Asia Publishers Week
Participant
Tran Thi Hoai Phuong
Country : Vietnam
Name : Tran Thi Hoai Phuong
Company : Vietnam Omega Books JSC
Job Title : Director
E-mail : phuong.tran@omegaplus.vn
Work experience in publishing
• 2008-2013: Editor at Knowledge Publishing House
• 2013- 2016: Editor at Alpha Books Publishing Company
• September 2016 to now: Chief of Editorial Division, Deputy Director, Production Director, Executive Director (Chief of Editorial Division of Vietnam Omega Books JSC).
Pursuing the publication of Foundational Knowledge, including: History books, Science, Education, Art, especially world classics. Goal: To systematically build and enhance the essential national knowledge while updating the latest publications/researches worldwide, aiming for Vietnamese readers to keep pace with global reading trends. Alongside the journey of publishing valuable, high-content knowledge publications, focusing on activities that encourage reading among Vietnamese people.
Achievements (both individual and organizational): In charge of publishing National Book Award-winning titles: “Leonardo Da Vinci” (2019, Category C), “History” - Herodotus (2020, Category A), “The Gene: An Intimate History” (2020, Category C), “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (2021, Category A); In charge of publishing Good Book Award-winning titles: “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations.” Personal: Title “Outstanding Publisher” on the 70th anniversary of the Publishing, Printing, and Distribution tradition."
Co-founder and administrator of Omega Group - a community of readers, translators, consultants in the fields of science, politics, history, philosophy, classic books ... Founded in January 2016, the Omega community aims to create interactive space, sharing information, books, knowledge; improve translation quality; Promote the development of reading culture, spread knowledge, thus creating positive impact on society.
My job description includes:
- Ultimately responsible for all business operations of the company. Develop plans and organize the implementation of the company's business activities according to the goals approved by the Board of Directors.
- Specific responsibilities include:
• Planning publication including the volume of goods, implementation cost, publication time, key books, printing plan...
• Developing roadmaps and plans for the company and its departments
• Organizing and operating the personnel structure to achieve set goals
• Developing and executing product strategy
• Building and developing relationships with strategic partners/government agencies and media organizations.
• Organize and effectively manage the use of capital. Report on the annual usage of capital.
Main Interest
Pursuing the publication of Foundational Knowledge, including: History books, Science, Education, Art, especially world classics. Goal: To systematically build and enhance the essential national knowledge while updating the latest publications/researches worldwide, aiming for Vietnamese readers to keep pace with global reading trends. Alongside the journey of publishing valuable, high-content knowledge publications, focusing on activities that encourage reading among Vietnamese people.
I like reading science books, psychology, philosophy, and nonfiction books. Reading is not a career, but rather a personal hobby. Sometimes reading is a relaxing time, but it is sometimes an intellectual work, however intellectual satisfaction is pleasant later on. In the non-fiction category, I particularly enjoyed Western classic novelists, particularly Stendhal, Balzac (French), Charlot Bronti, Emily Bronte… (Britain); Dostoevsky , Pushkin, Lev Tolstoy, Chekhov .. (Russia). I especially love Jungian psychology, especially the works of Carl Jung. Reading his writtings is very meaningful to my personal development. In field of modern science books, some of my favorite authors are: Jared Diamond, Richard Dawkins, Yuval N. Harari ...
Experience Related to This Year’s Topic
As a publisher with over 16 years of experience in the publishing industry in Vietnam, I have witnessed significant changes in this field driven by technology. During my time as Production Director and later as Executive Director of Omega Plus—a company specializing in publishing foundational knowledge in science, philosophy, politics, economics, and art—my colleagues and I have explored numerous ways to make academic knowledge accessible to the younger generation. One of the major challenges we face is how to engage young readers with fundamental, systematic knowledge in an era overwhelmed with information. Additionally, we strive to make this knowledge easily accessible without demanding too much time or effort from them.
What would you like to discuss related to this year’s topic?
· Regarding Products:
1. We create systematic book series where knowledge in each field is organized from basic to advanced levels, in chronological order, allowing readers to easily understand each book within the larger knowledge map.
2. We publish a diverse range of products with varying content volumes, including extensive, large-scale publications containing substantial content, concise introductory works, academic publications, and popular books.
3. We release knowledge in various formats, such as large-format books, pocket-sized books, and handheld books, to facilitate convenience for readers.
4. We develop content summaries. For books with substantial content, we create abridged versions to provide multiple access points to the knowledge.
5. We plan to develop new product formats based on the content of published books, called Omega+ Academy, on the YouTube platform. This will feature short introductory courses on fields like Art, History, Science, Political Science, etc., in an animation format. The model is similar to Khan Academy but focused on systematizing knowledge for Vietnamese audiences.
· Regarding Communication:
6. We use multiple platforms instead of just focusing on websites or Facebook as before. We have Facebook channels, YouTube channels, TikTok channels, Instagram, etc.
7. We employ new media content formats: Not just articles as before, but also short videos, aligned with current information consumption trends of readers. We use short videos to summarize book content and are building a YouTube channel with summary content from published books, presented in animation format. We also create a YouTube channel offering free audiobooks of the first chapters of all published books.
8. We are planning to develop a reader care app. On this app, published books will be rearranged according to a knowledge map, allowing loyal readers to access knowledge more easily.
Streamlining content: Summarized books, concise books
Pocket Books: Reprint published books in a new format: compact and handheld
Develop non-book formats that extract knowledge from published books, published in the form of academies. The books are organized into short, concise lectures, with illustrations, narrated and guided by characters.
Create apps that provide knowledge to readers through a knowledge tree system.
Your Company Company Name: Vietnam Omega Books JSC, also known as Omega Plus
Company Address: 3rd floor, Dream Center Home, 11A 282 Nguyen Huy Tuong Str., Thanh Xuan Dist. Hanoi, Vietnam
Number of Employees: 25
Specialty: politics, science, philosophy and history, Art...
Company Profile (in approximately 300 words):
"OMEGA VIETNAM BOOK JOINT STOCK COMPANY (OMEGA PLUS) was established in September 2016 with the aim of publishing foundational knowledge in the fields of Humanities, Natural Sciences, Politics - Society, Philosophy, Art... To date, we have published nearly 500 titles across 7 series, including: Classics, Vietnamese History, Science, Great Figures, Art, Life Books, and Biomedical Books. Through publishing valuable, high-content knowledge publications and activities to bring useful knowledge to the community, Omega Plus aims to contribute in its own way to the increasingly robust development of society."
For nearly 8 years, we have collaborated with different partners on a number of projects and created a wide and profound impact on the community and society in many different areas. To name a few:
+ We have cooperated with the embassies of UK, Singapore, Israel, Finland, France and successfully organized many book launch events;
+ We accompanied the Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in organizing seminars on global trade topics;
+ We have donated more than 5,000 valuable books to leaders of government departments and agencies, universities and schools throughout the country in the campaign "Books for a learning society."
We have published about 500 titles for now, including the Vietnamese translation of the following titles:
1. Republic, Plato
2. Politics, Aristotle
3. The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
4. The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu
5. The clash of civilizations, Samuel Huntington
6. World Order, Kissinger
7. Civilization: The West and the rest, Nial Ferguson
8. The Journey of Humanity, Oded Galor
9. Sapiens: A brief history of humankind, Yuval Harari
10. Unstoppable Us, Yuval Harari
12. The Story of Art, Gombrich
13. Red Nile: A Biography of the World's Greatest River, Robert Twigger
14. Art books series, Thames and Hudson
15: The Earth Transformed: An untold History, Peter Frankopan