Gone are the days when many television dramas were based on famous
novels. Nowadays, many television dramas have novels based on them.
Although by-products of television dramas abound, the publication of novels or comic books based on television dramas in Hong Kong does not have a long history.
The Television Broadcasting Publisher publishes many novels based on television dramas.
It competes with other publishers for the copyright of the dramas, but it has the priority to choose which drama is to be published in form of novel.
According to the chief editor of the Television Broadcasting Weekly, Mr. Cheng Ka Wing, they basically publish three kinds of drama.
"We have published novels of recent television dramas like Healing Hands; we publish old-time but once popular dramas in one of our magazines," said he. "We also publish television series, such as A Kindred Spirit."
When deciding which drama to publish, popularity is not in their account.
"As we make the decision before the drama is shown, we have no idea if it will be popular or not," said he.
Although popularity and ratings of the dramas are unknown, Mr. Cheung does not worry about the sales. Based on their experience, they usually have a good guess.
Mr. Alan Wan is the director and general manager of Jade Dynasty Publications Limited.
Jade Dynasty Publications Limited published a comic book based on the story line of a television drama of TVB, Burning Flame.
According to Mr. Wan, whether or not a television drama would be turned to a novel or a comic book depends on several criteria.
"The story line is the most crucial factor," said Mr. Wan.
Added he: "The story line has to be attractive. Also, the casting is important because it attracts more attention if there are stars and idols."
Mr. Wan also said that they successfully recruited a group of people who were not current readers of comic books because of Burning Flame.
According to Mr. Cheung, not all dramas will be turned to novels, even though some of them have very high ratings.
"We would see if it is possible to turn a drama into a novel while maintaining its attractiveness," said he. "We would make little changes and adjustments."
"Take Burning Flame as an example, there are a lot of scenes that are very difficult to turn into words," said he. "It is better to publish a comic book of it because pictures could express the actions a lot better."
When asked whether the emergence of these novels is motivated by profits, Mr. Cheung answered without hesitation, "of course."
"The novels do not help promote the drama because they appear a lot later than the drama in the market," he added.
However, Cheung said that they would not publish too many novels of this kind owing to limited resources.
Said he: "We would not publish too many novels at the expense of quality."
Mr. Wan agreed that quality was too important to be neglected.
"People have seen the drama on television and they would expect the comic book to be as exciting or attractive as the drama, if not more," said he. "There is pressure because there is comparison."
A staff of a chain bookstore in Lok Fu, who would like her name to be withheld, said that the sales of these drama-based novels vary.
Said she: "It depends very much on the popularity of the television dramas."
"For example, the Healing Hands novel was once out of stock, probably because the television drama was once the talk of the town," said she.
"Usually the sales wax and wane," said she. "When the dramas end, the sales drop."
For television serial A Kindred Spirit, however, the situation is different.
"Unlike other television dramas, the sales of A Kindred Spirit are always steady."
Besides novels, soundtracks of local TV dramas are also produced.
Miss Claudia Lau, owner of a beauty salon, bought the soundtrack of Files of Justice, but she does not think that it qualifies itself as a soundtrack.
"I bought it because of the songs. They are tuneful," said she. "However, none of the songs are original, such as That's Why (You Go Away).
"I just regard this so-called soundtrack as a compilation.
"If I am to give credit, I'll give it to the band which composed the songs."