The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XXXVI
Dated: 11th May 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
New Horizon Media raises second round of investment
New Horizon Media (NHM), a Chennai based multi-language, multi-format book publisher announced that it has received a minority investment from Beacon India Private Equity Fund as part of its second round of funding. This round also saw investments from existing promoters as well as Emergic Venture Capital, which had invested earlier in NHM in 2006 in the first round.
New Horizon Media currently publishes general books across genres as well as audio books in Tamil, English and Malayalam and plans to expand its publishing programme to all the important Indian languages over time. With four Tamil imprints, New Horizon Media is now the leading Tamil publisher both in terms of number of new titles published as well as sales.
“Our rapid growth in Tamil publishing has been driven by innovative titles, high quality packaging and production, affordable pricing and effective distribution. The titles are a hit with readers. We intend to expand into various other Indian languages across the rest of India,” said Badri Seshadri, Managing Director.
This round of funding will help New Horizon Media put out more titles in Tamil, Malayalam and English, strengthen sales and distribution in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and grow its distribution network across India for its English titles.
Book fair notice issued
Source: The Telegraph, Calcutta
The Supreme Court has issued notices to the defence ministry and the Bengal government on an appeal against a bar on holding the Calcutta Book Fair at the Maidan.
The Publishers and Booksellers Guild — the organisers of the fair - had appealed against a Calcutta High Court order restraining it from using the Maidan grounds for the annual event.
India magazine industry thriving as big players moving in
Source: Reuters
Print publication advertising revenues in India generated 94 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) in 2007, or 48 percent of all of the country’s media advertising revenues, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said in a recent report. TV ads generated 41 percent.
With the economy having grown at an average rate of 8.75 percent in the last four years, middle class incomes have risen, boosting demand for niche magazines on health, leisure and finances.
Growing prosperity in rural areas is also encouraging demand for publications in India’s more than 20 official regional languages.
Revenue for newspapers and magazines in India, where reading at least one newspaper in the morning is sacrosanct, grew at an average rate of 15 percent in the last four years, higher than anywhere in the world
Contemporary Indian Literature In English And The Indian Market
The online project by the above name seeks answers to various questions that recent trends in Indian publishing have posed. What sorts of developments, for instance, have occurred in the environment within which books are circulated?
Bringing back to life
CinnamonTeal Print & Publishing Services is launching an initiative to bring back into print forgotten masterpieces of Indian literature. Interested individuals and publishers are invited to contact them for details. Books in all Indian languages can be considered after ensuring that all copyright issues are addressed properly.
The idea is to ensure that no classics go out of print. The books will be printed and published using the print-on-demand technology in order to allow for print runs of between one and 20 books at a time, thus avoiding the financial risks associated with traditional publishing’s requirement for large-volume print runs. The titles will printed with automatically generated cover designs and will be available mostly through online channels unless bookstores express a preference for stocking them.
As a proof of concept, two English classics have been made available for production. At the mercy of Tiberius and Beulah, both by Augusta Evans Wilson, can now be ordered by contacting CinnamonTeal.
Revenues generated from this venture will be shared equally between the concerned individual, or publishing house, and CinnamonTeal after the costs of production are covered.
New Book Releases & Events
The Montessori journey
Source: The Hindu
Montessori 100 Years
Kalakshetra Publications, 84, Kalakshetra Road, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai-600041.
For those familiar with the Montessori editions from Kalakshetra Publications this is a new and rather special book. Montessori 100 Years commemorates the years which have passed since Maria Montessori first discovered the developmental needs of childhood in 1907. This volume marks 100 years since the establishment of the Casa dei Bambini in Rome — the very first Montessori school. The book showcases a personal Montessori journey for Koviloor Swami .
Bound beautifully in blue cloth with a matching dust jacket, the book printed on glossy art paper will be appreciated by all Montessori memorabilia collectors. The old photos of Montessori history offer a rare glimpse into another time and another world. Maria Montessori arrived in Chennai in 1939 and stayed in India through the war.
Blogs and Articles
Not the best in the business
Source: The Telegraph, Calcutta
The frenzy in English-language publishing in India notwithstanding, Indian publishers still believe that books are commodities, which have to be bought and sold in the quickest time for the maximum profit. Nothing wrong with that because it is a worldwide trend.
