Zhang Yiwu, an expert in the publishing industry from Peking University, believes speed, agility and creativity are key advantages for private publishers.

"The next step for them is to look for uniqueness and the possession of different personalities," said Zhang.

Li Yueqing, founder and also general manager of Shanghai Wingsbook Co Ltd, shared the same view. "Being more professional and specific in their choice of sector is of great significance for private publishers," he said.

Most often, when one company has established a strong brand in a specific subject, it is likely to attract related resources.

As a market leader, Motie has followed this route. After its Ming Dynasty series succeeded, the company followed up with several other history trade books to strengthen its dominance in the field.

Another example is Beijing Fonghong Media Co Ltd, which put its emphasis on healthcare books after first publishing an extremely popular family medical book called You Can Be Better Than Doctors.

Unlike the practice at Motie of finding relatively unknown writers from Tianya.com, one of the country's most influential social network websites, Wanrong uses already established authors.

Wanrong focuses on appealing to the fans of star writers, heavily promoting the books before they arrive on shop shelves.

Chinese private publishers also learned from the West from such literary sensations as the Harry Potter series, which subsequently became a huge box office success.

One of the hottest novels this year The Story of Du Lala's Promotion, which dealt with the issue of workplace social skills, has also been made into a movie, a stage play and a TV series.

Huang Juanqing, the president of its publisher Beijing Booky Publishing Inc, said the book was the least influential from a commercial point of view. As a consequence, the publisher relied on support from other formats such as the movie to maintain and develop interest from readers in order to "sell more and sell long".

"To develop healthily in the future, private publishers had better begin to cultivate their readers' interests, rather than catering to their interests, in order to stop imitators from developing the brand," said Zhang from Peking University.

He added rural audiences might be the next target. "The current bestsellers are designed for people who live in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, but the demand in second-tier and third-tier cities is very strong," he added.

(China Daily December 13, 2010)