Shi Chunsheng remembered a romantic legend about world reading day.
“There was a princess in Italy who was trapped in a deep mountain by a dragon. A young man named St. George bravely rescued the princess. So the princess gave the young man a book to express her gratitude. This day is April 23, which has since been called St. George’s day, and the book is also known as a symbol of wisdom and courage.”
In an exclusive interview with the reporter of China business daily, Shi Chunsheng told a story about world reading day. “It is also said that this day is the death day of Shakespeare and Cervantes, which is mainly set up to commemorate them.” Shi Chunsheng attached great importance to this festival. On April 23, 2022, he was also invited to attend China’s first three-day national reading conference.
Shi Chunsheng, general manager of Beijing Rentian Bookstore Co., Ltd., President of the distribution branch of China periodical association, vice chairman of the Fifth Committee of the private book industry working committee of China Book Distribution Industry Association, and also a representative of the 17th People’s Congress of Fengtai District, Beijing.
Since its establishment 24 years ago, Rentian bookstore has always maintained a leading sales, market share and social influence in the library distribution market. Rentian bookstore has been rated as “national excellent library distribution supplier” by library daily for 16 consecutive years. Rentian bookstore has almost become synonymous with the library.
“If a city doesn’t have a bookstore, it’s like a person without a soul.” As a senior person in the book industry, Shi Chunsheng believes that the number of urban public libraries is too small and the reading cost of citizens is high. “I suggest that Beijing should build more small, practical and Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) nearby community libraries.”
Engaged in the book industry for more than 20 years, Shi Chunsheng witnessed the ups and downs of the book industry. He put forward his own views to the reporter of China business daily. The following is the dialogue between the reporter and Shi Chunsheng.
hall with pronouns
China business daily : for the public, the concept of Library allocation is relatively unfamiliar. Can you tell us the origin of the business form of Library allocation?
Shi Chunsheng : you may not know the word “library allocation”, which means “providing books for the library”. Books are a very niche industry. Many people may know the library, but many people who have not gone to college will not enter the library for almost their whole life. If you ask people in the city where the library is, they are likely to take you to Xinhua bookstore. This is our current situation.
Before the 1990s, Xinhua bookstore was the absolute main force in the book supply and marketing market of university libraries. With the development of market economy and China’s education, the book purchase volume of University Libraries increased sharply, requiring a series of additional services such as data, logistics, shelves, book processing and so on, which all need new business forms to meet these needs.
At this time, private library distributors represented by Rentian Bookstore came into being. With comprehensive service, flexible mechanism, rich supply and complete after-sales service, they have sprung up to adapt to the library distribution market under the new situation. Since 2005, library procurement funds have increased significantly, giving birth to a number of independent library distribution companies, and embassy distribution has become an independent business form of book distribution.
The upstream of the library distributor is the publishing unit and the downstream is the library. As a bridge and link between the two, the most important thing is to provide information. There are nearly 250000 new books published in China every year, excluding reprints.
250000 kinds of books. For a library with only a few buyers, this information can’t be read. The library distributor is responsible for collecting and summarizing information, making a database and interfacing with the library system. The library distributor can also recommend the corresponding data according to the specific library type, and carry out a series of activities for the library, such as centralized purchase of books, provision of professional cataloging and other secondary processing services, and even new books on the shelf and promotion, which can greatly reduce the workload of the library.
In short, the library distribution providers should be responsible for building a platform for information exchange and resource sharing in the library distribution industry, give full play to their own resource advantages and service advantages, and build a good library distribution ecosystem.
China business daily : Rentian bookstore is honored as a leading enterprise in the library distribution industry. How did you achieve this state today?
Shi Chunsheng : at present, the main body of library distribution in China is mainly composed of private library distributors, state-owned Xinhua Bookstore and University Collection and editing center. However, before 1990, China’s library distribution market was exclusively undertaken by Xinhua bookstores, and Xinhua bookstores everywhere set up “picture supply department” or “Reader Service Department”.
In the 1990s, with the popularization of computer technology in libraries, centralized cataloging, joint cataloging and online cataloging became the development trend. China has successively established several regional book and document joint collection and editing centers, embarked on the road of “joint procurement and unified cataloging” in the process of development, and gradually evolved into China’s earliest commercial organization focusing on serving library customers, but its service scope is limited by regions, And still buy books from Xinhua bookstore.
With the liberalization of book pricing power by the state, the publishing house has given book suppliers more room to make profits, but the discount offered by Xinhua Bookstore to the library is still only 1% ~ 5%. The library is eager to change the way of purchasing books, which provides favorable conditions for the entry of private capital. After 1998, a number of special service libraries represented by Rentian bookstore and private library distributors engaged in library distribution business were established one after another.
