Exporting Vietnamese cultural content to the world

Cover of the book"I want to become good at math" for first grade students (Photo: longminh.vn)

Russia’s Clever Media has just signed a contract to buy the copyrights of 3 English-Mathematic books for kindergarten and elementary pupils from Long Minh Book Company. 

This is part of a book series entitled “I want to become good at math”, a joint production by Long Minh Company, which created the content and Play Bac Publishing House of France, which helped promote the books at the Frankfurt Book Fair. 

The translation of the book series into French and Japanese has been completed. 

Do Hoang Son, Director of Long Minh Book Company, said, “According to the contract, Long Minh holds 60% of the shares and the rest goes to Play Bac. When Play Bac Publishing House sold Long Minh’s books at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest event for the publishing industry, I felt proud because books of my company has reached the international standards.”

Each book includes 101 interesting mathematics problems in a flip-flop format. 

The bar code and the quality of printing ink and paper have met international requirements. Millions of book copies have sold in the domestic market. 

Mr Do Hoang Son said, “I you only think about the profit of a specific project, you can’t export the copyright. Working on this project, we find it encouraging as we have gained some experience, which very few Vietnamese companies have. So experience is our profit.”

The export of books still depends on the relationship between a Vietnamese publishing house and its foreign partners. 

Nguyen Manh Hung, Director of Thai Ha Books Company, said his company intends to export both printed books and copyrights.

“To be able to export books, we need to be strong in 3 aspects: content, books translated into a foreign language and a contingent of marketing experts. For 10 years now, I have still said: “Good medicines don’t need advertising. But how do we know they are good if they are not marketed.” Or it’s necessary to train editors in copyright selling skills, or book presentation and production skills,” he said.

Every year, tens of thousands of book titles and other publications are released to serve those who are interested in the Vietnamese people and their culture. 

Publishing houses or book companies are seeking more opportunities to export Vietnamese cultural content to the world.