Revenue from the sale of books last year was estimated at NT$19 billion (US$589.9 million), Ministry of Finance statistics showed, the lowest level since 2003, reflecting the waning appetite for books in the nation, while this year’s Taipei International Book Exhibition saw a record low number of visitors, data that are concerning the nation’s publishers.
Taipei-based Mollie Used Books executive director Fu Yueh-an (傅月庵) said that while publishers attribute declining sales to the loss of interest in reading, the real cause for the drop in book sales is a more fundamental change in knowledge consumption habits.
Fu, a veteran of the nation’s publishing industry, said modern readers increasingly rely on the Internet and “non-linear reading” on their devices to absorb knowledge, rather than reading physical books.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“Smartphone and tablet technologies have led to profound changes in the way we live, and one of the results is a transformation of the knowledge-absorption patterns of the public. The global publishing industry is facing its greatest revolution since the Gutenberg printing press, a revolution that is directly affecting conventional news media and publishing houses,” Fu said.
Technology has changed the way content has been delivered throughout history, with each advance changing the publishing industry, Fu said.
Just as vellum was superseded by paper, paper is now being displaced by electronic devices, with the change being facilitated by “the rise of Web 2.0 and the epoch of the smartphone,” Fu said.
“The great majority of the public now absorb knowledge through the Internet, which is essentially a knowledge platform. A determined reader can use Internet searches to obtain information that previously could only be accessed via books, or learn things through their online interactions,” he said.
Students and the younger generation were in the past the largest group of readers of books, but this group have become avid readers via smartphones and tablets, Fu said.
“Many would tell you they read books every day, but for the most part they are reading Facebook,” he added.
“Taiwanese publishers are misreading the trend. They are focusing their efforts on ebooks, but what they really should think about is finding a new format so that publishers can survive,” he said.
“Many people say reading is going out of fashion and the number of book readers is diminishing, but I say the number is increasing and that they are reading online. What the numbers reflect is the reduction in the number of buyers of physical books,” Fu said.
Comma Books Inc president Chen Hsia-min (陳夏民) said book buyers are increasingly doing their shopping online, as Internet merchants are able to offer more competitive discounts than bookshops.
Chen said that in addition to managing Comma Books, which is a publisher, he also operates an independent bookstore in Taoyuan and his experience is that many people no longer visit a physical bookshop to buy books.
“Readers today want to be in a bookshop more than they want to buy books. Frequently, the first thing a customer asks me is if my shop has a cafe,” Chen said.
What an independent bookshop offers is “a lifestyle and a particular ambience” which makes visitors feel that buying a book at the shop is a part of the reading experience, Chen said.
“Taiwan publishes a lot of new books every month and many end up in second-hand book stores within days of being published,” he said.
“Although many say that young people today do not read, they are the most avid buyers of poetry. A book of poetry, which is considered a niche market, can sell between 5,000 and 6,000 copies, which is a good number,” Chen added.
Thanks to electronic devices, the public now has access to a staggering amount of information about any subject and publishers must focus on “not just printing good books, but special books that stand out from the crowd,” he said.
As book sales continue to decline, large publishing houses will close down because of their larger expenditure in areas such as personnel, while small and medium-sized businesses will become the norm, Fu said.
An editor’s personal taste and style is to be an important selling point for readers, he said.
“There is no euphemistic way to put it; the publishing industry is becoming a niche industry and finding your target market will be crucial to your survival,” Fu said.
Publishers must transform and become “content providers,” without limiting themselves to a specific form to survive in an age of digital information technologies, said Chu Yu-hsun (朱宥勳), an author and the editor of a literary anthology.
Diversifying the format of content will help publishers compensate for the loss of physical book sales, he said, adding that books themselves will also likely change.
Chu said he sees declining book sales driving up the price of books and that publishers are likely to respond by paying as much attention to packaging and manufacturing as they once paid to content.
Books are going to be transformed into “objects of artistic value and craftsmanship, bought principally for their collectibility,” he said.
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