Research On The Cost Control In China’s Book Industry

China’s book industry is facing dual challenges from marketization and development of information technologies, as well as fiercer competition against the backdrop of cultural system reform and globalization. Driven by the basic market rule of survival of the fittest, publishers are forced to lower their costs so as to reliably and effectively boost their efficiency and improve core competitiveness.Though Chinese publishers have been adjusting their cost control methods and positive results have been seen over recent years, many issues still remain, such as incompetence in controlling costs, failure to develop along with the publishers in the developed countries, and difficulties in adapting to changes in markets and technologies. This paper discusses cost control and cost structure from the perspective of book publishing process, examining the major issues of the current cost control in the book industry, exploring the perspective and potential risks faced by China’s book industry by drawing comparisons between cost control methods of the Chinese publishers and those of their foreign counterparts. Market-oriented suggestions have been made to address the cost control issues from multi perspectives and levels: strategically, an enterprise strategic management mechanism shall be established in accordance with the business strategy by introducing value analysis and life-cycle cost management. As for the daily operation, shortcomings in such areas as topic design, publishing and sales, and management can be overcome by improving cost-effectiveness. For example, at the stage of topic design, the cost control is not only the cost-effectiveness of the expenditure, but the more important quality control of the topics, sound prediction of the target cost of books, and the multi-channel and multi-demonstration of the publication through the protection and full use of the property right of the books, seeking domestic and foreign partners and digitalization of the books. And this will nurture new philosophy of expanding sales, lowing cost and generating cost control of the books. As far as technologies are concerned, ERP, one of the most advanced management tool, can be used to achieve the co-effectiveness of compiling, printing, issuing and financing and to make financial and account management the core of enterprise management and control. This will achive overall cost control by effectively overcoming the publishers’difficulty in failing to make "pre-control" or "process-control", and in failing to trace the cost or adopt measures to make adjustment. This will address the cost-management issue, and solve the puzzle of overall budget and cost accounting for individual book so as to optimize cost control for books. As for non-monetary costs, time costs (including time spent on production and selling of books) shall be taken into consideration so as to boost business competitiveness. This paper aims to help publishers strengthen competitiveness through improved cost control in order to secure sustainable business growths.