In 1999, the computer was already in use. At that time, we were still a small bookstore, and the business was not good, but we seized a vent and thought of going to the publishing house to help sort out the catalogue into an electronic version, and at the same time, we would also print a paper version. Every half a month or once a month, send the collected information to the publishing houses and libraries that need it regularly. At the earliest, we can make a profit of 4980 yuan by selling interview data to a single library a year. At that time, the money was still very valuable.
Later, relying on the advantages of flexible mechanism, strong service awareness and fast market adaptation, Rentian bookstore was favored by libraries. In order to meet the needs of customers and continuously innovate services, Rentian has gradually developed from the initial provision of cataloging data with books to one-stop whole process services, including pre-sales interview data provision services, on-site procurement services in procurement and after-sales services such as delivery, cataloging, shelf storage and so on.
Although the library distribution industry is small in scale, it is highly professional. Although the threshold is not high, it is not easy to expand and refine the major. It depends on whether it can provide high-standard collection services for the library, and the quality of library collection is related to the quality of colleges and universities and the academic and discipline level of public libraries.
China business daily : what are the more important nodes in the development of Rentian bookstore?
Shi Chunsheng : the team layout of Rentian bookstore is relatively early, the service network is all over the country, and it is also a supplier of all kinds of academic books in libraries.
At present, we have more than 700000 kinds of books in stock, with an inventory of 2 billion yuan. There is a special sample library for the library to buy on site. It has a national library purchase and distribution base, a library distribution alliance purchase and distribution base, a Xinhua Bookstore library distribution business purchase and distribution base, a primary and secondary school library purchase and distribution base, a children’s library purchase and distribution base, an online business operation center, an e-book production center, etc., forming a combination matrix of the book business of Rentian group. In more than 20 years of development, Rentian bookstore has mainly experienced four nodes:
The first is to develop “Rentian bibliography” to solve the data pain points of the book industry. At the beginning of the birth of the library distribution business, the information channels of the book industry were not smooth, and the problem of “it is difficult for readers to find books, and it is difficult for books to find readers” existed in the whole industry. Since 1999, Rentian began to compile and publish the Rentian bibliography, collect the book publishing information of the national publishing houses in that year, compile the standard ordering catalogue, and provide it to the library for selection and use, which well solved the problem of poor information of the industry.
Second, college enrollment expansion and library evaluation opportunities to provide professional services. In 1999, China’s colleges and universities began to greatly expand the enrollment of colleges and universities across the country, which put forward higher requirements for the university library, one of the three pillars of colleges and universities, and made clear provisions on the collection resources and the number of copies per student. College enrollment expansion and library evaluation not only promote the development of the book industry, but also bring new development opportunities for library distributors. Since then, the trading volume of people and days has doubled for ten consecutive years. By 2013, the annual sales of code ocean reached one billion.
Third, improve the level of resource construction and serve “national reading”. Since 2014, the national reading has been written into the government work report for nine consecutive times, driving the development of public libraries. In this year’s “government work report”, the term “in-depth promotion” was used for the first time when referring to “universal reading”. Reading has become a common practice among the whole people, the cause of public libraries has ushered in development, and the resource construction level and service level of Library distributors are also constantly improving.
Fourth, under the background of “new regulations” and “double reduction”, we will focus on the distribution business of primary and secondary school libraries. In 2018, the Ministry of education revised and issued the regulations for primary and secondary school libraries (rooms), which further defined the development objectives and main tasks of primary and secondary school libraries, improved the system and mechanism, and put forward new requirements from the aspects of book allocation, collection resource construction, application service and condition guarantee. Last year was also the first year of the implementation of the “double reduction”, and the development of primary and secondary school libraries across the country ushered in unprecedented opportunities. There are 380000 primary and secondary schools and 180 million primary and secondary students in China. Rentian bookstore is making full use of its own collection resources to serve the majority of teachers and students.
library changes
China business daily : what do you know about the development of libraries? What is the difference between it and a bookstore?
Shi Chunsheng : the bookstore takes operation as the main purpose and combines social and economic benefits. The library is a pure public welfare organization.
Library is endowed with many functions. The real definition is: the social device of human memory storage. For example, to store our civilization of the past 3000 years, books are the best carrier.
The history of our national library is actually very short. The earliest Library in China is called the library. It is said that our first librarian is Lao Tzu. In ancient times, reading was a very luxurious thing. Only people at the top could see books. Oracle bone inscriptions were first used, followed by bronzes. The cost is very high. Later, bamboo pieces are also very expensive. Most people can’t afford to read books.
Therefore, the main function of the early library was to collect books, not to borrow them. In fact, the private collection of books in our country has always been very large. Only modern libraries have the function of opening to the public. The earliest modern library was the Manchester Library in England, and the first real library in our country was the Hubei provincial library, which was established in 1904.
In 1899, American Wei Dihua came to China. In 1903, he organized a reading room in Wuchang Tanhua linwenhua school and carried out a variety of book publicity activities. She soon found that there was no facility in China that could really be called a public library. The previous library buildings were private, so she established China’s first modern public library, called Wenhua public library, which was open to teachers, students and society.
Including the library in Beijing, outsiders can’t borrow books. They must have a local ID card before they can apply for a library card.
A famous Librarian in India once proposed that the library should respect everyone and everyone has the right to enter the library. The library has several functions, one of which is that each book has corresponding readers, and each reader should have books. In front of the library, everyone should be equal. So now the prison also needs a library, because prisoners also have the right to read.
Now we can see that there are more and more libraries, the number of our customers is increasing, and the government’s support in this regard is indeed increasing.
China business daily : in your opinion, what difficulties and challenges are the current library industry facing?
Shi Chunsheng : under the impact of the Internet, libraries are facing many development difficulties.
First, with the development of the Internet era and the changes of readers’ reading methods, readers have richer channels and more convenient ways to obtain information. They rarely enter the library, resulting in the decline of library borrowing. In some libraries, even 50% ~ 70% of books are ignored.
Second, the function and orientation of the library need to be reconsidered. In the past, the function of the library was to consult materials. With the progress of Internet technology and the increase of information acquisition channels, the library should slowly transform into reading space and academic space. However, at present, the functional orientation of the library is still being explored, and there is no definite theory in the world.
Third, there are two “extremes” in the channels for libraries to obtain resources. On the one hand, the “HowNet” channel monopolizes resources and constantly raises prices; On the other hand, the bid winning without bottom line and low price in the bidding process leads to that the library can’t buy good books and suppliers can’t afford good books. In the past, the law of low price is not conducive to the sustainable development of the book industry, which is not conducive to the formation of low-cost products.
Fourth, the current number of public libraries is insufficient. According to the public library construction standard, every 450000 people should have a medium-sized library or above, every 150000 people should have a small library or above, and every 13000 people should have a grass-roots library or reading space. Therefore, I suggest to build more small, practical and Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) nearby community libraries to make books truly integrate into people’s lives.
I once imagined that if Beijing meets the target of going global, there will be libraries. As long as more than 300 libraries are built, Beijing can become a real cultural capital. For example, we don’t need to borrow three books from the library. The total cost of borrowing three books from the library is too high, but we don’t need to borrow three books from the library.
new book discount is harmful to the whole industry
China business daily : we have noticed that the public has a saying that books seem to be getting more and more expensive in recent years. What do you think of this phenomenon?
Shi Chunsheng : objectively speaking, books are still very cheap.
But in recent years, people have misunderstood books. They think that in the past, the price of a book was more than ten yuan, but now most of it is about 60 yuan. In fact, the price of other things has increased even more, and books are still relatively cheap.
For example, people in cities now spend more than 200 yuan for a meal in half an hour or an hour, but they have to read a book for at least three or four days, or even a week. At present, few people read 50 books a year. Not to mention 50 books, few people can buy 50 books, and few people can spend 1000 yuan to buy books. No one will spend a dollar in a restaurant in 2000. This kind of spiritual demand is totally different from the demand for food. We really misunderstand this.
The second reason is that there are problems in our industry itself. A few years ago, pirated books were sold on the street for five yuan each. The most extreme is to sell them by catty. How much is a pile. Therefore, the publishing house also has non-standard management, which leads everyone to think that you can buy a book for five yuan. There is also a very important point. Now some online bookstores are fighting too much price war, which makes everyone’s impression of books wrong and thinks that books should be cheap. In fact, this is misleading readers.
The price war of online bookstores is becoming more and more fierce, and some publishers and dealers can’t make money. The profit of books is not high. Now the author publishes a book, and the royalties are very low. The author needs a year and a half to write a book, or even longer, but he can’t make much money. Maybe twenty or thirty thousand yuan of royalties is good. As a result, the market is indeed getting worse and worse, and there is a serious lack of good content. The final situation is that those who write books are unwilling to write books and those who sell books are unwilling to sell books.
China business daily : now they are talking about the difficulties in the operation of physical bookstores. What are the reasons?
Shi Chunsheng : retail stores (bookstores) belonging to the distribution end are a little more difficult. There are many reasons for the difficulty.
The main reason is the rise of house prices. After the house price increases, the rent increases very high. In the past, many venues were cheap at first, but then the rent increased too much, and the rent cost pressure was also great.
The second main reason is the rise of online bookstores. They even fight a price war without a bottom line, with 30% and 40% discount. As a result, customers are diverted. Many readers like to read in the store and go back to buy books online.
