People know me through my writings. But if I rely on writing to make a living, I would have to “sell” my works to “clients” with an absolute price. To create more monetary value, I would have to go beyond writing to make my works better known.

To transform art into money is the core of the cultural and creative industries. You have to first have a good creative idea, and then turn it into a marketable product. Some of these products are tangible, like art pieces. But how do we transform intangible ones to money? It takes an abundance of time to write a novel or a prose. If these are just turned to a publication, this is far from industrialisation. Even in other countries, only very few could make a living by simply publishing books. Ironically, writers are essential for the creative industries: movies need scripts; the media need contents. But usually one could only rely on fate for good works to end up in good producers’ hands, and industrialisation is the bridge to connect these two, so that writers can be, in their element, focus on writing, and producers are free from shouldering unnecessary responsibilities.

The creative and culture industries actually need agents or coordinators to turn creative ideas into money for artists. Several recent Macao movies did well in this regard, perhaps due to the fact that producers are meant to do this kind of job anyway.

Intermediaries and coordinators do marketing for remuneration. In a healthy industry, it is impossible to have everyone volunteering. A clear concept of remuneration is the foundation to industrialisation.

Intermediaries look for business. Their connections and bargaining power are the key to secure deals. Artists across different disciplines need to co-operate with these intermediaries to put price tags to their works.

The creation of a story should entail various opportunities—writers get paid, intermediaries get commissions, producers look for investors, director, actors, musicians, operators and advertising agents and product designers. These form a chain of the industry. In order for the chain to run smoothly, it all comes down to how mature the creative industry is: it needs comprehensive budgeting and planning—and a best launch time has to be determined. A painter has to consider how his or her painting is to be marketed, even though it should be the responsibility of a marketer.

The most fundamental element of the cultural and creative industries is to let artists concentrate on their works. Without good works, the proposition above would just be empty talk. To provide a platform and a suitable environment for artists, clients and the market is therefore equally important—without a proper platform, there won’t even be creative works.

I am quite positive about the industrialisation of the cultural and creative industries. The first step is to build up the impression that culture is worth something, and present Macao’s best products to audiences and potential clients. I believe that the magazine you are reading right now is doing exactly this.