Book Rights Trading and Its Agents: A Comparison of the Western and Chinese Publishing Industries

Abstract

This thesis, divided into three chapters, tries to analyze the process of foreign books rights acquisition in the PRC. To do that, in the first chapter I thoroughly examine the Western publishing industry; in particular, I describe the structure of publishing houses and how books rights are acquired by publishers. I look into how editors choose which manuscripts they are interested in publishing and examine the various steps of the book rights acquisition process. After a description of copyright, its definition and historical development, I move on into examining the role literary agents, scouts and book fairs play in the industry. I particularly focus on the emergence of literary agents as a result of the commercialization of literature and on their pivotal role in today’s industry. In the final part of this chapter, I then examine how marketing is used by publishers, underlying authors’ “platform” exploitation and collaboration with social media influencers. The second chapter compares the Western publishing industry to the Chinese one and looks into how foreign books rights are acquired by Chinese publishers. I divided this chapter into two sections: in the first macro section, I examine the size and structure of Mainland China’s book market, with particular attention to the juxtaposition between state-run and (quasi)private publishing houses (i.e. “culture agencies”), their collaboration through trade in ISBNs and its implications. After an examination of the development of Chinese copyright law, I then focus on two of the methods foreign publishers can use to enter the Chinese market: export editions and joint ventures with Chinese partners. Still, the most common way for foreign books to enter China is through rights acquisition; therefore, the second macro section of this chapter focuses on the Chinese book traders that are responsible for such acquisitions. By trying to compare the information I gathered in the first chapter, I look into how literary agencies operate in the country and into the different (and less relevant) role played by agents and editors, while also trying to find the reasons behind such striking differences. In this analysis of rights handling, Chinese book fairs and their current development are also described. I then focus on the commercialization of titles by exploring the role of authors’ “platform” in the PRC. I finally look into the specifically Chinese phenomena that could come close to our online book communities: the development of online literature and the sale of books carried out by KOLs on WeChat. In the third chapter, I use the case study of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series as an example to dissect the publication process of a successful foreign title in China. In this final chapter I initially describe the current state of the flourishing children’s literature market segment; then, I analyze the Chinese publication process of the Harry Potter series in Mainland China: I underline the factors behind the success of the series in the country and focus on the fight for acquiring its translation rights, in the end won by the People’s Literature Publishing House thanks to their high “symbolic capital”. Another fundamental topic of this chapter is the Chinese translation of the books: I try to analyze the different approaches translators followed in order to create a final text that could be both lyrical and mysterious as well as enjoyable and culturally close to young Chinese readers’ references; I also examine how the series was commercialized and presented to its readership. Finally, I study the last challenge publishers had to deal with in this process, counterfeiting, not only in terms of the negative impact of piracy and copyright infringement in the country, but also considering the factors that led to their development and the reasons, apart from the lucrative ones, from which the fake Harry Potter books originated.