 The little read book
By Mu Qian (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-14 08:13  On a typical day, 28-year-old fantasy novelist Tangjia Sanshao writes 9,000 Chinese characters and publishes them online. He can't take holidays because readers look forward to a fresh chapter every day. Tangjia Sanshao's eighth and latest work, God of Instrument (Qin Di), is currently being serialized and hosted on the website www.qidian.com, on which it ranks 26th in terms of popularity. Every click brings money and pay-online reading is now Tangjia Sanshao's main source of income. It costs about 0.02 yuan to read 1,000 Chinese characters of Tangjia Sanshao's works on www.qidian.com. According to the website, about 100 of their writers can make more than 100,000 yuan ($14,660) a year from their pay-online works, and Tangjia Sanshao says he is one of them. "I should have made much more. If there had not been so much unauthorized copying of my works, I would have made at least 10 million yuan," he estimates. Tangjia Sanshao started four years ago as an amateur writer who posted his writings online for fun. Because of the popularity of his works, he became a well-known writer and hard copies of his works have been published. Now, at the same time as his work is published on the Internet, there are hard copies produced volume by volume. "I like writing on the Internet because you can get feedback immediately," he says. "Whatever readers say, the comments are a positive factor for my writing. Tangjia Sanshao is one of about 4,000 contracted authors at www.qidian.com. Boasting over 2 million paying customers a day, www.qidian.com says it is the biggest online reading website in China. "I usually read seven or eight novels on-line at the same time. It's very convenient. I don't have to go to bookshops, but need only search online to find the works I like," says Liu Liang, a 26-year-old resident of Shanghai and reader of www.qidian.com. "In addition, online reading is very interactive. Readers like me often exchange ideas on works we are reading, and sometimes the authors invite us to vote on the development of their plots." Liu pays an average of 50 yuan per month for reading online. He says with this amount of money he can read many times more online books than printed books.
"Pay-online reading has become a part of my life. The money is not very much, but it is a kind of respect for the authors," he says. Most works released on www.qidian.com are popular literature, such as fantasy, martial arts and sentimental novels, but the website has also started to release more serious works of established writers, including 21 works that were nominated for Mao Dun Literature Awards, one of the most prestigious literature awards in China. However, Mai Jia, one of the four winners of this year's Mao Dun Literature Awards, says that he is not ready yet to sign a contract with an online reading website. "My readers are usually older and more intellectual than the average online novel readers. I'm not sure whether it is suitable for my works to be released together with those popular fantasy novels," says 44-year-old Mai. "In addition, I can't judge whether proper rules have been formed for pay-online reading." Mai says that he uses the computer to write and would buy books on the Internet, but he still prefers reading a printed book. However, he agrees that online reading will grow in the future. "The Internet will certainly grab more and more readers from printed books. I pay close attention to online reading," he says. According to the fifth national reading survey, conducted by the Chinese Institute of Publishing Science last August, the rate of online reading in China was 36.5 per cent, beating book reading (34.7 per cent) for the first time. "Online reading is a sunrise industry," says Hou Xiaoqiang, CEO of Shanda Literature Limited, which owns www.qidian.com. Hou says that unauthorized copying and pasting is a big problem for pay-online reading, but the situation is improving. On Oct 30, two people from Southeast China's Fujian province were sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison and given a fine of 100,000 yuan ($14,660) for illegally posting on their website original literature works owned by other sites, including 1,339 owned by www.qidian.com. This was the first time a copyright violation of this nature was punished, in China. "The result of this case not only protects our interests, but also encourages the development of the young industry of pay-online reading," Hou says. "I believe there will be a great future for pay online reading." Apart from pay reading, www.qidian.com also deals with copyrighted works in other ways. For example, Ghost Blows out the Light (Gui Chuideng), a popular novel by the website's contracted author Tianxia Bachang, has not only been released in printed versions, but has also been adopted for caricature and computer games. Its film adaptation rights have been sold to famous Hong Kong director Johnny To. Though the national reading survey indicates that online reading is increasing, while book reading is decreasing in China, Song Qiang, assistant to the director of the general office of the People's Literature Publishing House, believes that online reading has not yet had a serious impact on traditional publishing. "The people who are used to online reading and those are used to book reading are basically two different groups, and they can promote each other," he says. "Many people who enjoy reading a work on the Internet will later buy a hard copy for their collection, or as a gift for others." Song admits the Internet is playing an important role in people's lives, and he says he often surfs popular websites to read literature works. Many publishing houses have published works they find on the Internet. People's Literature Publishing House has not done so yet, because as an established press for serious literature, they are very careful in picking works, Song says. "Traditional publishing still has its advantages. We are more experienced and strict over editing, and we have more resources in terms of theoretical and serious works," he says. "Traditional publishing will not be defeated by online publishing. It can only be defeated by itself." Song agrees that online reading is becoming a trend that should not be neglected. He reveals that China Publishing Group, formed by 13 of the biggest publishing houses in China, including the People's Literature Publishing House, Commercial Press and Zhonghua Book Company, will establish a literature website to develop online publishing and reading. "We will try to make use of our advantages while adapting to the times. In the future maybe only comprehensive media groups will survive," Song says. (China Daily 11/14/2008 page18) |
