1.
I have always believed that working in publishing is about sharing light.
Authors transform what they observe, research, or imagine into light through their creations, and share that light with others.
Editors, printers, marketers, and sales teams work together to send that light out into the world.
Distributors and bookstores serve as hubs that help the light travel farther and reach more people.
And readers are searching for light. Light that guides them as they grow, light that inspires or heals them, or light that changes their mood and transports them into another world.
At the same time, readers' responses to what they have read also send out light—light that offers publishers, editors, and distributors valuable guidance and direction.
That is why I like to think of publishing as the work of a lighthouse.
And every book is a lighthouse in its own right.
2.
In 2026, our world is very different from the world we once knew.Social media, short-form videos, AI, and the worldwide breakdown and reconstruction of many traditional values have transformed where light comes from, the forms it takes, and the nature of our need for it.
Beyond lighthouses, there are now all kinds of other sources of light: fireworks, flares, neon signs, mobile phones, and many more.
On the one hand, these sources of light challenge and even threaten the existence of lighthouses. On the other hand, they may bring the meaning and value of lighthouses into even sharper focus.
As long as we remember that a lighthouse does not exist to attract attention or show off, but to provide a steady point of reference by which people can find their bearings in the darkness, no other source of light—however dazzling, colorful, or entertaining—can replace it.
AI can rapidly provide answers to all kinds of questions and give us access to knowledge.
But we must still decide for ourselves what questions are worth asking, how to judge the answers, and what those questions and answers mean for the direction of our lives and the values we believe in.
These are precisely the explorations on which lighthouses are best suited to accompany us.
So lighthouses will never become obsolete.
No matter how the world changes, our need to share the light that books bring into our lives will remain. Indeed, because the world is changing, that need may become even more important.
But as times change, lighthouses must change too.
Traditional lighthouses stand in one place, sending out their beams. Today's lighthouses need to move, to seek out the light of others.
Today, it is not only those who work in publishing who serve as lighthouses. Readers, too, are increasingly becoming lighthouses themselves. Those who send light and those who receive it respond to one another.
Each of us is a flying lighthouse, sharing light.
And as we become flying lighthouses ourselves, we need to think even more carefully: Do we really know our own direction? And what kind of light do we want to send out?
3.
In November 2026, Locus Publishing celebrates its 30th anniversary.Looking back at the hopes we had for the company when it was founded thirty years ago, while some have not been realized, some have.
One thing we have achieved is this: we have never deliberately pursued growth for the sake of becoming bigger. Instead, we have remained committed to the values we believe in, sending out a light that is uniquely our own.
For thirty years, we have sought to share brilliant light with our readers, while continually searching for unusual, subtle, and less-explored forms of light that few people have had the chance to experience.
As we look back over these thirty years, we are grateful to all the authors, collaborators, distributors, bookstores, and readers who have accompanied us through life's hopes and aspirations, joys and hesitations, difficult times and moments of exhilaration, and the many challenges we have overcome together.
Looking ahead, we will remain steadfast in our fundamental belief in sharing light, while continuing to explore, with curiosity, new ways and possibilities for doing so.
Starting this November, we will launch a series of events under the theme “We Glow.”
In the first phase, we will join forces with more than 50 bookstores across Taiwan to invite readers to share their light. The second phase will take place at the Taipei International Book Exhibition next February. In March, the third phase will feature a special event connecting people and their light from northern to southern Taiwan. Finally, at the end of April, we will share with everyone our vision of the future.
Details will be announced progressively on our anniversary website:30.locuspublishing.com
4.
At the beginning of this year, I suddenly realized that Locus Publishing's 30th anniversary coincides with another milestone.My own 70th birthday.
Many friendes and readers know that I often say my mental age has always remained somewhere between fifteen and eighteen.
And so, over the past decade, as I became increasingly aware of the widening gap between my mental age and my chronological age, as well as the distress I had, I went through a period of slump.
But over the past two years, I have emerged from that low point. And especially at the beginning of this year, I suddenly came to a realization:
“While every day is the oldest day of your life, it is also the youngest day of the rest of your life.”
And so I welcomed my 70th birthday—and every day that has followed—with something close to a cheer.
After its 30th anniversary, Locus Publishing, too, will find that every new day is its youngest day.
I hope the same will be true for all of you, every day from now on.
We are young, and we will explore ever more extraordinary futures.
To everyone who has walked alongside us on this journey, my gratitude is boundless.
Thank you!
Sharing Light. We Glow.
Rex How
November 2026