Bulletin Number Two 1985

is read by at least one specialist in the field; second and third opinions are invited when these are considered necessary. This reviewing process normally takes three to six months, but may take longer if the manuscript in question is highly specialized. The procedures at The Chinese University Press have the beauty of simplicity. After a manuscript has been approved for publication by the Editorial Subcommittee, the author of the work will be offered a standard contract with a standard royalty of ten percent of net receipts. We offer all our writers the same terms irrespective of their academic standing and the size or complexity of the publication. Once the contract is signed between the author of the manuscript and The Chinese University Press, the editorial and production departments take over and start work on preparing the manuscript for typesetting. The author will be involved in the subsequent proofreading and will be consulted on editorial matters. From that point on, he can expect to see the manuscript published in book form within twelve months. Taking into consideration the reviewing time of three to six months, this means that the whole process from manuscript to book will take approximately one and a half years. This amount of production time is considered very reasonable by North American standard; over there this process normally takes two years. When I took over as Director from Mr. Lai, I found a university press which is highly regarded by the community on the outside and which, on the inside, is firmly established and tightly structured. My job as I see it, then, is to continue the good work of my predecessor and to introduce changes only when changes are called for as a result of different circumstances. I think most people will agree that circumstances have changed somewhat since 1983. To begin with, since the publication of the Llewellyn Report, the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration which formalized the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997 ， and since the first report of the Education Commission recommended concrete measures to induce more secondary schools to teach in the medium of Chinese, the need for good quality textbooks written in the Chinese language for secondary schools has become urgent. The Chinese University Press had hitherto published textbooks in Chinese but only in two subjects, namely, Biology and Buddhism, and only for use in senior forms. This year we will publish a third. This is the textbook in Physics commissioned by the Chinese Teaching Material Development Committee. The book has been submitted to the Education Department and approved for use in secondary schools. It will be available to students and teachers before the new school term begins in September. It is our intention to do much more in this area and plans are afoot to expand this part of our operation. If these plans come to fruition, the University Press will probably go through a period of expansion in order to cope with the extra work involved in the publication of secondary school textbooks in a much bigger scale than hitherto envisaged. Today, eight years after The Chinese University Press first came into existence, we are in the happy position of being regarded as a good publisher by the international academic community. It is obvious that our strength, judging from our list of some two hundred titles, is in Chinese Studies and Southeast Asian Studies, including those with a focus on Hong Kong; together they account for some seventy percent of the books in our catalogue. This strength is now widely recognized by other universities. In order to increase the sales potential of our publications, it seems to me it is to our advantage to enter into joint publication with overseas institutions which are also strong in these same areas. The price advantage of having the typesetting done in Hong Kong has been brought to the attention of an increasing number of potential co-publishers and this will be an important aspect of our work in the future. The number of joint publications will, in all probability, increase in the next few years as a result of this promotional effort. We have gone into such arrangements with the university presses of Harvard, Columbia, and Washington in the past. This year we will increase the list with co-publication agreements with London University and Westview Press. This is in addition to our usual co-publisher in the United States, which is St. Martin's Press. Finally, with the opening up of China and a revived interest in academic writing on the part of Mainland Chinese researchers and writers, there has been a steady increase in the number of manuscripts by authors who live in the Mainland. There have also been preliminary enquiries from university presses and other publishing houses in China regarding co- publication possibilities. These will of course be considered on their own merit as we do with all offers to publish. In time, I expect, the opening up of China will also make its impact on the publishing industry of Hong Kong as it has on the other sectors. Savings in cost and additional earnings from higher sales are not to be dismissed off hand. Neither is the prospect of being able to reach a wider reading public. In 1985 and looking at the future, the publishing arm of the University is confident that there will be many changes and even more opportunities ahead. 18 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS