Beijing International Book Fair: A Report

Dateline: Tianjin, China, September 1-4, 2008

Sorry as I was to miss TMR 2008, the decision had already been made that this year I would represent The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc. (JBJS), at the Beijing International Book Fair. This year BIBF was held in Tianjin, 90 miles north of Beijing, to avoid traffic and housing conflicts with the Olympics and Paralympics. It was also expected to attract fewer attendees than usual, but according to the organizers, it was actually larger than in 2007. (In 2009, BIBF returns to Beijing. Thus, any tips I might have about hotels or dining will be useless for next year.)

A book fair is a book fair is a book fair, even in China. Most of the Western publishers were in a single hall, and not a very large one; this contributed to an ad hoc sense of community, and people were more than willing to share information about who to talk to, where food could be had (NOT in the Fair venue, surprisingly), which restrooms had Western-style toilets, and where cool water and cool air were to be found. (Temperatures were in the high 80s, and by Western standards air conditioning was minimal.)

I wasn’t counting, but the organizers state that there were 1,370 stands: 512 for overseas exhibitors and 858 for domestic exhibitors. They have also stated that there were "around 200,000 visitors." I can state with confidence that the first two days were fairly busy and the third day was very quiet. The fourth day was intended for the general public, and I did not attend that day.

And now for the point of the trip: the meetings. We had read and been told repeatedly that in China, relationships are critical and take years to develop. Furthermore, we shouldn't expect too much too soon but should plan to attend BIBF for years before expecting any deals to come to fruition.

This did not appear to be true. These were not the courtly, excruciatingly polite, glacially paced meetings I had expected. The contacts we had made were very ready to do business with us. The eagerness for details and timelines belied my expectations. We had spent weeks trying to set up meetings in advance, and some contacts never responded to repeated e-mails. However, several of those contacts did come to the booth, and we held impromptu meetings, so the attempts had not been in vain.

I came home with a surprising number of concrete leads: potential marketing partners, good contacts with agents, the potential for translated editions and a Chinese Web site, and contacts with companies interested in compiling articles into special-interest books. Of course, much of this may be convention-based overenthusiasm and may evaporate as we start to negotiate in earnest, but nonetheless, it was quite encouraging.

This was a long, strenuous trip. You need time to recover from the jet lag, there is a language barrier, and a goodly amount of flexibility is required. Was it worth the time, money, and inconvenience? Absolutely!

(Ask me anything.)

Mady Tissenbaum has been general manager at The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc., since 1998. She is former cochair of the SSP Education and Membership Committees and currently serves on the Board as secretary/treasurer.