The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XXXII

Dated: 13th Apr. 2008

The Publisher’s Post is a weekly newsletter that contains information relating to the book publishing and book selling industry in India.

News This Week

TERI Organizes India’s First Ever Conference on environment-friendly Publishing
Source: Financial Express

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in consonance with Delhi Government organized a high-level conference on ecological and sustainable publishing practices in the capital on Monday. The event titled Pathways to Green Publishing: a stakeholders’ dialogue on ecological and sustainable publishing practices was an attempt to bring together the stakeholders involved in the process of publishing, including paper manufacturers and printers on a platform to discuss the enormous environmental issues plaguing the industry as a whole.

The conference was inaugurated by Ms Sheila Dixit, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Delhi. Mr Namo Narain Meena, Hon’ble Minister of State for Environment and Forests delivered the presidential address at the conference. Commenting on the conference Dr R K Pachauri, Director-General, TERI said, “One of the most important frontiers in tackling the global threat of environmental degradation lies in greening the entire chain of printing and publication activity. If one were to assess the power of this extended sector, it would become apparent that the message of green practices applied in this field would reach every member of human society. India should be a leader in the field of sustainable development and consequently pathways to green publishing are important avenues for India to tread in a leadership position.”

At the occasion, the Chief Minister also released a children’s book Reduce Reuse Recycle from Save Planet Earth, a six-book series jointly published by TERI Press and the JSW Foundation. Reduce Reuse Recycle introduces children to the green mantra for modern life. True to its content, the book itself has been printed on recycled paper.

Penguin to publish new titles as ebooks
Source: The Guardian, UK

Publishing house Penguin said today that it plans to publish new titles simultaneously in ebook, or electronic, format from this autumn in response to signs of growing reader demand for digital books.

The publisher, owned by UK media group Pearson, said titles from its flagship Penguin division, from its travel books collection and from the Dorling Kindersley brand will be available on its website and from digital retailers from September.

The ebooks will come out at the same time as the print edition and will cost the same.

The publisher is already working on turning its 5,000 title Penguin backlist into e-books for publication this year and next. The publisher is digitising its entire worldwide backlist so that it can make the most of the emerging e-book trend. It also hopes the print-on-demand opportunities - whereby customers can have one-off copies of out-of-print titles printed, bound and shipped to them - will give older books a new lease of life.

New Book Releases & Events

New Releases by Tulika Books

Casting for a superhit film takes some doing! The great Mor Khan is about to find out in Birdywood Buzz, a new picture book set in a world of twittering, fluttering, grovelling, preening, high-flying avians! Ashok Rajagopalan’s art with ‘attitude’ and Shamim’s hilarious text, capture the glamour, the humour and the action for over the top movie magic!

Teachers and children can now explore with art, thanks to Dots and Lines: a teaching resource for art, by Tarit Bhattacharjee. The latest in the Tulika Teacher Resource series, this one works well as a handbook for anybody interested
in understanding basic art concepts.

Meanwhile, And Land was Born and A Tree in My Village are now available in paperback editions. And Land Was Born is a creation story that celebrates the unfettered nature of the oral tradition. Uma Krishnaswamy’s splendid pictures add visual magic to the joyous, playful irreverence of Sandhya Rao’s text.
In A Tree in My Village, renowned painter Paritosh Sen’s elegant, vividly painted words match the exuberance and delicacy of his pictures to offer an experience of art and life through encounters with nature.

Tulika Books, Chennai also featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair this year.

Book launch by Roli Books

Roli Books & Alliance Française de Delhi celebrate the release of Contemporary Indian Architecture by Jagan Shah at the M.L.Bhartia Auditorium, Alliance Française de Delhi, 72, Lodhi Estate,New Delhi-110 003 on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 6pm. Mr Patwant Singh will release the book followed by Q & A with the author.

The first book of its kind, The Anthology of Contemporary Indian Architecture showcases emerging and established talent in the field of Indian architecture during the last two decades. While the original masters of classic modern architecture in modern India do feature, this book devotes itself to the cutting-edge, unique and contemporary designs and monumental creations, ranging from residential and commercial to public spaces, which are putting Indian architects on the world map for architectural excellence.

Jagan Shah is a professional architect and historian based in Delhi. He has been a visiting lecturer at the School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi, his alma mater, since 1998. He received formal training in History, Theory and Criticism at the University of Cincinnati and Columbia University. His writings have been published in leading journals in Indian and abroad and he is co-editor of Round, an annual journal of Asian writings on architecture.

Sweet Land of Mine

Literati (bookstore, Candolim, Goa) will host a presentation by Claude Alvares (environmentalist, Director of the Goa Foundation) on the Foundation’s new book, Goa: Sweet Land of Mine on Sunday 13th April 2008 at 11.30 a.m.

