Yin Di, who established Elite Books in 1975, is an old-school publisher. He respects authors, and cares about his employees. “Publishing is getting tougher all the time, but Elite Books won’t be shutting up shop, because we have seven employees. As an employer, I always feel I should be thinking about the financial needs of my employees.” Maybe it’s precisely because he thinks like this that Elite Books meets with very fortunate turns of events from time to time.
Back in 1983, Kenneth Pai opted for another firm to publish Crystal Boys, but to make up for it he let Elite Books publish Taipei People. Three decades later, it turns out that Taipei People sold more copies. “So why get worked up over things like that?” This is the lesson that Yin Di took away from the experience.
The author Yu Qiuyu made his big breakthrough when Elite Books published A Bitter Journey Through Culture and Notes from the Hills. Yu used other publishers for later books, but remained grateful to Yin Di for boosting his career and eventually chose to have Elite Books publish a collection of essays entitled Another Bitter Journey Through Culture. Yu told Yin Di that this book now sits on his desk, which made Yin Di feel very good.
As a young man Yin Di, whose real name is Ke Ching-hua, once wanted to go into cinema, but in the end he opted for literary publishing, which he loved even more. But his pen name hints at the path not chosen, for Yin Di alludes to the Chinese term ying di (“star of the silver screen”). And even though his successes over the course of 40 years have had nothing to do with cinema, he has nevertheless become a legend in the publishing industry.
In addition to its own outstanding reporting,
a really unique feature of Taiwan Panorama is its
monthly digest section, which has carried the work of many Taiwanese authors over the years.
It is thanks entirely to this section that many excellent
writers have been able to gain exposure to an overseas
readership, thus gaining increased visibility.
I hope Taiwan Panorama will continue to innovate
and progress in the coming years.
—Yin Di
Shown here are the heads of the firms once known as “the five little big-names” in Taiwan’s literary publishing industry. In the front row, right to left: Yin Di of Elite Books; Lin Hai-yin of Pure Literature; Yao Yi-ying of Vastplain Publishing; Tsai Wen-fu of ChiuKo Publishing. First from left in the back row is Yeh Pujung of Hung-Fan Bookstore.
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