Vistors are attracted by discounts offered by exhibitors on the last day of the Hong Kong Book Fair yesterday. Edmond Tang

HONG KONG: The pseudo-models, vilified, castigated and relegated to an out-of-the-way part of this year's Hong Kong Book Fair, did all right despite the controversy.

Opposition to their being at the book fair helped to put the Facebook celebrities into the spotlight at the fair and helped their books sell well.

Sales for the New Media Group surged up to 40 percent more than last year, thanks in large part to over 20,000 sales for the book featuring teen model Chrissie Chau over the week-long book fair.

Assistant publishing manager Simpson Wong said available copies were sold out by Sunday. More were ordered and sold on a reserved basis.

"Visitors buying the albums also look at other books, which helps boost our sales," Wong said.

Generation Collection, which was selling the albums of young models Angelababy and Kama, reported 10 percent increases in sales. The girls' photo albums were their hottest sellers.

Conventional publishers were not able to turn in such stellar figures. Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Company Ltd said sales rose about 10 percent, but costs also increased owing to bigger booths and more staff.

Marketing & sales deputy manager Teresa Leung Lai-han did not think business was affected by the teenage models' books.

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) put the teen celebrities out of the way in a separate hall where they held their autograph sessions.

"The arrangement has worked well. Book lovers can browse the booths without disturbance," said Assistant Executive Director of HKTDC Raymond Yip.

Nine warning letters were issued to exhibitors that held autograph session at exhibition booths. One went to Best Reading Book Stores for selling photo albums featuring model Taiz Jiang in sexy apparel.

Yip disagreed that pseudo-models dominated the book fair, saying their work was only a small portion of the books in the exhibition.

The 20th edition of the book fair closed yesterday, after attracting 900,000 visitors over the seven days. That's 8 percent more than last year and a record high for the fair.

Some 10,000 of those who came were tourists from the mainland, Macao, Taiwan, and North America.

Despite the economic meltdown, customers did not seem to tighten their budget, according to a survey commissioned by the HKTDC. A total of 887 visitors were polled.

The average consumption of the respondents was HK$469, while about 22 percent spent more this year than last year.

While half of those people polled bought fictional works at the book fair, readers' preferences differed from last year.

"Popular culture is welcomed by most visitors and we have more youngsters this year. Topics of life and inspiration are also popular," said Simon Li, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Publishing Federation.

Some Taiwan publishers complained about being moved to a different exhibition hall, located farther away from the center of things than last year. The Taiwan publishers said the move meant they had poor business this year.

Tuan Chih Chiang of United Distribution said he was taking 70 percent of his books back to Taiwan.

"This hall is the last stop of the book fair, so no one is willing to come here," he said. "I feel like I've been deceived (by the HKTDC),"

Taiwan Book Publishers Association returned two-thirds of its books.

Sales manager James Tin said normally only one-tenth of the stock would be left.

"Some customers said they don't know the Taiwan exhibitors moved to a different hall," he said.

The HKTDC said it would maintain communication with the exhibitors and address the concern they raised.

(HK Edition 07/29/2009 page1)