A first against the pirates
Upon entering the mainland market, all writers worry about pirated editions. On a bitterly cold winter day in 1999 Liu Yung won a lawsuit against book pirates in Shenyang. This was the first time that an author from Taiwan had won a lawsuit against copyright infringers on the mainland.
There are more than 70 different pirated editions of Liu's books on the mainland. "Enough for a separate book fair," Qu jokes. At the beginning, Qu assiduously worked the normal channels. She went through the Press and Publication Ministry to get a "red head" (a document with the official national insignia), which requested all areas of the country to strengthen their enforcement efforts. Up against pirate publishers who don't leave a trace, she targeted, at Liu Yung's suggestion, the bookstores. They ended up winning the lawsuit and received RMB40,000 in compensation. Qu Xiaoxia is now helping the young Taiwanese travel writer Kuan Sun-chih with another suit against pirates.
In the past, publishers on the mainland were all government bodies, and books were regarded as nutrition for the spirit rather than as consumer products. Qu may well be the first person in the PRC to have molded authors into kinds of brands and their books into commercial goods. For instance, before working with Qu, Liu had signed a contract with another mainland publisher, but they sold less than 10,000 books over the course of five years. Today Liu's books are very hot among junior high and high school students all over China, and he is known as a super best-selling author.
Qu, who has successfully marketed Liu for the mainland market, recommends that writers from Taiwan not spread themselves thin by working with several different publishers. This would only cause each of the publishers to be reluctant to promote the author, lest it help their competitors. Such a strategy also makes publishers less motivated to stamp out pirated editions. By splitting the pie, you satisfy no-one.
Liu Yung estimates that his books, including both legitimate and pirated editions, have sold more than 10 million copies on the mainland. It's a staggering number. "I believe that Liu is very farsighted," says Qu. "Early on, he saw the potential of this market and he threw himself into it." Many writers from Taiwan thinking about entering the mainland market lack this kind of determination. Even though Liu Yung's works had been Kingstone bookstore bestsellers for over ten years in Taiwan, he didn't try to capitalize on this to get higher royalties. Moreover, all of his mainland royalties from the first three years were plowed back into publicity for the mainland market.
Of course, not all the authors that Qu represents are cash cows. She once introduced a pictorial edition of Shakespeare from Taiwan and lost RMB300,000 on it. And she is still struggling on behalf of Chien Chen, a more purely literary author. But Qu, who admires Chien's work, holds that her efforts are worth it. "Raising the quality of readers requires efforts from people in mainland China and Taiwan."
As her own boss and a lover of cultural travel, Qu is good at organizing her time. Last summer, she brought Lin Ching-hsuan to ten famous tea towns on the mainland, as well as to Hangzhou's Longjing and Junshan Island in Dongting Lake to sample "Junshan Yinzhen" tea. In January of 2001 she went to see swans in Rongcheng County, Shandong. Then, after the Chinese New Year, she went to Shanbei County for a folk arts festival. Qu's cultural horizons are only growing broader.
When Liu Yung and his son lectured at Peking Univer-sity, he drew a packed house. Even the window sills were full.