Like other industries, the publishing industry is included in the Government's digital transformation policy. The Authority of Publishing, Printing, and Distribution has been making efforts to license more e-book publishing houses and distributors.

In Vietnam, publishing houses and book companies have developed different forms of books for the last decade, in addition to traditional print books. To diversify forms of books, models of reading and buying, it is necessary to develop a publishing ecosystem that integrates traditional and digital technology.

Investing in publishing 

Phan Thi Thu Ha, director of the Youth Publishing House, said the publisher is developing this ecosystem. In addition to print books, it also publishes ebooks.

Electronic publishing in Vietnam has been developing for 10 years. With 500 book titles, the publisher is offering to sell to libraries and organizations. Regarding digital books, it has full ebooks of Di san Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh’s heritage) series. As for audiobooks, it publishes books via platforms of partners providing services.

Ha said though the sales of ebooks and audiobooks still do not account for a considerable proportion of the publishing house’s revenue, the steady annual growth is encouraging, which shows that investing in a publishing ecosystem is the right decision, and in line with the country’s digital transformation and the development path of the publishing industry.

To build such an integrated ecosystem, a lot of resources – workforce, topics and financial capability – are needed. It is necessary to inject money into electronic platforms. It takes time and effort to negotiate with authors (in Vietnam and overseas) to publish their books on multi platforms, or on electronic platforms first.

Meanwhile, technology may become out of date rapidly, and protecting copyright in cyberspace remains problematic.

Ha believes that Vietnam needs a national strategy on publishing electronic books (ebooks, audiobooks, VR books, etc…). 

Only when such a strategy is created will publishing houses be able to take advantage of all resources and benefits from technology to publish more books and bring more books to audiences, in Vietnam, in remote areas, and to the world.

She urged completion of policies to enhance copyright protection online. It is necessary to deal with a heavy hand the illegally sharing of ebooks and audiobooks on the internet, YouTube and social networks.

Particularly, the units that publish and distribute electronic publications without licenses must be strictly punished.

However, the potential of publishing houses and companies operating in the publishing industry in terms of technology remains modest. 

In the context of digital transformation, technological platforms to produce and distribute ebooks may become out of date rapidly. Therefore, publishers need huge capital to regularly upgrade technology to satisfy trends and avoid repeating the difficulties that first-generation ebook companies in Vietnam once faced. And they need support from the state to make investment in technology.

Preparing human resources is always an important factor for any transition process. Publishers need workers with deep knowledge in both publishing and technology. Organizing new training courses on new technologies and AI (artificial intelligence) application in publishing   is a must.

Vu Thuy Duong from the Academy of Propaganda and Journalism, said that in the context of major changes of the publishing industry in the digital environment, preparing a workforce plays a very important role.

The school not only has the function of producing workers who can satisfy current requirements but also new publishing technologies, which can change rapidly. The training curricula of the academy have been amended and updated.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said at a conference on publication development held in late March that the publishing industry must renovate and rethink about how to create books.

He said that publishers need to adapt to the technological revolution, and that innovation is the main story of the publishing industry, and every publishing house needs to have its specific character.

Tinh Le - Chi Hieu