Taiwanese rush to order Steve Jobs bio in Chinese

The popularity of the late Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs is showing even in China, as pre-orders for a Chinese version of his biography is on the rise. A report by Taiwan's Central News Agency said Taiwan's Commonwealth Publishing Group noted pre-orders for the biography approached 30,000 as of Sunday. "We estimate that the number could surpass 30,000 by the end of the day," CNA quoted Sherry Lee, marketing director of the publishing group, as saying Sunday. The CNA report cited local media reports showing the biography, titled "Steve Jobs: A Biography" written by Walter Isaacson, even surpassed "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on Taiwan's online book store Books.com.tw. Pre-orders were priced at NT$599 (US$19.64) per copy on the website, and sold at a rate of four copies per minute, it added. On the other hand, pre-orders for the NT$649 English edition were being made at 1.6 copies per minute. Commonwealth Publishing Group is the exclusive publisher of Jobs' biography in traditional Chinese characters. It is to be launched October 24. Lee said the figures set a record for Taiwan when it exceeded the 20,000-mark last week. She said pre-orders for Jobs' biography did not slow over the weekend, when orders for books are usually slow. It was a "rare" phenomenon in the industry, she said. The publisher began accepting pre-orders at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 6, shortly after after Jobs' death from pancreatic cancer was announced. Lee said one reason for the high pre-order sales was that only those who pre-order the book will get the hardcover version. Only a paperback version will be initially available in bookstores. — RSJ, GMA, News