Becoming a global hit: Chinese best-sellers take on the world

Tan told Xinhua that to sell Chinese stories abroad, they are competing for the precious time and attention of foreign book editors. "To allure them, convince them, you got to be good and play by their rules," he suggested.

Drawing a clever parallel between Chinese and Western books will help publishers catch the essence quickly and situate it properly in their own cultural context, Tan said.

Mai Jia's The Message, for instance, was compared with Agatha Christine's Murder on the Orient Express. The Zoo on the Grasslands, a novel by Chinese writer Ma Boyong, seen as the Chinese version of Yann Martel's Life of PI, appealed to several publishers at the book fair.

Meanwhile, it is critical to know the people behind the books. The publishing world is a circle of publishers, book detectives and literary agents. "Make contacts and friends, build trust and a brand, so that once you sell the books, they are in safe hands," Tan said.

Tan's idea was echoed by Chen, Liu Cixin's copyright agent. He understands the efforts top publishing houses like Tor devoted to promoting Liu's books: polish editing, reports in national papers, reviews in The Wall Street Journal, publicity events, access to major bookstores and placement in online shops.

By 2017, with more than 300,000 English copies sold, the trilogy has become a New York Times best-seller, according to the publisher. Even former US president Barack Obama and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are among its fans.