Tri Thuc Publishing House and Fonos become strategic partners

Now aday, readers find it convenient and fast when they approach to the system of e-book and audiobook. By using smartphone, computers and the like, those who love reading but cannot afford to buy books regularly may read a number of books online.

From now on, Tri Thuc (Litercy) Publishing House has a strong foothold in the publishing industry and is also interested in the field of digital publishing, so that people have more choices in looking for books to read. Although Fonos is a young business, it has quickly developed and become a leading copyright audiobook which is trusted by many young people.

Therefore, the Tri Thuc Publishing House and Fonos – a digital audio application signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two sides want to take advantage of each other’s strengths to further promote the digitalization of books and bring knowledge closer to the community thanks to the advancement of technology.

Reporter of Vusta.vn had an interview with Ms. Pham Thi Bich Hong, Director of Tri Thuc Publishing House, Deputy Director General of the VUSTA Department of Communication and Knowledge Dissemination. Ms. Bich Hong advised that for past 16years, with the philosophy “Sincerity – Professionalism – Liberalism”, the Tri Thuc has been constantly working, researching and creating platform to provide the most important background knowledge in the treasure of human knowledge through good and reliable translations, support and contribution, promoting the process of renewing the thinking of Vietnamese society when integrating into the contemporary world.

By now the Tri Thuc is implementing and maintaining such bookcases as follows: “Tinh Hoa” (the Essence) Bookcase; “Tri thức mới” (New Literacy) Bookcase; “Tri thức phổ thông” (General Knowledge) Bookcase; Biography Bookcase; Contemporary Vietnamese Bookcase. In addition, there is Phan Khôi Bookcase, “Dẫn nhập” (Preamble) Bookcase, the books titled “Thú vui tư duy” (Espirit) and some other types of books.

By the end of the first quarter of 2021, Tri Thuc Publishing House has published 1,500 books, in which 97 titles belong to “Tinh Hoa” (the Essence) Bookcase; 430 titles belong to “Tri thức mới” (New Knowledge) Bookcase and other bookcases of the publisher, the rest are affiliated titles.

Ms. Bich Hong also said that in the operation process, the Publishing House has brilliant stages of development, receiving great attention from readers and the society, a number of books have made their marks and have been reprinted and searched many times by readers, including some outstanding books, such as “The world as I see” by Albert Einstein, translated by a group of translators including Dinh Ba Anh, Nguyen Vu Hao, Tran Tien Cao Dang; Psychology of Crowds by S. Freud, translated by translator Nguyen Xuan Khanh; the book  titled “Creative Intelligence” by Howard Gardner, translated by Hoang Hung; The Origin of Species by Darwin, translated by Tran Ba Tin; the book titled  “ÉMILE or about education” by Rousseau, translated by Le Hong Sam and Tran Quoc Duong.

Since 2007, the Publishing House has joined with the VUSTA and L’Espace to hold thematic seminars on books and reading culture. These seminars have attracted the attention of a large number of readers, contributing to the dissemination of new knowledge, spreading and promoting the building of reading culture in Vietnam.

What has been done by Knowledge Publishing House, and the imprints which have been achieved during the past two decades are small bricks contributing to the construction of knowledge path of Vietnam.

“However, we are facing a number of difficulties like other publishers, due to the rapid development of information technology, the reading habits of readers, especially young generation have changed a lot, which is from paper books to reading news on websites; in addition, the books issued by our publisher are picky to readers, the board of management is still in need of enhancement, and the strong influence of the covid-19 pandemic since 2019 up to now, which have made us encounter a lot of challenges”, said Mrs. Hong.

Nevertheless, in accordance with Mrs. Hong, e-book is an evitable trend and e-publishing will be the future of Vietnamese publishing industry. This is both an opportunity and challenge for publishers to create good works, that meet the diverse needs of readers.

Being a publisher with 20 years of operation and development, having made its mark with a number of valuable works of “Tinh Hoa” (the Essence) Bookcase, The Publishing House wishes to bring valuable knowledge of the world to readers faster and more sufficient through e-books, in general and books, in particular. “We, thereby, are very happy to cooperate with Fonos, the copyrighted audiobook application which have been chosen, experienced and loved by various readers at present. It is hoped that the cooperation between Knowledge Publishing House and Fonos will contribute to bring more values to readers and for the general development of e-publishing industry in Vietnam”, said Ms. Bich Hong.

It is known that before entering into the publishing market in April 2020, Fonos realized that audiobook, in particular and digital audio book, in general would become a strong development trend in the following years.

Currently, Fonos has acknowledged a good signal of development as it has completed the seed funding round in the second quarter this year with the amount of USD1,1 million from investors in the USA and Singapore which are Hustle Fund, iSeed, Found Ventures, and Angel Central; and domestic investors including the well-known businesswoman Thai Van Linh.

At the signing ceremony of cooperation between the two sides, Mr. Oscar Jesionek - CEO of Fonos said that Fonos was very pleased to announce the cooperation with Knowledge Publishing House which was always well-known for its qualified books and the best-selling titles as well as its books of lasting values. He believed that Fonos and Tri Thuc Publishing House shared the same vision on bringing knowledge and valuable books to Vietnamese readers. Therefore, he was delighted when the two sides became partners and the above-mentioned vision would be in reality in the near future.

Author: HT