan-Liou Publishing, which sold more than 20,000 copies in one week,” publishing house Ars Longa Pres founder Joyce Yen (顏擇雅) said, adding that “the year’s best seller happens to be a book with words that do not need to be read.”
According to Kingstone’s analysis, coloring books allow people to become focused and relieve stress, and many people like to take pictures of their colored artwork and share it with their friends on the Internet.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
“Based on the traditional definition of a book, Secret Garden is not a typical book, but it gives feedback — inner purity — to its users when they are filling in colors between the lines, and also helps them to recover a forgotten pleasure,” said Yuan-Liou editor Wang Ruo-lan (汪若蘭), who introduced coloring books to Taiwan.
Meanwhile, a translated book, The Courage of Being Disliked — published by Eurasian Publishing Group — has created a fad for books on Adlerian psychology, and other translated novels, such as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Before I Go to Sleep have sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
Last year, along with the screening of documentary Wansei Back Home (灣生回家) in local cinemas, the book of the same name by Mika Tanaka documenting Japanese born in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period returning to Taiwan and recalling their childhood memories was reprinted for a record 19th time.
“Tanaka also gave more than 200 speeches, and the passion shown at speeches can easily inspire an audience,” Yuan-Liou editor Huang Jing-yi (黃靜宜) said, adding that in addition to the attention gained from showing the documentary in theaters, an author who gives many speeches helps boost sales.
Huang said that publishing books was never about watching the market and rushing to follow trends, but rather “hoping to create trends.”
Medium and small publishers often use unique styles to catch readers’ attention; for example, Avanguard Publishing Company always publishes books in the literature, history and philosophy genres from a Taiwanese point of view, and has gained a group of loyal readers.
“We are deeply devoted to publishing Taiwanese literature and history, putting emphasis on Taiwanese cultural subjectivity and discourse, but we are putting even more effort into trying to introduce this hard knowledge in a softer way for our readers, so we are publishing more about the history of common people and their lifestyles, allowing history to be linked with their lives,” Avanguard editor Tenn Tshing-hong (鄭清鴻) said.
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