In recent years, a large number of inspirational books have been published and continue to sell well, which not only has a tangible impact on the economic effect of the publishing industry, but also has an intangible penetration into the transformation of social and cultural values; It is not only the progress and innovation on the material level, but also the construction and breakthrough on the spiritual and psychological level. This profound change in reading and culture is reflected through real reality.

First of all, inspirational books continue to sell well. Since 2000, the sales of inspirational books have continued to rise, and the publishing scale has become larger and larger, with more and more published varieties. Secondly, super bestsellers emerge one after another. A series of bestsellers such as "Who Moved My Cheese" have long occupied the forefront of the list, basically forming a cultural field for the publication and reading of inspirational books. Third, book publishers actively participate. At present, there is no obvious difference in the brand level among domestic inspirational book publishers. The publishing threshold of inspirational books is low, and there is no industry barrier. Many publishers are eager to get it and quit quietly when they lose it. Therefore, the overall enthusiasm of the publishing house of inspirational books is very high.

It is through its outstanding performance in publishing, publicity and sales that inspirational books have influenced the publishing and cultural circles in China and become the focus of attention and research in the publishing and cultural circles at present. Unfortunately, this kind of attention and research is more emotional than rational. The author consulted a large number of book reviews and related cultural comments, and most of them were ignored and despised because of the vulgarity and commercial nature of inspirational books. Almost without exception, serious reading comments hold a negative attitude towards inspirational books, thinking that they are "brainless" and "spiritual garbage", and even dismissive that they are a patchwork of "boredom and nonsense".

On the one hand, it is the disdain of the intellectual elite, and on the other hand, it is constantly published and sold in reality. It is in this cold-hot contrast that inspirational books walk in the dual environment of cultural discrimination and market sales, forming a clear division between the intellectual elite and the general public, which is also a typical manifestation of the contradiction between publishing value and market efficiency in the publishing industry.

First, the publishing process of inspirational books in China

According to the content, inspirational books can be roughly divided into three categories: workplace inspirational, psychological self-help and wealth management. These three types of inspirational books are combined with each other, and a compound inspirational book appears. According to the organizational form of books, inspirational books can be subdivided into inspirational novels, inspirational essays, short stories, case collections, celebrity quotations, letter collections and other forms. These different forms combine with each other to form inspirational books with different styles.

(A) The publishing process of inspirational books in China

China's self-help books began to develop in 1980s and 1990s, and experienced three periods.

1. The spread period of foreign classics. The earliest inspirational books published in China can be traced back to Carnegie series. In 1980s and 1990s, Carnegie series was popular in Chinese mainland. Carnegie's seven books, Language Breakthrough, Biography of Lincoln, Weakness of Human Nature, Beautiful Life, Great Man, Advantages of Human Nature and Happy Life, still sell well all over the world. Almost at the same time, the classic successful works of American inspirational success master Napoleon Hill (1883- 1969) were also introduced into China, such as Success, Capital of Success, Thinking and Getting Rich, The Law of Success, Everyone Can Be Successful, etc. Among them, Thinking and Getting Rich has been a global bestseller for 60 years. In addition, there is a series of Chicken Soup for the Soul, which is distributed in 56 countries, spanning more than 40 languages, and has sold more than 54 million copies worldwide. Today, The Complete Works of Carnegie, Weaknesses of Human Nature, Advantages of Human Nature, think and grow rich, Chicken Soup for the Soul, etc. Still very popular, these inspirational books have changed from bestsellers to bestsellers. The inspirational books in this period are all classics of successful masters from abroad, with concentrated varieties and not strong commercial color, which are very popular among readers, but the concept of "inspirational" books did not appear at that time.

2. The budding period of local inspirational books. It was not until Liu Yong, a writer in Taiwan Province Province, that the publishing house formally put forward the concept of "inspirational". Go beyond yourself (1989), create yourself (1990), affirm yourself (199 1), I'm not teaching you to cheat (1995), etc. These books are small articles. During this period, the types of inspirational books have increased, including masterpieces from abroad and Taiwan Province Province, and inspirational books originally written by mainland authors. For example, the square and circle published in 1996 have great influence. It was first spread among migrant workers in Shenzhen, then brought to various places by migrant workers, and finally sold well all over the country. By 2004, all three volumes of Fang and Yuan had a national legal circulation of nearly 6 million copies, and also successfully entered the markets of Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and North America. Local inspirational books began to sprout.

3. The maturity of modern business inspirational books. Since the turn of the century, the publishing and marketing behavior of inspirational books has gradually matured, which is mainly caused by the combination of the publishing of several important inspirational books and successful business behavior. Haitian Publishing House 1999 published The Greatest Salesman in the World, which opened a new stage of the publication of inspirational books. In 20001year, Who Moved My Cheese pushed the development of such books to a climax, and the series of Garcia in 2002 was the icing on the cake for the publication of inspirational books. In 2003, Execution was a super best seller, which provided many new ideas for the hype of inspirational books in the workplace. This year, the domestic bestseller Boiled Three Kingdoms also appeared, and inspirational books were very popular. In 2004, after the fake book "No Excuses" was sold wildly, the truth came out and inspirational books encountered a cold winter.

