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Chinese book market, or fiction market has now almost fully embraced digital self-publishing. Magazine are now almost dead, books are just physical copies of th

Chinese book market, or fiction market has now almost fully embraced digital self-publishing. Magazine are now almost dead, books are just physical copies of their online version. Sad but true, the one most important Chinese SF magazine, the SF World, where all the mentioned authors started their career, has been hanging on the edge and gradually becoming irrelevant for some time now. The new generation of readers has put their vote on longer, daily updated, fast paced Wuxia(Martial Arts)/Xianxia(Martial Arts with Fantasy element) series, which focuses entirely on pleasing the readership with favorable characters/troupes. With a strangling market, I wouldn't say the Chinese science fiction's future is a bright one.

infinii 8y ago
Do you value the medium or the content? I can't see why you think 'digital self-publishing' is a bad thing. If anything, digital publishing where you can circumvent the publishers should allow for more content to reach market (not saying it's all good...see geocities webpages as an example of this) but I'm not sure why you think this would be bad for the Chinese SciFi scene.
- tanilama 8y ago
  The problem with digital self-publishing in China is a unique one. I don't want to expand too much on this subject because it is pretty complicated, but in short, digital self-publishing is not merely a publishing channel, it has reshaped the fiction genre in return. The Chinese online fiction is now a rat race, every author is measured by the characters they are written PER day, which ranges like 3000 characters to 10k characters. To output that amount of text per day is not trivial task, it is not writing more like manufacturing. And works that doesn't meet such standard gets no chance to even reach the readership at all, per algorithm. So, to answer your question, medium and content in this case are intervened. Medium is not neutral, it shapes the content by itself, and sadly in China's case, it opts to optimize for volumes not quality, and changes the readers' taste and expectation along the way. Tradition publishing has one unique quality to itself that it offers advice and quality control through editorship. Not the case for self-publishing though, the market is flooded with more products with lower qualities, and it makes no easier for real good work to stand out since there is too much noise.
  - throwanem 8y ago
    Sounds a lot like the market for many genres on Amazon. I will say you’re not wrong about the value of editors in traditional publishing. As far as I know, there isn’t really much of an answer to that in the “new media” world - even if you want to pay someone directly for the work, editors open to such engagements seem hard to find.
laacz 8y ago
Isn't it that what's a strangling market in China, actually is good enough for its members to strive? All the readership numbers considered. I'd argue that a niche in China is enough to sustain itself.
- tanilama 8y ago
  I don't know really. China is a huge. But a shrinking market for a genre that isn't big in the first place isn't a good sign while other mediums are blooming. It makes it harder to attract new blood and vitality into this system.
  - forkLding 8y ago
    I actually read Chinese sci-fi light novels, although a lot of it is trash, there are good ones that come out. I think with traditional publishing, it's hard to get your book in but easier once you get in. Whereas with self-publishing on the web, it's easier to get in but harder to maintain because of the many demands from readers.

infinii 8y ago

Do you value the medium or the content? I can't see why you think 'digital self-publishing' is a bad thing. If anything, digital publishing where you can circumvent the publishers should allow for more content to reach market (not saying it's all good...see geocities webpages as an example of this) but I'm not sure why you think this would be bad for the Chinese SciFi scene.

tanilama 8y ago
The problem with digital self-publishing in China is a unique one. I don't want to expand too much on this subject because it is pretty complicated, but in short, digital self-publishing is not merely a publishing channel, it has reshaped the fiction genre in return. The Chinese online fiction is now a rat race, every author is measured by the characters they are written PER day, which ranges like 3000 characters to 10k characters. To output that amount of text per day is not trivial task, it is not writing more like manufacturing. And works that doesn't meet such standard gets no chance to even reach the readership at all, per algorithm. So, to answer your question, medium and content in this case are intervened. Medium is not neutral, it shapes the content by itself, and sadly in China's case, it opts to optimize for volumes not quality, and changes the readers' taste and expectation along the way. Tradition publishing has one unique quality to itself that it offers advice and quality control through editorship. Not the case for self-publishing though, the market is flooded with more products with lower qualities, and it makes no easier for real good work to stand out since there is too much noise.
- throwanem 8y ago
  Sounds a lot like the market for many genres on Amazon. I will say you’re not wrong about the value of editors in traditional publishing. As far as I know, there isn’t really much of an answer to that in the “new media” world - even if you want to pay someone directly for the work, editors open to such engagements seem hard to find.

laacz 8y ago

Isn't it that what's a strangling market in China, actually is good enough for its members to strive? All the readership numbers considered. I'd argue that a niche in China is enough to sustain itself.

tanilama 8y ago
I don't know really. China is a huge. But a shrinking market for a genre that isn't big in the first place isn't a good sign while other mediums are blooming. It makes it harder to attract new blood and vitality into this system.
- forkLding 8y ago
  I actually read Chinese sci-fi light novels, although a lot of it is trash, there are good ones that come out. I think with traditional publishing, it's hard to get your book in but easier once you get in. Whereas with self-publishing on the web, it's easier to get in but harder to maintain because of the many demands from readers.