What is a book
What is a book, really?
Most would agree that the digital copy of a printed book fulfills all the requirements to be called a book, as it was defined by UNESCO back in 1964:
“…a non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages, exclusive of cover pages, and published in a country and made available to the public.”
But are all these items in the showroom of Yuewen – or “China Literature” – in a show room in Shanghai books as well?
Yuewen evolved over more than 20 years from a tiny, experimental writing platform to a 1 billion US$ company, the largest and hugely popular self-publishing platform in Shanghai, China.
Many stories were started here, and subsequently appeared in other format – as printed books, or animations, serialized stories, feeds on the smartphones of kids, you name it
In late May 2025, I had the pleasure to explore that simple question of “What is a book” – and why does this matter? – at the Readmagine conference in Madrid.
A short version of my presentation can be downloaded here.
A video of my presentation and an extended version of my slides will be added to my reports later on.
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