(b) Analysis of the readership of inspirational books

The reader analysis of books can never be accurate to individuals, but the reading characteristics of a class, a group and a group are often symbolically used as the basis for the reader analysis of books. In recent years, the fundamental reason for the mass publication and best-selling of inspirational books is the demand of readers. So, who is buying inspirational books?

Shi Tao, a famous book planner who successfully introduced Style, said: "The readers of inspirational books are mainly divided into three categories: unemployed people in the workplace, college graduates who are about to enter the workplace, and fans who lack opinions and love to join in the fun." Wu Jinling, editor of Beijing Hong Wen Pavilion Book Company, who has planned a variety of inspirational books, said: "From the market point of view, the readers of inspirational books are mainly young people in small towns and readers with less than university education. These people are the grassroots of the reader pyramid. " The analysis of the above publishers has certain rationality and limitations. The author thinks that the readers of inspirational books are mainly concentrated in the non-elite class and short-term practical people. Unemployed people in the workplace, young people eager for success, and training institutions used as training materials all belong to this category.

Second, the sales methods and characteristics of inspirational books

(1) sales method

There are two main ways to sell self-help books: group buying and retail.

1. Group purchase. Modern enterprises pay more and more attention to the education and retraining of employees. Retraining includes not only professional skills training, but also work attitude training. The market positioning of inspirational books is clear, which directly serves enterprises and workplaces, so group buying is more common, which helps enterprises and publishers to strengthen interaction. Compared with retail, group buying has its obvious characteristics and unique advantages. In terms of sales methods, the emergence of group buying makes this kind of books present a cluster effect in the way of word-of-mouth communication. General books are from point to surface, but this kind of books presents a large-scale expansion from surface to surface. In terms of payment methods, the increase in the proportion of group purchases has caused changes in payment methods. Generally, books are bought first and then paid, which makes publishers smile. For example, after The Postman Fred was published, China Post, China Life Insurance and Lenovo Group all bought many books, accounting for more than half of the total sales of the book.

2. Retail. In recent years, the retail situation of inspirational books has been rising. According to the investigation of Beijing Open Book Market Research Institute, the retail market of inspirational books has the following characteristics in recent years.

(1) The market capacity is constantly expanding. In 2000, the market share of self-help books in the workplace was only 0.22%, and it rose to 0.89% in 200 1 year. In 2002, driven by the super bestseller Who Moved My Cheese, the market share of self-help books rose rapidly to 20.3%. Although there was "Garcia" series in 2003, after all, it lost to the best-selling momentum of "Cheese" in that year, and its foreign code share decreased slightly to 14.3%. With the continuous expansion of the market capacity of inspirational books in the workplace, the market of psychological self-help books has grown rapidly year-on-year, and the market of inspirational books in the workplace has also increased significantly year-on-year, with a slight decline in 2003.

(2) The variety of dynamic marketing is increasing. Book variety refers to the number of book varieties whose cumulative observed sales volume of single-variety books is greater than or equal to 1 in the retail market. The variety of books sold shows the change of market supply and the change of publishers' investment in the market in quantity. The expansion of market demand and the huge market benefits brought by market development have greatly increased the attention of many publishers to the inspirational book market, and the number of publishers participating in the competition has increased rapidly. In 2000, only 17 publishers participated in the competition in the inspirational book market, which increased to 3 1 in 2006, 5438+0,55 in 2002 and 98 in 2003. Publishing houses have increased their investment in the development of such themes, and the number of marketing products of inspirational books in the workplace has also increased effectively. In 2000, there were only 30 kinds of marketing products of this kind of books, 200 1, increased to 48 kinds in 2002 and 200 kinds in 2003.

(3) There are few publishers. In 2000 and 20001year, Sun Yat-sen University Press ranked first in marketing had only five varieties, China Youth Publishing House ranked first in marketing had only five varieties, and Enterprise Management Publishing House ranked first in marketing had only seven varieties in 2003, of which 54 publishing houses (accounting for 55% of participating publishing houses) each had 65,438+varieties. Haitian Publishing House, which ranked first in market share in 2000, had only three marketing products, while CITIC Publishing House ranked first in market share in 2000 and 200 1 year, but the marketing products were only 1 and 2. In 2003, Enterprise Management Publishing House had only seven marketing products. Of course, all these show that leading publishing houses do not win by the number of varieties, and bestsellers play a great role.

(2) Sales characteristics

Focusing on bestsellers and promoting marginal sales, that is, bestsellers have a decisive impact on the inspirational book market. Mainly in the following two aspects.

