China has for the first time published a book online before publishing it on paper.

Although online reading is catching on as a trend, publishers still tend to publish hardcopies before launching the electronic versions, said Pan Xianli, deputy editor-in-chief at Writers Publishing House.

The publishing house, which edited and published the e-book "Not Angel, Not Devil," will publish the paper version only 90 days after the e-book launch. The electronic version will sell for just 6 yuan (US$0.75) because of its low cost of production, while the book will be sold for 19 yuan (US$2.4).

"The launch of the electronic version first is a trial for us," Pan said. "We hope the electronic version and paper version will establish a good interaction for sales."

A national survey on people's reading habits in the Internet era conducted by Beijing Founder Electronics Co. Ltd showed that 27.8 percent of Chinese were accustomed to reading books and articles on the Internet in 2005, while the figures in 1999 and 2003 were 3.7 percent and 18.3 percent respectively.

China currently has 110 million Internet users and the number is growing steadily.

By May 2006, China had more than 400 publishing houses operating online publishing businesses.

Zhou Jin, vice president of Founder Electronics, which provided technical support to the publishing of "Not Angel, Not Devil", said that publishing houses were not very active in publishing e-books back in 2001.

"But we had established cooperation with more than 100 publishing houses by the end of 2005. It takes about three months for a published book to have an electronic version online," Zhou said.

"The launch of this book is an important signal for the publishing industry that electronic publishing will play a major role in the future," Zhou said.

"Not Angel, Not Devil" is a story set in a Chinese university about two sisters' different attitudes towards life and love. The author, Zhu Xingchen, said that she thinks publishing the e-book first won't affect the sales of her book. "Internet users can read a few paragraphs online before their purchase, which I think will promote the sales of my book."

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2006)