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The Bookseller has heard from multiple sources that Chinese publishers are currently having difficulties getting ISBNs to publish books written by US authors, after buying the rights from UK or US houses. ISBNs are allocated by the state in China, presenting a way for the administration to regulate what is published there.
The recent development is thought to be linked to the intensifying trade war between China and the US.
Rebecca Bengoechea, international rights manager at Princeton University Press, said the issue had come up around August’s Beijing International Book Fair. “During publisher visits before the book fair, one publisher asked where the author was from in the middle of the conversation, and we subsequently heard from several publishers who said that because of the trade war they were experiencing delays or problems with getting ISBNS for US authors. It didn’t seem to be an issue for European authors,” she said.
A UK publisher who preferred not to be identified told The Bookseller: “On my return from the fair [the Beijing International Book Fair] I was told by a sub-agent that a deal we’d all but signed was cancelled. We were working on the finer details of the contract and the deal was suddenly dropped, apparently due to the nationality of the author. The sub-agent informed me the authorities had told the publisher to pause any projects with links to the United States. They mentioned that some but not all publishers in China have this problem. I should add that this was not a book that could be deemed as ‘sensitive’ by the censors.”
Another source from within the Chinese book industry confirmed the issue, telling The Bookseller: “We hope this is only temporary, lasting two or three months – because the Chinese love American authors.”
However some other publishers reported that they hadn’t encountered a newly-introduced US bias, only a general squeeze on ISBNs for all foreign-authored titles which had been in place for some time. Olivia Willis, rights manager at Yale Representation Ltd, said: “We've seen a growing concern about restrictions on the number of ISBNs being handed out for foreign books, but these reports have been coming in for more than a year before the trade war began.”
Another source from within the UK book industry commented: “They [the Chinese] are getting increasingly irritated by the good number of foreign titles which often sell really well in China while they are still placing only a tiny amount of Chinese authors overseas, normally for tiny advances and minimal sales.”
The granting of ISBNs is handled by the General Administration of Press and Publication, controlled by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China. There was no response to a request for comment from the press department at China’s Embassy in London.
At last month’s Beijing International Book Fair, US publishers reported “tough negotiations” with Chinese export customers because the trade tariffs imposed between the US and China put a squeeze on pricing.
National feeling is running particularly high in China ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1st October.