Literature returns to golden age (VNE 29-3-2008)

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Literature returns to golden age


The 5th HCM City Book Fair

Big sales of Nguyen Nhat Anh’s book “Give me a ticket back to childhood” in early 2008 is a good sign for literature, because the sales of books fell in 2007, according to the Publication Agency’s data.

Tre Publishing House said its books are selling well and the best seller is Nguyen Nhat Anh’s “Give me a ticket back to childhood”, which was published in early March. 10,000 copies of this book were sold during the fifth HCM City Book Fair. Some 5,000 additional copies are being printed. Online bookshop Vinabook reported that the demand for this book is still high and it is waiting for new books to transfer to readers.

Some 2,000 copies of Phan Hon Nhien’s long story entitled “Company” were sold within one week and 2,000 more copies are being printed. Janusz Leon Wisniewski’s novel “Lover”, translated by Nguyen Thanh Thu, was reprinted with 2,500 copies three weeks after the first publication.

Some old books are also seeing good signs for their re-printing, for example Tran Nha Thuy’s “The return of scratchy”, Duong Thuy’s “Beloved Oxford” (third edition), Trieu Xuan’s novel “White Paper” (10th edition), Nguyen Ngoc Tu’s “Miscellania” (4th edition) and “Endless Field” (16th edition), and Duong Binh Nguyen’s “Red Shoes” (4th edition).

These facts have partly restored the hope of readers and publishers because recently the Publication Agency reported that last year Vietnam printed over 1,8000 literature titles totalling over 2 million copies only, a reduction of 47.76% in quantity compared to 2006.

Nguyen Kiem, Head of the Publication Agency, said the major reason is that sources of Vietnamese and international literature declined last year.

For Vietnamese literature, there are several writers whose books are selling well, for example Nguyen Ngoc Tu and Nguyen Nhat Anh. The later is a special case because his books for children have been selling like hot cakes for several years.

Lack of new writers and qualified literature drafts is the common situation of publishing houses. Writer Trieu Xuan, who works at the Literature Publishing House, said the publishing house has abundant sources of drafts but it has to carefully select the best drafts for publication. “Even foreign best-sellers are selling slowly,” he said.

Thanh Nien Publishing House said this year it is trying to promote literature. It recently printed “Tales of @ age” by young writer Nguyen Truong Giang, which has been applauded by the media and readers, but sales have not been very good.

“It is difficult to find young writers with good works so we continue to print old books, which have certain numbers of readers,” said Nguyen Truong from Thanh Nien Publishing House.

Pham Sy Sau from TrePublishing House said he believes that there are many writers and publishers will find new good writers.

“With several Vietnamese books that are selling well now, we can see that readers still have a high demand for literature,” Sau said.

29-3-2008

(Source: VNE)