Text/Zhou Xiaoqi
Edit/Midnight
"Reading took me out of a small mountain village and saw the bigger world. You are going to the sky, to the infinite distance. ”
This is a sentence that Lei Pingyang, a famous writer and winner of the Lu Xun Literature Prize, said to the children in a primary school in Eryuan County, Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province.
Lei Pingyang is a writer who came out of a poor village, when he was a child, he could not even maintain food and clothing, and there was no book at home, so he had to go to the home of a doctor in the village to borrow books. He also remembers that on a rainy day, the borrowed "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was wet and could not be restored to its original state after drying, so he was deeply impressed by the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Lei Pingyang gave the children reading lessons
Reading allows Lei Pingyang to go out of the countryside and see the bigger world. Today, more children and more people still need books to provide spiritual food.
When Pinduoduo helped poor areas to alleviate poverty through consumption in 2020, it found that locals have a strong desire for knowledge consumption. Reading books can not only let them learn knowledge, but also an important way to change their destiny, many confusions in the journey of life, the book "always has an answer".
But on the other hand side of the coin, the price of books is still rising.
Beijing open-volume data shows that in 2021, the price of new books will increase from 6 yuan in 2020 to nearly 7 yuan, and the median price of new books will increase from 48 yuan in 2020 to 49.8 yuan.
The high price of genuine books is not acceptable to everyone.
There is a group of people who are trying to push for affordable genuine, readable for all. The "Duoduo Reading Month" large-scale knowledge inclusion action initiated by Pinduoduo, together with hundreds of domestic authoritative publishing houses and book publishing companies, has launched a series of special activities, and established a 100 million-yuan reading fund to directly supplement high-quality and classic books at the source and bring more affordable and genuine books.
Behind this sentence, so that more people can afford to read genuine classic books, a group of people are making efforts to send a book to the readers in the vast land of China.
1, people still love to read paper books, but the price is "roadblock"
In the digital age, more people still choose paper books.
From the latest "19th National Reading Survey" released by the China Press and Publication Research Institute, it can be seen that the per capita paper book reading volume of adult citizens in mainland China in 2021 is 4.76, higher than the 4.70 books in 2020, and the per capita e-book reading volume is 3.30, higher than the 3.29 books in 2020.
It can be seen that although e-books have the advantages of convenient carrying and reading, the habit of reading paper books has not been completely replaced by e-books, on the contrary, more people's first choice is paper books.
The recent "2021 Duoduo Reading Report" released by Pinduoduo reveals the reading preferences of different groups of people.
In the first and second quarters of the "More Reading Month", the number of literary fiction spells increased by more than 265.6% year-on-year, and the number of social science economics and management books increased by 228.6% year-on-year. The most popular books include "Six Tales of Floating Life", "Love in the Time of Cholera", "Ordinary World" and so on.
The most popular book in the month of reading more, the source of the "2021 more reading report"
Among them, the number of young white-collar workers increased by 104.2% year-on-year, and historical biographies, literary novels, teaching aids and inspirational books such as "Red Star Shines in China", "Fifteen Years of Wanli", "How Steel is Made" are the most favored by young white-collar workers.
In addition, the number of college students' spelling orders increased by 387% year-on-year, and the growth rate of social science and management books and historical biographies hit a new high on the university campus.
Another interesting phenomenon is that during the second season of the "Reading Month" event, feminist books became popular, and "Life is By Me", "Know My Name", "Second Sex" and so on are very popular.
Paper books are still popular, but genuine classic paper books are not cheap.
When connecting Insight to classic books such as "Outline of National History", "Water Margin" and "Ordinary World" on major platforms, it found that its general price is higher, and the price of art classic books is more expensive.
There are also reasons why paper books are more expensive.
Compared with e-books, the cost of paper books is higher, paper and printing are the most basic costs, and the rising price of paper in recent years has also directly affected the price of paper books to a certain extent.
The price of raw materials has risen, and paper books also have to bear the profits of publishers, distributors, and retailers, which invisibly pushes up the price of paper books.
The price of paper books is not affordable for everyone. At present, some of the social science classics are still required reading lists for primary and secondary school students, and these books belong to a certain extent to just need, and the prices of such tomes are generally high.
"I usually like to read history books and Chinese mythology stories, but my mother doesn't buy much, and occasionally buys a little bit to get a whole set on her birthday." A fourth-grade girl from Shuanghe Primary School in Xintang Township, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei Province, said.
Making more people affordable books has become one of the things that Pinduoduo has focused on in recent years.
2. Unite hundreds of publishing houses to reduce prices so that more people can afford to buy books
An interesting phenomenon is that during the first and second seasons of "Reading Month", on Douban, there are thousand-storey high-rise buildings with "tap water" spelling books, which are specially designed to buy classic books in the activities, such as "Fifteen Years of Wanli" and "Social Contract".
