The Tre Publishing House planned to launch the Vietnamese version of “Breaking Dawn” by Stephenie Meyer on November 26 but the book appeared for sale some ten days earlier.

The cover of the Tre Publishing House’s “Breaking Dawn” edition.

Tre Publishing House’s employees discovered the illegal Vietnamese version of “Breaking Dawn” or Hung Dong at bookstores in Dinh Le and Lang Streets, Hanoi on November 16.

Previously, the publishing house bought the copyright of this book to translate into Vietnamese and distribute in Vietnam. It planned to launch the book on November 26.

According to Tre Publishing House, the illegal version has only 620 pages, which aaparently came from a free translation on the net. The book is entitled “Xe Toac Binh Minh” in Vietnamese. The illegal book also has the name of publisher as Tre Publishing House.

The book actually works out as to be more expensive page for page. With only 620 pages, the listed price on the book’s cover is up to 140,000 Vietnam dong while the Tre Publishing House said that the legal book will be 1120 pages and priced at 155,000 dong.

“This is a new development by illegal book printers, which shows selling books at cheap prices for quick sales is not a top priority,” said an official from the Tre Publishing House.

“They have fixed the price of illegal books as more expensive than legal one but they can sell them thanks to launching the books ten days before the legal version is issued,” he added.

The publishing house has asked relevant agencies to intervene in this case.

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre