Publishers call for help ahead of global gathering

Leading figures in the United Kingdom's publishing industry have called on politicians from all sides to encourage the sector and come up with policies to help promote exports.

Publishing is a successful part of the UK economy, employing 83,000 people, and with exports of around 6.5 billion pounds ($8.3 billion).

Research suggests that with favorable government policies, another 43,000 jobs could be added, and global demand could grow by 20 percent during the next decade.

The plea from the Publishers Association comes ahead of this week's London Book Fair, at the Olympia exhibition center, which runs from March 12 to 14 and that will feature 1,031 exhibitors.

"With an election on the horizon later this year, we ask politicians on all sides to recognize the publishing industry's economic value to the UK," said the association's chief executive, Dan Conway. "We must ensure we work together to … grow UK publishing's economic and social contribution."

However, one major challenge that the industry faces both at home and abroad that could end up becoming a threat, is the place of artificial intelligence, or AI, in publishing and how its use can impact on authors' creativity and intellectual property rights, as the technology can be used to create work in the style of actual writers.

Last November, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hosted an AI safety summit at which he pledged to make the UK a world leader in the field.

But with a general election coming up this year at a date yet to be announced, the association has asked both government and opposition politicians to make sure that AI advance are not "at the expense of intellectual property and human creativity", and it asked that steps be taken to "vigorously uphold the UK's globally advantageous intellectual property and copyright framework".

A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the government would take a "balanced and pragmatic approach" to concerns about AI.

"Our multi-billion-pound publishing sector is the number one global exporter of books and a key part of our creative industries, which we aim to grow by 50 billion pounds by 2030," the spokesperson added.

During the last five decades, the London Book Fair has grown into one of the world's most important publishing events, drawing exhibitors from all over the world, looking to promote their publications to wider audiences.

Sectors represented included academia, culture and the arts, education, health and lifestyle, fiction and non-fiction, with a variety of talks and seminars held by leading industry figures and authors.

One of the most keenly anticipated points of Chinese interest this year will be Lu Min appearing with her English translators to promote her book The Golden River, which tells the story of an entrepreneur's family during 40 years of social and economic transformation in China.

The book, published by Yilin Press, took seven years to research and two years to write, and its backers hope to find an English publisher at the fair.

julian@mail.chinadailyuk.com