Sibling publishers battle over works by Nobel winner

After a half-month copyright dispute among business siblings, Yilin Press announced last Thursday that it will publish a collection of works by Alice Munro, this year's winner of the Nobel Prize in literature.

The Canadian writer became a publisher's dream after the prize was unveiled. Jiangsu People's Publishing Co quickly announced it would start selling Munro's books in October. The company said it had a contract with the copyright agent for six of her books that is valid until 2014.

But at the same time, Yilin Press, which shares the same parent company with Jiangsu People's Publishing, also announced plans to publish the works.

Yuan Nan, deputy chief editor of Yilin, told the Yangtze River Daily that the company acquired the license from Munro's copyright agent at the start of this year.

"When Munro won the prize, we immediately contacted the German agent and resettled the Chinese copyrights for the same six books," Yuan said. "Besides the copyright holder terminated its contract with Jiangsu People's Publishing Co."

After negotiations, Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, parent company of the two presses, finally appointed Yilin Press as publisher of seven books by the Nobel Prize winner. The editions are based on translations by Jiangsu People's Publishing Co.

Open Secrets will be the first book to go on sale.

Some have voiced concern that the translation quality is hard to guarantee with a book translated in just half a month. But the publisher said it is the result of many days' hard work round the clock.

An editor of Yilin Press said three translators were employed for the book to make sure it would be available to the public as soon as possible.

The seven books will cover the writers' representative works. In addition to Open Secrets, her first internationally recognized work, her first well-known book Dance of the Happy Shades will also be available in Chinese along with her only long novel Lives of Girls and Women and Too Much Happiness, which she once believed would be her final work.

Industry insiders anticipate that by the end of the year, just two months after the Nobel Prize was announced, a relatively complete series of Munro's work will be available for the first time to Chinese readers.

Publishers explained that Munro is famous for her short stories, but that genre is not as popular as full-length novels in China's book market.

Chinese writer Su Tong said he likes Munro's novels very much, but he is concerned about the market reaction to her works.

"Chinese readers have a traditional inclination to long novels. Short stories have a very limited market share. For example, sales of Hemingway's short stories are much smaller than his long works," Su said.

"I'm quite curious to see whether Munro's works can change this phenomenon with the boost from the Nobel Prize," he said.

On the top 100 bestsellers list at Amazon.com, Munro' Dear Life surged to eighth place just after the Nobel Prize was announced, but now it has fallen to 77th.

But at the Chinese online bookstore Dangdang.com, Munro's Runaway published by Beijing Publishing Group still ranks as the No 1 bestseller.