<\/p>\nabsorb much of the upfront costs<\/p>\n
<\/a>. Epigram waived the substantial sum these publishers typically had to pay for distribution rights, settling instead for higher royalties for each copy of the books sold. <\/p>\n
It is a gambit in service of a higher cause, he says. \u201cI realised I needed to foster the readers first. Even if 10 per cent of South-east Asians read English, that\u2019s 70 million people. It\u2019s important that in Asean, we know each other. How do you do that? Read each other\u2019s stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
This latest achievement is only one in a string of daring bets he has made on Sing Lit since Epigram Books was established in 2011. <\/p>\n
Long one of the industry\u2019s most innovative players \u2013 always thinking big picture and sometimes at his own expense \u2013 the 73-year-old has found ways forward for an industry besieged by changing reading patterns, a turn to the digital and suffocating costs.<\/p>\n
Singapore\u2019s small market and reading public was what drove him to lead the charge outwards, including successful sales of titles like Meihan Boey\u2019s Miss Cassidy series (2021 to 2025) to Britain, the United States, Albania and Italy. <\/p>\n
For that, he is one of five finalists who have been announced to date\u00a0<\/b>for the\u00a011th The Straits Times Singaporean of the Year (SOTY) award.<\/p>\n
Organised by The Straits Times and presented by Swiss multinational investment bank UBS, the prize is given to a Singaporean or group of citizens who have made a significant contribution to society.<\/p>\n
Mr Wee is also the president of the Singapore Book Publishers Association \u2013 the second two-year term he is helming the group of 67 members that range from multinational to academic and indie presses. It is a thankless job, but it is also a macro-perspective he naturally adopts. <\/p>\n
\u201cVery few people here want to, or can, think beyond their own company, and you need to. There\u2019s so many things that should be done for publishing. Someone needs to articulate the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has been lobbying for Singapore libraries to buy more copies of published books and the institution of public lending rights, where authors are recompensed each time a book is borrowed, a scheme already adopted by some 35 countries. <\/p>\n
He has also been urging the Government to think about more structural support for vernacular publishers. If his South-east Asian deal expands English books\u2019 print runs from about 1,000 in Singapore to many times that, the starting point of Malay and Tamil publishers is only between 300 and 500 copies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can\u2019t survive. Unless you agree that it\u2019s all about market forces and they don\u2019t have to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n
The grandest project of all is fund-raising for an eventual Asean literature prize. South-east Asia, despite a population of over 700 million, has no Nobel laureates in literature, in part because of the lack of champions willing to see it as a bloc and translate books in regional languages into English. <\/p>\n