1. Most books are monitored and rarely sold. From 2000 to 2003, although the variety of inspirational books increased rapidly, the market monitoring sales volume of most books was less than 1000. Among the books on workplace self-help sold every year, only one book had a monitoring sales volume higher than 1 in 2000, increased to 5 in 2006 and 5438+0 in 2003, but 8 1% of the books had a sales volume lower than 1, of which 32% had a monitoring sales volume lower than/kloc. Most books are distributed in a low sales range. After several years of development, most inspirational books in the workplace have not really solved the problem of effective supply in the market.

Best-sellers promote the development of the whole market. In the market of inspirational books in the workplace, bestsellers are of decisive significance to the development of this kind of market, among which the "28 law" is very prominent, and the top five bestsellers account for more than 50% of the code. Especially in 2002, the number one book "Who Moved My Cheese" accounted for 65.5% of the monitored sales in this sub-market, and the number of yards accounted for as high as 66.68%, while its variety accounted for less than 1%.

Best-sellers have played a great role in improving the status of publishing houses. From the historical data analysis of open-book monitoring, the market share of this market segment publishing house is extremely unstable, and almost all of them are "you sing and I debut". Only one or two books can easily enter the top ten market share. In 2000, Haitian Publishing House occupied 60.43% of this market segment by virtue of the best-selling of "The Greatest Salesman in the World", and its leading edge was extremely obvious. 200 1 In 2002, CITIC Publishing House easily won the first place in this market segment with the super best-selling book "Who Moved My Cheese". In 2002, its market share reached 66.68%, while Haitian Publishing House, which ranked second, had a market share of less than 7%. There was a big gap between them. In 2003, Enterprise Management Press rose to the first place with A Letter to Garcia.

Third, what makes the inspirational book stand out?

Inspirational books have created one myth after another in just a few years. What makes inspirational books stand out?

1. Reading needs in the period of social transformation. Best-sellers often reflect the changes in the depths of society, and inspirational best-sellers have a lot to do with the cultural reading psychology in China's social transformation period.

The survival demand triggered by the social transformation period has rapidly changed into the reading demand. This demand not only creates a category of the book market, but also provides a broad development space for many publishing institutions, planners and writers who take this kind of books as the direction. In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other big cities, there are many planning institutions, consulting institutions or training institutions engaged in R&D and introduction of inspirational or management books. The themes of books such as Who Moved My Cheese and Boiled Three Kingdoms are very clear. It is to educate people how to adjust their mentality, how to deal with interpersonal relationships and how to motivate themselves. It can be said that the development and publication of inspirational books are highly targeted and practical, and this pertinence on the basis of practicality is triggered by the reading needs in the social transformation period.

2. The overall lack and weakness of social education in the current education system. At present, the education system only pays attention to the education of professional knowledge, but it is lacking and weak in interpersonal skills, mental health education and guidance of workplace experience. This situation makes a big gap between school education and social reality. For every individual, this educational model will make the individual lack transitional education and guidance in the process of going from school to society, and often feel a certain degree of psychological and physical discomfort after entering society. In addition, due to institutional reasons, some related education in schools often lacks professionalism and reality, overemphasizes idealism and ignores the understanding and internalization of hidden rules. This situation makes students lack understanding of society and need to bear setbacks and receive secondary education. This important process of secondary education is completed by the publishing industry and publishers by publishing inspirational books in the market environment.

3. The driving force of integrated marketing. Self-help books have low threshold, low cost and high profit, and often become booksellers' favorite. They spare no effort to plan, publish and market such books. It is precisely under the temptation of huge interests that the commercialization of inspirational books is prominent and a series of marketing methods emerge one after another, which is the most direct reason for the best-selling of inspirational books.

4. Unique distribution channel advantages. Because the distribution of inspirational books is often coordinated with modern enterprise education and retraining, this virtuous cycle of publishing and enterprise training makes inspirational books have unique advantages in distribution. The smooth terminal distribution of books will greatly improve the speed and efficiency of book payment recovery, and then improve the efficiency of book publishing and printing. This virtuous circle is a unique advantage that other books do not have, and it is also an important reason why the inspirational book market is very dynamic and continues to sell well.

5. Popularization and popularization of narrative methods. Most inspirational books are easy to understand, friendly and practical, which brings the distance between books and readers closer, and readers are willing to accept and easy to accept. This kind of popularity, supplemented by efficient marketing methods, will soon be recognized by readers.

Fourth, the problems in the publication of inspirational books.

Practical and inspirational books have risen rapidly and developed rapidly. In just a few years, they have occupied an important position in the book market in China, and have produced one super bestseller after another with unexpected efficiency. These publishing myths are shrouded in brilliant aura, but there are inevitably shadows behind the aura, and there are still many problems in the publication of inspirational books.

1. More imported versions, less original. Looking back at the best-selling inspirational books in recent years, inspirational books have always been ahead of foreign editions. There are two main reasons for this model.

First, the writing of inspirational books needs to be professional. In China, researchers who specialize in this field are not keen on or good at writing books, and the authors who actually publish books often don't have enough professional knowledge, which makes original books lack authority and credibility. In contrast, foreign writers have great advantages. For example, Carnegie visited hundreds of outstanding people from all walks of life in the United States, wrote the book "The Advantages of Human Nature", read hundreds of biographies of celebrities at all times and all over the world, read almost all philosophers' expositions on troubles, and established a laboratory to conquer troubles for practice. Similarly, Napoleon Hill, an American master of success, also has a profound professional background. In order to write Success Studies, he visited 500 outstanding figures in China and compiled 15 success studies. It took him 20 years to complete this book. He tested this success rule and trained 3000 inexperienced salespeople. Within six months, each of these salespeople earned $6.5438+0 million.

Second, the real inspirational books in China started late, and the imported books took "simplicity and practicality" as their own principle from the beginning, which met the needs of this era. In addition, the imported version has occupied the China market for a long time, and has a high popularity in people's minds, forming a brand effect, which also creates a late disadvantage for publishing original inspirational books in China in the short term.

2. The phenomenon of following the trend is serious and the views are repeated. At that time, "Who Moved My Cheese" was published, followed by a long list of cheeses, and more than 30 books followed suit. After the best-selling Letter to Garcia, a group of messengers followed. As long as it is a best seller, it will attract many follow-up works. This is because the publishing threshold of inspirational books is low, the cost is low, and it is easier to follow suit.

3. The speed of publishing books has accelerated, and the quality of books has declined. With the popularity of inspirational books, many publishers have stepped up their efforts to launch new works to seize the market, but neglected the quality of books, resulting in today's inspirational books being mixed. Nowadays, many booksellers and some irresponsible publishers have published many inspirational books with low quality in pursuit of short-term economic benefits. This is a short-sighted behavior, which will cause immeasurable damage to the brand of the publishing house in the long run.

4. Fake books are rampant, and they will reap the consequences. Jiang Ruxiang, one of the three candidates for the "3 15" contribution award in 2005, made us realize what a fake book is. Jiang Ruxiang found that many contents of Execution were actually copied from his book, and the result of the investigation was even more surprising: Paul Thomas, the author of Execution and a professor of management at Harvard Business School, did not exist. The most striking thing in the fake book is No Excuses, which has been ranked first for many times and signed "Written by (American) Feral Cape, compiled today". The book was first published by Machinery Industry Press in 2004, and was reprinted 24 times in June+10 of that year, with sales exceeding 2 million copies. A large number of well-known domestic enterprises buy in bulk, give employees a book, and even ask employees to talk about "experience" and write "thoughts after reading" after learning. Subsequently, the book market quickly hitched a ride with various versions of "no excuses". In August, China Workers Publishing House launched No Excuses Ⅱ, and Chaohua Publishing House launched No Excuses Ⅱ (final edition). In September, Enterprise Management Press published the Complete Works without any excuse. Fake books hit the market hard.

5. Where are the inspirational books going?

Faced with the glory and shadow of the development of inspirational books in recent years, many people can't help but ask: Where will inspirational books go?

We might as well look to the vast book market: inspirational books are still hot spots in the book market, and the darling of major bookstores, new inspirational books are still emerging one after another. Just have scruples about commercial speculation's means, and seem a little jittery. The author thinks that inspirational books have the foundation of development, which determines that inspirational books will still exist as an influential book variety in the future book publishing. This foundation is mainly constructed from the following aspects: (1) the psychological demand for reading in the social transformation period is the soil for the survival of inspirational books; The vitality brought by the reform of publishing system and market transformation is the driving force for the development of inspirational books; The overall absence of social education in the current education system provides a broad development space for inspirational books; Strong integrated marketing is the direct reason for the development of inspirational books; The unique distribution channel is a powerful guarantee for the sales of inspirational books; Popular narrative method makes inspirational books have a huge readership.

We might as well listen to the voices of publishers and authors. Li Chaohui, the planner of Relay Press, said: "It can be considered that the United States still has such a big market after such a long period of development, while China has only exposed the tip of the iceberg, and there is still a lot of room for market expansion. Every enterprise needs inspirational books in the workplace to guide its employees. At present, only the bosses of some emerging enterprises are aware of this, and there are still a lot of potential needs. " Liu Yong, a famous writer in Taiwan Province Province, said that he would continue to write. Recently, Liu Yong's inspirational new book One Step Success was published by Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House.

To sum up, the author thinks that in the future book market in China, inspirational books still have huge development space and vitality that cannot be ignored, and inspirational books will still play a more important role in the future book market in China.

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