Behind the price debate, publishers are not winners.

Absrtact: Chen in the Chemical Industry publishing House general manager Wang Xiangmin's office, there is a finger clenched fist aloft, this is a chic crystal trophy, cup arm engraved with two lines of Juanxiu Xiaokai: "Chemical Industry Press, 2012 best Supplier

Chen

In the office of Wang Xiangmin, general manager of the chemical Industry publishing house, a finger clenched fist aloft, this is a chic crystal trophy, the cup arm engraved with two lines of Juanxiu Xiaokai: "Chemical Industry publishing house, 2012 best supplier", cup holder marked the trophy issuer "360 Jingdong Mall."

Not so long ago, however, the once intimate partner had just had a war with a channel trader like Jingdong. The summer of 2013, Dangdang, Amazon, Jingdong Mall Summer Sale book War heat not reduce. Jingdong books on the 60 percent-70 percent basis of 160 minus 80, full 200 minus 100, some books 50 percent caps. Amazon is a heavy launch of the million kinds of good books 50 percent caps, thousands of humanities and social science book 35 percent capped concessions.

Even though the sellers were in full swing, the books were not happy. Including Tsinghua, mechanic, human mail, Electronic, the publication Alliance of Chemical Industry, Peking University, NPC and Science Eight publishing house published a joint statement in the book Business newspaper: "Recently, a small number of bookstores in the book promotional activities in the books in order to lower than the sale price to the market dumping of books, undermining the normal order of the book market", so " Eight publishers will jointly punish bookstores that dump books at lower prices than the purchase price. ”

In this storm, the Beijing-East book promotional activities have not stopped one day. But the publishing house is confronted with the problems such as the reduction of discourse power, the lack of marketization and the exhaustion of content resources.

Resist the futility of

In response to this "protest", the electricity traders responded only to placing the books of the eight publishers outside the promotional plates, and all promotional activities were carried out as usual. As of August 15, the eight publishers ' books were sold at a price of 70 percent-90 percent. But with the exception of a handful of classic textbooks, most books have only a few evaluations. It is understood that Jingdong and the country more than 1000 publishers to cooperate, even if these eight publishers do not participate in promotional, but also far from the impact of the book supply chain Jingdong. As long as there are publishers willing to participate in promotional activities, Jingdong will be able to achieve the goal of book marketing.

"There is no use in resisting the tide of technology. Kodak company insisted on traditional film, the last hegemony almost overnight subversion. The press is also facing this impact today. Who in the publishing house will be the first to survive in the new market model. Li Jidong, an associate professor of journalism and communication at the University of Communications, told reporters.

In recent years, the network sales of books has increased year by year, network channel sales have exceeded the total book sales of more than 50%. Behind this price debate, publishers are not winners.

According to reports, China publishes more than 400,000 books a year, surpassing the United States more than one times, ranked first in the world. But the average Chinese population reads only 4.5 copies a year, and the return rate of more than 20% of new books is weighing more and more heavily on the publishing heart of the stock. It is reported that the national Xinhua Bookstore System, publishing house issued by the annual pure sales, has been from 2005 to 40.395 billion yuan to 2012 69.359 billion yuan, and the cumulative inventory over the years from 48.292 billion to the current 88.405 billion yuan. In fact, several publishers interviewed by reporters admitted that inventory was a big problem.

"We would rather destroy it than deal with it at a low price." "Tsinghua University Press Department of Humanities and Social science director Guihaihong reporters bluntly, for the inventory of books, they often choose to become pulp."

Sanlian Manager Xia Liying is also worried about inventory issues. "Constantly sending new books to stimulate the market, the result is that books are not sold and returned, resulting in more and more inventory." "The triple approach to inventory is to sell slowly on the ground market and to destroy worthless books that have become obsolete."

Who grasps the channel user, who is the king

2012, in order to cope with the digital transformation of the publishing industry, Random House and Penguin merged, from March to December launched the "50 Shades of Gray" series of books, paper version, electronic version, audio version of the simultaneous release, set a cumulative sale of 70 million pieces, cumulative income of 3 billion U.S. dollars and 400 million U.S. dollars profit They seem to have explored a clear path to electronic publishing: By building effective digital channels, capturing loyal social-networking users directly to the reader for marketing and selling.

In this sense, digitization is both a challenge and an answer. According to Xia Liying, publishers do not have the ability to control the market. Even experienced publishers cannot predict the volume of a book's sales and First impressions. But in the United States, the new book before the official release will be on the website probation and booking, users can directly subscribe to the electronic version or paper version, and then according to the booking data to judge the first print, solve the cost and inventory problems.

However, in contrast with the West, China's publishing industry is almost indifferent to the trend of digital and even against the attitude. Talking about the digital transformation, Ji Hai Hong shook his head, Xia Liying also said no feeling. When, Jingdong, Amazon have launched the electronic book business, but in the content did not get press support. The sales contract for the paper book does not include electronic copyright.

"More than 10 years ago, founder talked to us, we always disagree." "Xia Liying frankly expressed the resistance to e-books, now industry norms have not been formed, how to copyright protection, how to divide these issues need to be resolved." Guihaihong also said that the existing profits of Tsinghua publishing house mainly from the classic textbooks, once the copyright of this part of the ebook is not protected, then the publishing house will cause significant losses.

"Previously, publishers could dominate the entire industry chain. Now to the information surplus era, the status of content production decline, the status of the channel Rise, who has mastered the channel users who is the winner. Xinhua, an associate professor of digital publishing at Beijing Printing Institute, believes that publishing house can put down its posture and merge with the current market model, which determines the future of the publishing house.