For the past years, many Vietnamese publishers have actively sought and earned the right to translate and release famous books of international authors so that the gap between Vietnamese readers and their foreign counterparts is lessened.
For instance, Prof. Peter Frankopan’s book ‘The Earth Transformed’ is available for sale in Vietnamese only after 7 months the English version was released, published by Omega Plus. This best-seller is one of the most sought books in 2023, and 24 nations have already purchased its publishing rights, including Vietnam.
Other outstanding books of this history-writing author were also introduced many times in Vietnam like ‘The Silk Roads: a New History of the World’ (published by Phanbook), ‘The First Crusade: the Call from the East’ (also published by Phanbook).
Director of Omega Plus Tran Hoai Phuong shared that her organization usually accelerates the translation and publication of hot international books (e.g. ‘The Journey of Humanity’ by Oded Galor) to serve the community. Some can even be released at the same time as their English version (e.g. ‘Sapiens: a Graphic History’ by Yuval Noah Harari’).
Deputy Director – Editor-in-Chief of Tre Publishing House Nguyen Thanh Nam informed that a good book usually attracts the attention of several publishers in one country, and thus these organizations have to join a fierce auction for the publishing rights. To avoid this case, publishers themselves often need to actively seek promising titles and contact the original publisher abroad for a deal before others.
With money at hand, the chance for a publisher to win the publishing right of a famous international book also depends on its prestige and its serious publishing plan for the title in the targeted market, such as the advertising campaign, the strategy to convey the message of the book to readers, and the publishing progress.
Despite all of the above preparation, a negotiation for a publishing right to a title is not always successful. The auctions for some best-sellers are so fierce that the finance to earn the right is extremely high, leading to an expensive retail price of the book, and thus unaffordable to many readers.
“Therefore, no matter how regretful it is, we have to withdraw from some auctions, like the case of the book ‘The Coming Wave’, when another organization offers a higher bidding price than ours”, explained Deputy Director Nam.
The last factor affecting the success of obtaining a publishing right is copyright protection. Unless the copyright protection process has more positive results in Vietnam, otherwise foreign partners will certainly hesitate to grant the right to Vietnamese publishers.
“The current uncontrolled situation of fake books in the country has an adverse impact on the domestic publishing market, and a long-term negative influence when we deal with international partners for publishing rights of famous fascinating books”, warned Deputy Director Nam.