About seven or eight years ago, we launched a campaign to limit the discount of new books, advocating that new books should not be sold at a discount within one year or six months, or at least 20% discount. It was later cancelled for various reasons. But in fact, in western countries, including Japan and South Korea, new books are not allowed to be discounted.
In order to protect the interests of authors abroad, even hardcover books are published first, and then paperback books. Because the price of hardcover is high, it will also meet the psychological needs of some readers to open the gap. This is equivalent to that we like watching the premiere of movies, and even squatting in the cinema in the middle of the night. We will be satisfied with first-hand information. This is very important.
But in today’s book industry, new books can get a 20-30% discount as soon as they come out, which is harmful to everyone. The author can’t make money, nor can dealers and publishers.
Third, the cost of labor increases, the total volume of books can not be sold, and the cost of personnel increases higher, resulting in greater pressure on bookstores.
Another objective situation is that now there are many ways and channels for everyone to obtain information, resulting in a relatively decrease in the number of people reading physical books and being attracted away by other media, or new channels and new ways.
China business daily : affected by the epidemic, many bookstores choose to close. In your impression, have bookstores been closed intensively before?
Shi Chunsheng : there are actually several stages. The first stage was about 2006 and 2007, when there was no online bookstore. Bookstores across the country are desperately offering discounts. The most obvious ones are Beijing Haidian book city and Beijing Centergate Technologies (Holding) Co.Ltd(000931) book building. The discount is up to 70%, which is crazy. As a result, many bookstores have closed down. The closed bookstores near Haidian Book City alone account for 20% of the national Bookstore scale.
At the second node, around 2011, house prices rose very high, and online bookstores rose again, so a large number of bookstores closed down, including the famous bookstores such as fenglisong bookstore and guolinfeng bookstore next to Peking University.
Therefore, at that time, our industry launched an initiative and applied with the Ministry of finance to exempt the bookstore or distribution industry from value-added tax, charging 13% tax in the book industry. Around 2016, the VAT exemption was implemented, and many bookstores gradually opened again. Some books began to be placed on the counters of irrelevant small stores because they can be exempted from VAT.
If a city does not have a bookstore, it is like a person without a soul. The collective disappearance of bookstores has a great impact, which has also attracted the attention of relevant departments. In recent years, Beijing has also provided certain subsidies and rewards to local characteristic bookstores. In fact, the return of bookstores in recent years is mainly related to policy support.
“China Business Daily” : more than a decade ago, there was a saying that e-books would replace paper books. Of course, this situation did not appear. What do you think of the future of the two?
Shi Chunsheng : once, the rise of e-books pushed the history of books to a new turning point. In 2010, Professor Negroponte of MIT even predicted that “paper books will die out within five years”. Some people embrace the progress of science and technology, while others are still reluctant to part with ink.
At present, paper books have not disappeared, but show the trend of “pushing back” e-books. According to the statistics of market research company statista, the global shipment of e-readers began to decline since 2012. Its sales peaked in 2011, reaching 23.2 million units, down 36% in 2012. The Kindle that caught fire in previous years has also become a “bubble pressing tool”.
In the foreseeable future, paper books and e-books will coexist for a long time and cannot replace each other. The function of e-books may be more inclined to scientific and technological retrieval (online hot novels are not defined as e-books temporarily), while the function of paper books is more inclined to reading. On the other hand, with the rise of family study, books have become a symbol of style and quality in addition to reading function.
In short, the ultimate goal of both paper books and e-books is to integrate publishing resources with platform technology to provide high-quality book resources for libraries and readers.
China business daily : as a leading enterprise in the industry, what plans and goals does Rentian Bookstore have for the future?
Shi Chunsheng : Rentian bookstore is positioned as a supplier of academic books and the medium-sized market of library distribution business. It is a comprehensive service provider providing library professional resources and services.
The distribution business of primary and secondary school libraries is a direction we will focus on. We are jointly promoting the construction of information management platform of primary and secondary school libraries with Beijing Municipal Education Commission. It is necessary to build an information-based platform for the development, analysis and borrowing of primary and secondary schools, so as to provide a comprehensive information management platform for our library.
In addition, the continued development of blue foundation is also a key project of Rentian group, which aims to enable children in remote areas to acquire knowledge. We uphold a philosophy: we sell books to the library with money, and we give books to the library without money. At present, the blue foundation has donated 3032 “blue libraries” in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, and donated 331 million yuan of books (based on book pricing).
We believe that reading is the best direction, expand and strengthen the foundation, let people without books have books to read, and guide children out of the “closed mountain”, because “knowledge can change fate and reading can lead to a wise life”.