Inputs for the book have come from members of the Goa Wildlife Group set up a year ago by the Goa Foundation. Goa: Sweet Land of Mine is a severe critique in colour of the deadly damage being caused by iron ore mining companies to Goa’s forests, wildlife, biodiversity and the ecologically sensitive Western Ghat region.

The context of the book is the recent spate of ‘environment clearances’ granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for such mining leases in Goa. More than 70 such clearances have been issued (almost like cyclostyled forms) to more than 70 mining leases without site inspections or listening to villagers affected by mining operations.

Mining is a major threat to Goa’s very existence. The former Portuguese regime handed over nearly 800 mining leases to individuals. In addition to these, more than 480 fresh applications for prospecting have recently been received by the mines department. If all these mines commence operations, nothing will be left of Goa but a ruddy lunarscape.

“Indian fiction unappreciated”
Source: Express News Service

Indian fiction is growing but was still ‘underappreciated’, well-known writer and Former UN Under Secretary General, Shashi Tharoor, said on Friday .

Though there was lot of talent in the country, not all was recognised, Tharoor said at a function after releasing Maya a novel by George Thundiparambil, by handing over a copy to Consul General of India in Dubai, Venu Rajamony.

Set against the background of historical and present day Fort Kochi, the book sketches the history of the first European trading post in India as seen through the eyes of Kaappiri, a slave brought to these shores by Vasco da Gama on his first voyage to the East in search of Christians and Spices.

Describing the book as ‘fascinating’, Tharoor said the novel was ‘compelling’ and worth reading. ‘It is a compelling reading and flashback of past, an extremely well researched novel’, he said. Venu Rajamony said writing in Malayalam was rich, but there were not many Keralites who wrote in English.

Maya, published by Gauli Books, is priced at Rs. 375.

Reason to Rhyme
Source: Deccan Herald

The popularity of ‘Muse India’, an e-journal devoted to Indian literature, is ample proof of this observation. With nearly 3000 members from 30 countries, Muse India publishes both creative and critical writing and offers a wide range of literary forms - poetry, short fiction, essays, conversations with writers and book reviews. The inclusive and free nature of the content makes it accessible to people of different literary tastes and sensibilities.

Launched in 2005 by a group of writers, Muse India showcases Indian writing in English and in translation. The first issue of Muse India carried a special feature of Kannada poetry. “Kannada is Kasturi, a native, natural perfume which lingers on…It has a rich oral tradition and roots in Indian classical literature,” wrote Dr Bhargavi Rao, Sahitya Akademi Awardee then.

The present bi-monthly issue of Muse India focuses again on Kannada literature.

Blogs and Articles

The tyranny of geography
Source: Business Standard

Indian publishers and editors are less happy when they discover that younger writers - fresh talent - have migrated from an Indian to a foreign publishing house. It’s not that editors don’t want their authors to do financially well and to have access to a larger readership. But many editors feel almost more deprived at the thought of losing out on the chance of seeing an author grow and change at the early stages of his or her career.

The assumption among many Indian publishing houses has been that we don’t yet have enough to offer authors: our print runs aren’t large enough, and until we can “grow” readers, we can only offer authors relatively small advances and royalties. Once we have a larger market to offer, we should also have more influence.

For more on this article, follow this link

A Head For Numbers Is Not Enough
Source: indiaedunews.net

Does the ‘market’ mean numbers or an individual’s capacity to buy beyond a price range? Does it refer to a mental block against books, which are often considered non-essential items? Has it something to do with money - under capitalization, lack of liquidity, and cost of shelf space - or are there other hidden factors as well? Any market research that gathers information about consumers’ needs and tastes first looks into the numbers that inhabit a defined territory for a certain product. It is much the same for the book world with one qualification: the market is divided into at least two clean divisions: the educational market that includes the professional market, and the general market which includes fiction, non-fiction, entertainment and so on. All these are further sub-divided into several other categories but the numbers for each are not precisely calibrated; publishers go more by a hunch and experience rather than by statistics.

For more on this article, visit here

Colonial Archive
Source: BusinessLine (The Hindu)

Tucked away on the bank of the Hooghly river at Serampore near Kolkata is the Carey Library, named after the illustrious Christian missionary Rev William Carey. Perhaps the oldest Indian library, it was a part of Serampore College. Carey Library still caresses about 16,000 rare volumes which are of special interest to historians, linguistics scholars and other branches of humanities abroad too.

Other Announcements

“Open Book Reviews”
Those interested may sign up for our review section where original reviews of books will be posted, details of which are available here. A database that lists all service providers is also open for those interested.

Associate Service Provider
CinnamonTeal Print & Publishing Services offers partnership opportunities through their Associate Service Provider (ASP) initiative. For details, visit this page.

Organizations and Publishing Houses willing to advertise for various positions related to publishing are invited to do so in this section.
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This newsletter is developed by Queenie Fernandes and Leonard Fernandes, founders of CinnamonTeal Print & Publishing Services with inputs from various individuals, publishing houses, websites and blogs.

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