Joined by well-known writers Yang Hongying and Zhi An, publishers such as Children's Fun Publishing, New Star Press and Tomorrow Publishing House took part in the 12-hour livestreaming, which increased sales by more than 650 percent, according to a report by China Publishing & Media Journal. This type of activity is held on a monthly basis.

Besides, in the first half year of 2021, jd.com organized livestreaming training for sellers every month and more than 100 publishers participated each time to learn how to improve their sales through livestreaming, according to the report.

Apart from distribution, the new marketing environment has also made editors' work more complicated and demanding.

In the past, the main work of a book editor was to improve content, and help designers and marketing team better understand the book's style and selling points.

Editors used to do their jobs anonymously, but now they need to face readers directly in livestreaming.

Besides, editors need to prepare a lot of marketing content, and consider how to improve the look of books so that they can be better presented in publicity shots.

In the past, if it is a good book, it will sell well ultimately with its reputation, but now in such an old marketing way, books cannot reach readers very quickly, Gu says.

"Five years ago, I couldn't imagine that we are now selling books on TikTok and Little Red Book. Time has changed beyond our expectation. For me, the first thing for publishers is to survive. We can't resist the current prevailing online platforms, rather, we need to study them," he says.

"But we need to find a way that can best match the disposition of our publisher," he says.

"However, I still believe that the books themselves must be of good quality. If the books that I edit will be read not only in the first few months after being published, but after one or two years, if they can stand the test of time, they are successful and valuable even if they are not bestsellers," he says.

Contact the writer at yangyangs@chinadaily.com.cn