London Book Fair: European and American booths are like coffee shops

Wang Zhan, our special correspondent, is from London.

Yesterday was the last day of the London Book Fair, and a sudden hailstorm in the morning congested the streets of London.

However, the Earl Palace Convention and Exhibition Center, where the book fair is held, is in good order. Not only the traffic police direct traffic, but also the staff of the organizers provide each reader with a free umbrella.

Aisha, a college student from Sheffield, paid 45 pounds for a ticket to the book fair. "I just learned that students are free, but they have to register online in advance."

After entering the pavilion, Aisha checked her large luggage and picked up a book bag with LOGO printed on it at the London Book Fair.

"45 pounds is not cheap for us, so the London Book Fair offers a lot of additional free services." Aisha pointed to the book fair lounge where three female technicians were giving the reader a shoulder and neck massage.

Two pavilions have been set up at the London Book Fair. As the host country, China occupies most of the space in Hall 2, while Pavilion 1 is basically a booth from Europe and the United States.

The booth layout of Hall 1 is more like a mini coffee shop. Istanbul decorated its booth as a living room with daffodils and tulips, played light music, and staff and foreign publishers sat on the sofa for dessert. In fact, they are negotiating the copyright trade of books.

Although the layout is warm, walking into Hall 1 makes people feel as if they are in a large-scale business fair. All the booths are filled with people who sit and talk about business.

In front of the showcase of Little Brown Press, there are editors from nine national publishing houses at the same time. It turned out that the new book "temporary Vacancy" by Ms. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, attracted them.

"this is Rowling's transformational work, her first book for adults." The copyright manager of a Spanish publishing house is browsing the "temporary Vacancy" and from time to time discussing the details with the staff of Little Brown Publishing House, as well as Rowling's royalties.

In the National Exhibition area of the Chinese Guest in Hall 2, most of them are readers who read and buy books quietly. Of course, there are also famous writers-such as lectures by tie Ning, Mo Yan and Yan Geling.

"We do have a misunderstanding about the book fair, thinking that a book fair is a book exhibition." Tong Jian, president of Zhejiang Publishing Group, has participated in dozens of book fairs, large and small, but when he saw the exhibition areas of large foreign publishing companies, he could not help sighing, "there are very few areas for book exhibitions, most of which are reserved for negotiation." the regional division of domestic publishing houses is often the opposite. "

"the domestic book fair is based on display, while the London Book Fair integrates display, exchange and trade, and it is a grand exchange event." Tong Jian believes that for enterprises and publishers, obtaining transactions from book fairs, whether cultural transactions or copyright transactions, is a process of expanding the spread of culture.

In fact, this is exactly what Zhejiang publishing houses are doing.

At the London Book Fair, Wang Libo, assistant president of Zhejiang people's Society, took a fancy to Cambridge African History by Cambridge University Press and signed the copyright of the Chinese version on the spot.

On the other hand, Red Flag Publishing House has a global launch of the new book "pay attention to China". The content of the book is mainly about the evaluation of Chinese society by 41 diplomatic officials from different countries, which has attracted great attention from all walks of life at home and abroad after its publication.

"if it is a book on Chinese subject matter, Westerners prefer to read the works of local authors." Wei Jing, a reporter for Proparole Satellite TV, said at the launch ceremony of the English version of "another 20 years for China" yesterday, "the author of this book is an industrialist in Dongguan. The British are very interested in China's economy and know that the Pearl River Delta is an economically active land. So I'd like to know what China looks like in his eyes."

Proparole Satellite TV signed a publishing cooperation framework agreement with Zhejiang Publishing United Group this time, preparing to set up a publishing organization in London. "it is equivalent to having a publishing house in the UK that can translate more Chinese books into English and introduce them to British readers." Tong Jian said.

"in Britain, the most popular Chinese books are Sun Tzu's Art of War and moral Classic. As for modern and contemporary Chinese works, Western readers do not know much about them. We would like to see more Chinese books." Said Lisa from Standard Chartered Bank in London.

(responsible Editor: Leo)