Chinese, US publishers suffer from technology revolution

Chinese publishers, like their American peers, have suffered from the tech revolution. Almost half of US readers under the age of 30 read an e-book in the past 12 months. In recent years, China has tried to capture the American publishing market.

In a study from the Open Book Reader Survey in 2013, 62 percent of all readers preferred printed books while 38 percent preferred e-books. A survey last year from the Pew Center for Research showed 69 percent of adults read a book in print, while 28 percent read an e-book, and 14 percent listened to an audio book.

BookExpo America 2014, the largest annual industry trade fair in the US, took place on May 29-31 at the Javits Center in New York. It featured more than a dozen Chinese publishers, including China Universal Press & Publication Co, based in Beijing, and China Press, the umbrella for San Francisco-based China Books. Long River Press, and Cypress Books, also based in San Francisco, and CN Times Books from New York exhibited as well.