It can be seen that when the price of books comes down, young people's enthusiasm for genuine classic books is quickly revealed.
In March 2021, the "More Reading Month" project team was established, and one of the things it had to do was to cooperate with the publishing house to establish the "Affordable Genuine Public Welfare Alliance". In this way, Pinduoduo can not only obtain a large number of genuine classic books, but also reduce the price of genuine classic books, and publishing houses can also reap due profits.
2022 "More Reading Month" Spring Book List
Since April 2021, Pinduoduo has launched a large-scale knowledge inclusion action "Duoduo Reading Month", in which mainstream publishing houses, book publishing companies, writers, etc. in the United Nations directly supplement high-quality and classic books.
According to the "2021 Duoduo Reading Report", in August 2021, Pinduoduo held the second season of the "Duoduo Reading Month" activity, attracting more than 10 million consumers, and more than one-third of consumers purchased more than 5 books.
Due to the popularity of "More Reading Month", some popular books have even sold out directly. In the second season of the "More Reading Month" activity, popular books such as "Mr.", "Night Sailing Ship" and "Selfish Gene" under CITIC Publishing House, as well as books such as "Six Notes of Floating Life" launched by Tiandi Publishing House, waited for replenishment of inventory and emergency printing after being sold out, and also tested the water to open the pre-sale mechanism of C2M mode.
The reason why "More Reading Month" sells books is so efficient is that it removes the middleman and directly allows the publishing house to provide consumers with genuine classic books.
"As a direct supplier, we provide customers with goods at the lowest price, and after many non-stop printing in the middle, we have the characteristics of destocking, de-middlemanship, and mass production, which maximizes the value of all parties." Tiandi Publishing House said.
It is worth noting that most of the books that can enter the subsidy list are high-quality genuine classic books.
The person in charge of "Duoduo Reading Month" told Connect Insight that in the selection of high-quality books, a Duoduo book selection group composed of more than ten senior editors was set up, and 1,000+ high-quality bibliographic SKUs were selected from authoritative awards at home and abroad such as the Nobel Prize for Literature, mao dun literature prize, Hugo award, and tens of thousands of classic books on the literary best-selling list.
At present, the third season of "More Reading Month" has also officially opened on April 20. Connect Insight to view the Pinduoduo super subsidy area to see that many genuine classic books are priced at only a dozen yuan, and even many books with single-digit prices are available. For example, Camus's "Outsider", the original price of 45 yuan subsidy after the original price of only 8.9 yuan; Mo Yan's new book "Late Ripening Man" was originally priced at 59 yuan after the subsidy was only sold for 11 yuan; the art book "Minimalist Western Art History", the original price of 36.8 yuan after the subsidy was only sold for 12.9 yuan...
Super subsidy area book prices, picture source Pinduoduo App
Let the price come down, not only to make the genuine classic books sell well, but also so that more people can afford to read the books.
3. The original intention of "More Reading Month"
Last year, a group of writers followed Pinduoduo's "Reading for You" campaign to the countryside.
"Reading history makes people wise, and reading poetry makes people show their minds..." In May last year, Gao Kai, a national first-class writer, dean of the Gansu Provincial College of Literature, and vice chairman of the Gansu Writers Association, walked into Longquan Middle School in Longquan Temple, Yongdeng County, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, and gave a reading lesson to local children.
Along with this reading class, there are also 10,140 books donated by Pinduoduo to Yongdeng primary and secondary school students.
In many villages in China, many people still have the dilemma of not being able to afford to buy books.
When the "Reading for You" public welfare action walked into the Jianhe County No. 2 Middle School in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, a student mentioned that because of family problems, most of them could only go to a friend's house to "rub" books when they were young.
In order to have a copy of his own "Grimm's Fairy Tales", he had to save 3 yuan a day from the food bill, and he could not get his wish after more than ten days.
The lack of books and the inability to buy books are common problems in many villages, so in 2021, Pinduoduo launched the "Read for You" action, bringing a group of writers and a batch of books into rural primary and secondary schools.
"Reading for You" public welfare action
So far, "Reading for You" has traveled far and wide, and various writers have personally told children in the countryside that reading is a thing that can understand the wider world.
Some changes are taking place.
The data shows that since Pinduoduo held the "More Reading Month" activity, the number of book orders from rural areas has increased significantly.
According to the "2021 More Reading Report", through the "More Reading Month" activity, the book order volume and book transaction volume from rural areas increased by more than 154% year-on-year; the book order volume and book transaction volume from rural primary and secondary schools increased by more than 110% year-on-year.
Knowledge inclusion is the original intention of Pinduoduo, and this matter cannot be done well in the short term, but requires long-term persistence and payment. But let more people read this thing, I believe that more and more people will do it.