"I want people scattered all over the world, whether you are old or young, whether you are poor or rich, whether you are sick or healthy, to enjoy reading. —World Book Day Keynote Declaration
Today is the 29th World Book Day. In recent years, the atmosphere of reading among the whole people in the mainland has become increasingly strong, and the construction of a scholarly society has continuously taken solid steps. According to the results of the 20th National Reading Survey, in 2022, the per capita reading of paper books and the per capita reading of e-books among adults will be 4.78, both of which have increased from the previous year.
With the advent of World Book Day and the launch of a series of national reading activities, the book publishing and consumer market continues to grow rapidly. According to the data of the "2023 Annual Report on the Book Retail Market" released by Beijing Open Book, the size of China's book retail market in 2023 will be 91.2 billion yuan, an increase of 4.72% year-on-year.
However, behind the seemingly prosperous book market, there is still a large information gap between publishers, authors and readers, readers do not know how to choose the right books for them, and many new books and good books cannot reach users and readers accurately and efficiently.
In addition to the lively atmosphere of World Book Day, let's talk about the problems and solutions that the book industry is facing.
The book market of "traffic".
Short videos and live broadcasts have lowered the reading threshold, can better stimulate the interest of readers, and allow many short video users to convert into readers, which is becoming a new traffic center. As the new "engine" of book sales, the rapid development of short videos and live broadcasts has also driven the rapid growth of the book consumption market and promoted changes in the publishing industry.
In the era when traffic is king, "those who get traffic, get readers" seems to have become an industry consensus. From last year's Shanghai Book Fair to the National Book Fair, and then to this year's Beijing Book Fair, more and more publishers have poured into the live broadcast room, and editors and marketers have become anchors with goods, which is becoming a normal trend in the book industry.
Source: Beijing Book Fair official website
However, there are two sides to anything new, and live selling books is no exception. While chasing traffic, many publishers are also being "coerced" by traffic: for example, they rely too much on top anchors, pit fees are too high, and most of the cost is spent on buying traffic, which leads to publishing houses having no cost and motivation to develop good content, making it more and more difficult for good books to reach readers.
Moreover, in order to gather popularity and traffic, many anchors will also launch some very gimmicky "1 yuan book purchase" activities, which makes many relevant practitioners feel a headache. The profits and market in exchange for this behavior can only be short-lived, and even make more creators lose the motivation to provide high-quality content, forming a situation where "bad money drives out good money".
Consumers who are "trapped" in the live broadcast room
Nowadays, live streaming has become an indispensable sales channel for major publishing houses and books on the shelves, and consumers are also keen to shop in major live broadcast rooms. Under the shouting fast pace and strong emotional stimulation of "3, 2, 1 on the link", many consumers follow their favorite anchors to place orders impulsively, but how many readers place orders because they really like and need it, and they have to put a question mark.
Books are different from other necessities of life, for consumers who are accustomed to live shopping, many people don't actually know what kind of books they want to buy, but just blindly follow the recommendations of some anchors with goods, and they are more interested in the personal charm and relatively low price of the anchor. In the end, many people found that they had bought a lot of books for some reason, but after getting their hands on them, they had never read them and put them in the corner to "eat ashes".
Another important problem is that for anchors who do not have the ability to choose books, their live broadcast room selection will be more inclined to low-priced, high-profile books, such as old public books, successful and inspirational chicken soup books, and those really valuable books, on the contrary, will not be recommended by anchors to consumers who really need them because of high costs and low profits.
What's more, some anchors will relax their strict control over the quality of books driven by profits. On the online complaint platform, we can see that it is not uncommon for consumers to receive problems such as poor quality books, blurry pictures, rough paper, and even pirated books received by consumers in the live broadcast room. In the long run, not only will the vital interests of consumers not be effectively protected, but the book market will also lose its benign development foundation.
"Good books" and "good prices" are indispensable
Every book is the brainchild of the author, and every reading time is a valuable resource for the reader. Rather than blindly pursuing sales, what the industry and users need more is to buy good books and stimulate the public's interest in reading through truly valuable books, which is the pursuit of the sustainable development of the book industry.
In the recently launched Jingdong Books "423 Reading Carnival", Jingdong has launched a series of strictly screened high-quality books with the theme of "good books and good prices", and delivered these good books to more readers through multiple channels, living up to every hard work of the author and every dedicated reading of readers.
In the live broadcast room of Jingdong Books, well-known writers such as Ma Weidu, Su Tong, Jiulu Feixiang, Hao Jingfang, Zijin Chen and other well-known writers were invited to talk about reading and stories with readers. At the same time, Jingdong Books also cooperated with Henan Satellite TV to create a special program "Wonderful Night in the Library", inviting actors and writers such as Ouyang Fenqiang, You Benchang (authorized digital Jigong image), Fan Shaohuang and other actors and writers Su Tong to bring a literary audio-visual feast to the audience through the reinterpretation of famous classics.
For readers who want to read books but don't know how to choose books, JD Books also cooperates with Xinhuanet and major publishing houses to jointly recommend book lists, and customizes multi-dimensional special content such as author recommended book lists and trendy life book lists according to different groups of people, so that everyone can easily and quickly choose books that suit them. At the same time, Jingdong Books also launched the "423 Reading Plan" for a limited time, paying 423 yuan can enjoy a 12-month new book blind box, and you can receive the latest blockbuster books on the current issue every month, and wait for the good books to be delivered to your home.
In addition, the price of books is also the most direct intersection between publishers and readers. On the one hand, the pricing level of books should be maintained within the purchasing power of readers; On the other hand, it is necessary to ensure a reasonable profit margin in the publishing industry. To this end, JD Books gives full play to its advantages in supply chain and resource integration, and escorts "good books" with "good prices".
In the "423 Reading Carnival" promotion, there are not only a large number of books in many categories, but also a full discount of 300 coupons to 100 in terms of price, and the discount is as low as 3%. It is worth mentioning that Jingdong Books 423 also superimposed the "Crazy Monday" event to bring more low-price discounts, "The Complete Works of Father and Son Comics" and other selected explosive products are less than 1% off and free shipping, "Little Ape Mouth Problem Card" can be purchased for only 1 yuan.
World Book Day is more than just reading. JD Books has always insisted on promoting good books, striving for good prices, truly serving readers, and screening out valuable and in-depth good books for consumers. At the same time, JD.com's live broadcast uses the method of "no pit fees and no talent commissions" to benefit consumers and buy books cheaper, and also hopes to help more publishing industry partners achieve high-quality and sustainable development.