According to Dr. Tran Doan Lam, Director and Editor-in-Chief of World Publishing House, publishing books online in the middle of the pandemic is a big challenge for foreign language book makers.
While Vietnamese book-making units are gradually finding a direction during the epidemic season through promoting online publishing, the path of foreign-language publishers is still quite narrow.
The difficulty of foreign-language and bilingual bookmakers lies in “hunting” readers, because so far the number of readers is mainly foreigners. The pandemic has also made it difficult to transport orders over long distances. Dr. Tran Doan Lam, Director and Editor-in-Chief of World Publishing House, explained that the online book publishing story did not create a breakthrough for his unit during the epidemic season. 
Dr. Tran Doan Lam, Director and Editor-in-Chief of World Publishing House. Photo: Tran Long. The bookstore is no longer crowded – The pandemic has caused delays in many industries, including publishing. In the middle of the epidemic season, do you think that limiting contact will help publish books online with many advantages? Publishing books online during the epidemic season always has two sides: advantages and challenges. The outbreak makes people have more time to stay at home with their families. It is considered an advantage for people to have more time to relieve stress. If you want to connect with the outside world, you can use the Internet or read books and newspapers. On the other hand, during the epidemic, it must be acknowledged that the people’s priority item is necessities. Therefore, financial funds in the family must be considered when spending for entertainment purposes. That’s why I say the book release during the pandemic has two sides. 
Dr. Tran Doan Lam, Director and Editor-in-Chief of World Publishing House, shared the difficulties his unit is facing during the epidemic season. Photo: Tran Long. – Pandemic broke out, e-commerce floors were active. Do you think this will overwhelm the development of bookstores? We are facing the fourth technical revolution, electronic devices are becoming more and more popular. Most people have access to online information. I myself am from the generation that loves to read entity books. I like going to book streets, bookstores or going to book exhibitions as a reader. But recently, the bookstores are no longer crowded, maybe only the appearance of nostalgic people still retain the elegant pleasure of reading. Another fact is that as the population increases, the storage space for books in a family will be narrower, leading to the tendency to read more books online. However, I don’t think online books will completely overwhelm physical bookstores because nowadays there are still many readers who like to hold the book directly in their hands, feel its beauty before deciding to buy. Publishing books online, should or not? – Through participating on the book365.vn floor, how did the World Publishing House get results? Besides, through which pages does your unit promote books? With the participation on the book365.vn floor, we set the goal of promoting the brand of our unit; and at the same time introduce foreign language books and newspapers on the copyright exchange with European-American partners, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asian countries. The peculiarity of foreign-language books makes it impossible to promote on Vietnamese pages and reading groups. Dr. Tran Doan Lam, Director and Editor-in-Chief of World Publishing House Through this, we have sold book rights to a number of partners, contributing to promoting the image of Vietnam to the world. However, the number of books sold on the floor was also not very positive. The characteristics of the books of the World Publishing House make it impossible to promote on Vietnamese pages and reading groups. In addition to participating on the book365.vn floor, we only introduce books on Tiki and the official website of the publisher. – Many units are “covering losses” by promoting online publishing. Why doesn’t your unit follow that trend? Online book publishing is actually a trend in digital transformation. This is a requirement of the times and we cannot go against the times. World Publishing House was also forced to transform itself to catch up with this revolution. This is a great opportunity, saving a lot of costs and stages. However, publishing books online for a foreign-language and bilingual book-making unit is always more difficult than for Vietnamese online book-making units. Not to mention online publishing, it is necessary to invest in a certain infrastructure, and at the same time, our unit must also take into account issues of copyright, information security, payment, and database. .. To break through right away is very difficult, it must be a process and requires investment in both material and human resources. 
Publications of World Publishing House are mainly foreign languages and bilinguals. Photo: World Publishing House. What challenges are foreign book writers facing? – When the audience is mainly foreigners, what difficulties do you face in transporting and delivering books to readers during the epidemic season? The whole world is struggling against the Covid-19 pandemic, transporting books is facing many difficulties. About a few months ago, when an epidemic broke out, an American customer ordered 10 of our books for work. Due to the pandemic, the time to send books took a long time. The other reader kept emailing us, expressing his desire to receive the book soon. In the end, he did not have the patience to wait and said that the delayed delivery had missed his plan. He decided to cancel the order. When we contacted the Vietnamese post office, they confirmed that they had shipped the order to the US, but due to Covid-19, it was congested at the port. Then we had to return the money to the other customer and lose the books. Some time later, the books in the jammed port area were delivered to the buyers. Receiving the book, although not timely, was also very emotional. He wrote a letter to us expressing his sympathy for the difficulties faced by the foreign language book-making unit in the context of the epidemic. – The “hunting” of readers is certainly difficult, sir? How is World Publishing House oriented to overcome that difficulty? Our first difficulty must be mentioned is the small number of visitors, “hunting” readers during the epidemic season is really difficult because for nearly two years foreign visitors have not been able to enter, the number of books sold to this audience has decreased sharply . 
From left to right: Dr. Tran Doan Lam, Mrs. Diana Dudzik (author of two books A and V published by World Publishing House) and her husband Diana. Photo: Tran Long. Secondly, it must also be mentioned that our reading culture has been reduced when facing foreign and bilingual books due to the strong competition of the mass media. The third difficulty, as I said, is the shipping and payment for foreign readers. Currently, we focus on releasing more titles in Vietnamese because from last year to this year, the number of books published in Vietnamese has remained somewhat stable. Besides, promoting cooperation with foreign book-making partners. This is a very important orientation. However, due to the pandemic, all negotiations and contract signings have stalled. – So is it a challenge to associate with foreign units, translate and publish books online during the epidemic season? In my opinion this is a challenge. However, we have to thank some foreign partners because they still pay special attention to us, such as Korea and some Southeast Asian countries. The number of readers is small, the culture of reading books in foreign languages is reduced, and transportation during the epidemic season is hindered are the difficulties that we are facing. Dr. Tran Doan Lam, Director and Editor-in-Chief of World Publishing House Or as recently, the Venezuelan ambassador had a meeting with us. She asked permission from World Publishing House to translate some publications into Spanish. During the meeting, she also shared that Venezuela is about to host an international book fair, so she is very interested in the fact that there will be publications translated from Vietnamese into Spanish. Or vice versa, Korean publishing companies also regularly work with us to translate some works from them into Vietnamese to promote Korean tourism. But it must also be added that the pandemic makes it impossible for regular meetings to take place in person, but must be done online. Online transactions are still in the early stages, not our familiar ways and methods of working, so there are many difficulties, it takes time to get used to.
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