From survival to profit: A Canadian book publishers' guide to China, the world's largest market

The Canadian book business is fraught with difficulties and struggles. Canadian publishers have long been trying to establish and reinforce their images and sales internationally. Meanwhile, suffering a long-time isolation from the rest of the world's publishing industries, Chinese publishers are urgently loohng for international cooperation opportunities to modernize and improve the domestic book industry. Based on a discussion of the importance of foreign sales for Canadian publishers, this report focuses on presenting essential information regardmg the Chinese book business. It documents China's unique publishing environment, the structure of the industry and its operational modes. It then discusses the boom in foreign cooperation in China's book trade, as well as the ways to cooperate with Chinese publishers. Finally, a Canadian success story, Toronto's Lingo Media, is presented as an example of the possibilities available in China. The intent of this paper is to aid Canadian publishers to enter the Chinese market.