Books with diverse binding methods pursue beauty
Although the entire children's book market is dominated by paperbacks, children's books represented by preschool children are still different from adult books because of color printing, better paper, more craftsmanship and bright cover design. "Children's books should meet the interests of children, and the binding has bright spots that can attract children's eyes, so the binding methods of children's books are diversified." Children's publishing house assistant president Zhang Weiqun said.
40 open Miffy series picture books, 24 open "Happy super big movie puzzle book", 20 open Thomas and friends series interactive reading... At Tong Qu Publishing Co., LTD., a subsidiary of the People's Posts and Telecommunications Press, production manager Tang Yuan showed reporters some children's books, which are richer in format than adult books.
Compared with adult books, children's books use better paper. "Children's books have many pictures, in order to better display beautiful pictures, the paper will choose smooth coated paper, pure quality paper, etc.; Children are not sensitive to the book, if the paper is particularly thin, it is not convenient to turn, so they will choose thicker paper in gram weight." Zhang Weiqun said. As children get older, the number of books they read increases, the length of a book gets longer, and the paper selection becomes more similar to that of adult books.
Adult books generally use only 1 to 2 kinds of post-process, and children's books will increase the process according to demand. "Some young books may be covered in film, UV at the same time, and then do the concave and convex process, so that the book has a concave and convex feeling to touch, so that children have a perceptual understanding of the book content." The production process varies according to the characteristics of the book. Zhang Weiqun said.
"In terms of children's books, after slowly having competition, we need to innovate and enter different markets with different products." There are many hardcover editions in the children's book market. The inside pages of the book also come in various forms, such as stickers and three-dimensional forms. Beijing Guocai Printing Co., Ltd. printed children's books to hardcover picture books, the company's deputy general manager Li Dongru is a summary of the changing trend of children's books in the binding.
How to think about "overbinding"
Recently, many media commented that children's books have been criticized for factors such as "aristocracy", "luxury", "high-end route", "hardcover" and "high price".
When the reporter visited the bookstore recently, he was most impressed by the high price of the introduced hardcover children's picture books. For example, "The Most Special Language" (imported from Austria), 2 printed sheets, priced at 26 yuan; "One Day" (introduced from the United States) is also 2 printed sheets, priced at 25 yuan; 2.5 Printed sheet of "Earth Dance" (imported from the United States) priced at 29.8 yuan...... These picture books have fewer pages, mainly pictures, and are priced at more than 10 yuan per print, which is about four times higher than children's literature books priced at only 2 to 3 yuan per print.
Industry insiders have given two reasons for the high price of hardcover children's picture books. First, the imported version of the picture book needs to pay a high copyright fee, these works tested in the foreign market are relatively high royalties, translation fees are another need to pay royalties; After the introduction of copyright, many of them are presented in hardcover form, better coated paper or double-adhesive paper, which is the second reason for its higher price. The introduction of the book in the form of hardcover, there are also reasons behind it, some are because of the comparison of similar market books, and some are out of the copyright party to maintain the brand, in the copyright agreement stipulates the presentation of the book. Therefore, the introduction of hardcover children's picture books does belong to the high-end market in China.
For this problem, printing expert Li Jiaxiang said: "The market is diversified, should meet the high-end, mass and other different markets multi-level needs." At present, the binding of most children's books in China is moderate, which is closely related to the consumption level of domestic readers. For example, he said that there are complicated books abroad, and a book will even use five materials such as cardboard, plastic film, cardstock, which has not yet appeared in the domestic market.
"Some books are bound in multiple ways. Excessive or not depends on the acceptance of readers and the entire industry, on the whole, the current situation of children's books is still relatively rational." Li Dong said. Tang Yuan believes that, broadly speaking, as long as the form covers the content of the product is over-bound. "If it's the content that attracts consumers, it's not overbinding. In a narrow sense, in the past few years there have been more gift box versions of children's books, one or two with several small toys, at every turn hundreds of dollars, which is a typical over-binding. We haven't seen much of that in recent years."
The community works together to ensure the quality of the binding
After the transformation of publishing houses into enterprises, the cost control of books is a problem that every responsible book editor must consider. It can be said that the inescapable cost red line is an important defense line for publishers to avoid excessive binding under the fierce market competition.
"An over-bound book is bound to be priced higher than a similar book, and ultimately there is no market for it." Zhang Weiqun, for example, some children's book market has more versions, if the mind is too much on the binding, book pricing will be raised, there will be no market. He said: "Even if the printing process advances, we also have to consider the cost. For example, now UV has matte, crystal, colorful and other forms, each price is different, with a better colorful UV each book will bear part of the cost. Publishers should bind books of the same kind according to the laws of market economy."
"Today's parents are more rational in consumption and will pay attention to book content and reputation. Therefore, from the perspective of product positioning, if it is for the mass market, now the paperback color printing level is very good, coupled with the simple laminating and stamping process is already very beautiful, and then there is basically no need to do hardcover." Tang Yuan said. Tongqu Publishing Co., Ltd. publishes hundreds of new books every year, and according to statistics, the hardcover books published this year have not exceeded 10.
As the provider of printing services, the printing plant has no right to decide on the binding design, only the right to make suggestions. Both Li Dong and Xiao Jianhui, deputy general manager of Beijing Shangtang Printing and Packaging Co., LTD., said they would advise publishers on the size of the folio. "Once the customer wanted to print 220 mm x 260 mm, we came up with 210 mm x 250 mm, which met the requirements of the existing paper, but also improved paper utilization and reduced costs." Xiao Jianhui said. Li Dong said: "We will advise publishers not to purchase novel special paper, some paper although the effect is outstanding, but the price is not worth it, cost-effective is not high."