But publishing is much more than that: it is about language, style, subject matter, design, timing and marketing. All this requires good editing, the kind that has been given the go-by in the frenzy to sell. But why has the editorial quality declined? Why are our best books first published abroad and then just reprinted here? There are two reasons. First,unlike print or visual media, book publishing doesn’t attract the best talent. What we get are the leftovers or teachers who are bored with the dull routine of academic life. Money, too, is a stumbling block. Publishing salaries and perks are a pittance compared to remunerations in the media.
The entire article can be read here.
Home is where the press is
Source: Business Standard
Small publishing houses are competing successfully with the multinationals.
As publishing houses go, Writers Workshop (WW) is something of a cottage enterprise. It’s a one-man set-up which functions out of the residence - the living room and bedroom specifically - of its 79-year-old founder and publisher, P Lal, bringing out works of original writing in English (with an emphasis on poetry) and “transcreations” of Indian texts.
WW is the quintessence of “alternative publishing”, a boutique enterprise which values books for their potential to enlighten and transform, not just entertain, that addresses niches ignored by the mainstream publishing behemoths who only have an eye on the bottom line.
Kali for Women, Katha, Stree-Samya - all of these were started with some version of this ideal, and have gone on to grow respectable lists over the years and become medium-to-big publishing houses in their own right.
Lately, a few more have joined these - Yoda Press (urban studies, sexuality and gender, contemporary art, cinema, et cetera), Three Essays Collective (readable scholarly essays on issues of contemporary importance), LeftWord (airing the left viewpoint in India and South Asia), Tulika (quality books for children), Navayana (caste and Dalit politics), Phantomville (graphic novels) and so on.
The whole article can be read here.
A fruitful dialogue
Source: The Hindu (Literary Review)
It is not just current writers that are appearing in English versions. Penguin India, Rupa, OUP and others are bringing out the translated versions of Sanskrit classics. And houses like Zubaan, Katha, New Horizon have carved out their own niches. Says A.N.D. Haksar, who has just translated Kshemendra’s Samaya Matrika as The Courtesan’s Keeper, and whose two translations of Sanskrit classics have gone into a reprint, “The demand for translations is growing. In present times, it is perhaps the best method of transmitting literature across the linguistic divide.” He feels “there is a renewed interest in India, in Indian things and Indian classics.” Incidentally, The Courtesan’s Keeper is the first English translation of the 1,000-year-old, little-known Sanskrit satirical novel by Kashmir’s well-known 11th Century writer.
The entire article can be read here.
A new wave of freedom
Source: Frontline
The new freedom movement , in software, knowledge, publishing and commerce, will change the way we think, do things and interact
Thus, for human beings, knowledge has a fundamental difference with software. This is because, unlike software, it may not be advisable for some forms of knowledge to be allowed to be modified by anyone. For example, an interview with a personality has to retain its form and content since it is a report of an actual conversation. It may become dangerous to allow anyone to modify it.
On the other hand, freedom could be given, for instance, to publish it elsewhere without any modification. Again, an artist may not wish anyone else to modify his or her painting, though it may not cause any problems. Thus, it is not sufficient to have a single licence for all forms of knowledge as we can do with in the case of software. Then what is the solution?
The solution was first offered by Creative Commons (CC) in December 2002. CC (http://www.creativecommons.org) was launched by Lawrence Lessig, Professor at Stanford Law School, and friends precisely to address this problem. “Creative Commons took its idea ‘give away free copyright licences’ from the Free Software Movement. But the problem we aimed to solve was somewhat different,” says Lessig.
Creative Commons offers several licences through which the creator can offer certain freedoms to the people - or, as CC puts it, Some Rights Reserved as opposed to All Rights Reserved under copyright. CC has four core licences, namely, Attribution (denoted as by), Noncommercial (nc), No Derivative Works (nd) and Share Alike (sa). These licences can be combined to produce new licences such as by-sa, by-nc-nd and so on that are more useful than the core licences (http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the -licenses).
Other Announcements
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 with inputs from various individuals, publishing houses, websites and blogs.
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