Anybody can publish a book these days, "says Lynn Chen, chief editor at the China Times Publishing Company." But an excess of books leads to mutually destructive competition, and books that do not sell right away are immediately taken off the shelves. The shelf life of some books is even shorter than a monthly magazine. "
新書太多會造成自己出版的書自相殘殺，賣不好立刻下架，有些書的壽命甚至比一個月的雜誌還短，」時報文化出版公司總編輯林馨琴說。