Publishing foreign books in Vietnam is becoming more and more popular, opening up many opportunities for authors, publishers and readers. In order to publish a foreign work, publishers need to understand clearly about copyright purchase, legal requirements and the process of importing publications. Understanding these things not only helps protect the rights of the author but also ensures the quality and legality of the published publications. The following article from VCD will help you.
1. Copyright of foreign books
Books are creative products in the field of literature with many topics from knowledge, life experience, human emotions, narratives, etc. Accordingly, foreign books are works created and presented in a language other than that of the home country.
Copyright, also known as authorship, is the right of an organization or individual to the work they create or own. After purchasing the copyright, the next step is to publish the book.
According to Article 4 of the 2012 Publishing Law, “Publishing is the organization, exploitation of manuscripts, editing into templates for printing and distribution or direct distribution through electronic means”. Also according to Article 26 of this law, “Publishing works and documents of foreign organizations and individuals for business in Vietnam must be carried out by Vietnamese publishers”.
Therefore, when there is a need to sell foreign publications, the first step that publishers must take is to purchase the copyright. This is considered an essential and important step in publishing activities. After completing the copyright purchase, the publisher will proceed with the translation and carry out the next steps in the publishing process.
2. Conditions for importing books from abroad to Vietnam
According to Article 38 of the 2012 Publishing Law, domestic organizations and individuals, as well as foreign organizations and individuals, are allowed to import publications into Vietnam in accordance with the provisions of Vietnamese law and international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member.
However, to conduct the business of importing publications, establishments must have a license issued by the Ministry of Information and Communications. To be granted a license, establishments must meet the following conditions:
- Have one of the following types of business registration certificates, enterprise registration certificates, or investment certificates as prescribed by law.
- The head of the importing establishment must reside permanently in Vietnam and have a diploma from a specialized training institution or a certificate of professional knowledge training in publishing issued by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
- Have a team of qualified staff to appraise the content of books in the case of book import business.
In addition, establishments must also comply with the conditions specifically stipulated in Clause 1, Article 14 of Decree 195/2013/ND-CP.
3. Current status of foreign book publishing in Vietnam
More and more publishers in Vietnam are focusing on purchasing book copyrights, and this has become a race between units to seize opportunities and optimize costs. Normally, publishers have to pay foreign copyright owners from 6% to 8% of the cover price of the total number of copies sold, with a minimum requirement of about 2,000 copies. For the translation of domestic works into foreign languages, the copyright fee also ranges from 4% to 12% of the cover price of the total number of prints.
To meet this demand, many publishers have set up a specialized copyright team, seeking book sources from countries with developed publishing industries. They pay special attention to works that have won prestigious awards such as the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Pulitzer Prize, as well as authors who are prominent on the list of best-sellers worldwide. However, many foreign publications, after being copyrighted, are carelessly translated, mistranslated, or arbitrarily edited, leading to content distortion, causing public outrage. Many publishers, in order to catch up with the popularity of the book, have lacked calculation and preparation, thereby affecting the quality of the work.
Moreover, some good works, although requiring large sums of money to purchase copyrights and organize media events, are translated by unknown, less-known translators to reduce costs. This not only reduces book prices but also affects purchasing power. In particular, books with complex content related to culture, especially local culture and national identity, are often not fluently conveyed from the original language into Vietnamese. This situation poses a great challenge to the quality of publishing and the development of the publishing industry in Vietnam.
Above is the article “How to get foreign books published” that VCD sends to you. We hope this article is useful to you.
Sincerely,
