Having analyzed the prices of paper books in China, it seems necessary to study the prices of books in Taiwan. Specifically, what is the difference between the average price of locally written Chinese books and that of translated Western books?

Publishers in Taiwan have considerably more control over their titles when compared to their Chinese counterparts. According to Taiwan Panorama , Taiwan's book publishing industry releases approximately 40,000 titles every year. Although translated books account for only 25 percent of the market, they comprise approximately 50 percent of the books on the country's bestselling lists.

The number of publishers in Taiwan has surpassed ten thousand in recent years. However, a recent study shows the publishing of the world's translated literature is done by only 21 publishers. Most translated literature and authors are concentrated in the United Kingdom and the United States, followed by France, Germany and Russia.

We decided to take a look at the books sold by the prestigious Kingstone Bookstore, which has been operating in Taiwan since 1983. Here are the top 10 bestselling translated Western literary books in New Taiwan Dollars (TWD) in April 2012, and the prices of their English counterparts in USD on Amazon.com:

From the list above, one can see the average price of these 10 translated Western literary books in Taiwan is 324.62 TWD, or 10.94 USD. This is slightly higher than the average price of these books in the United States in paperback or mass market paperback formats, which is 10.39 USD.

In comparison, the average price of the top 10 locally written Chinese literary books on Kingstone is 243.90 TWD, or 8.22 USD. This is about 75 percent of the average price of the top 10 translated Western literary books.

Finally, here are the top 9 translated Western business books in TWD in April 2012, and the prices of their English counterparts in USD on Amazon.com:

From the list above, one can see the average price of these 9 translated Western business books in Taiwan is 374.33 TWD, or 12.62 USD. This is only 44 percent of the average price of these books in the United States in hardcover format, which is 28.41 USD.

In comparison, the average price of the top 10 locally written Chinese business books on Kingstone is 290.00 TWD, or 9.77 USD. This is about 77 percent of the average price of the top 9 translated Western business books.