The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XL
Dated: 8th June 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
Print media industry to register 14pc growth
Sources: Various
The print media industry recorded a growth of 16 per cent last year and stood at Rs 14,900 crore, according to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Rising literacy across the country has led to a possibility of more growth and expansion in future as well, said Minister for Information and Broadcasting (I&B) P R Dasmunsi.
He was addressing a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to the ministry on ‘Growth of Print Media in Liberalised Economy’ in New Delhi.
In a detailed presentation on the growth trend, the minister quoted a recent study of Indian media and entertainment scenario conducted jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and PriceWaterhouse Coopers.
In 2007, the magazine industry size was estimated at Rs 1,900 crore and registered a growth of 15 per cent over the previous year.
In the next five years, the newspaper publishing market is expected to reach Rs 24,300 crore, according to the study.
Books Go Desi
Source: Business World
India’s English publishers are tapping into a new market by bringing out books in vernacular languages
Indian publishing giants - which earlier flinched from anything that wasn’t written out in crystal-clear Roman type - are rapidly doing an about turn, to explore the regional language market. “Let’s face it, one out of three Indians read Hindi, and we’ve been ignoring them for so long,” says P.M. Sukumar, CEO, HarperCollins. “Things would be so different for us if we could reach out to this huge yet unexplored audience out there,” he ponders.
HarperCollins is not the only publisher venturing into the regional market - it is just the latest. Penguin, one of India’s biggest publishers, went vernacular three years ago, and have since printed nearly 130 titles in Hindi, Marathi and Urdu. “Vernacular publishing comprises almost 20 per cent of our annual domestic production,” says associate editor Naved Akber, chief of Penguin’s vernacular division. Rupa & Co. has also been at it for a while now. “It’s just that we don’t go around telling the world about it,” laughs Rupa boss Kapish Mehra.
New Book Releases and Events
Pratilipi launches its second issue
Pratilipi is an online, bilingual (Hindi/English), literary magazine - possibly India’s first. It is, for the time being, a completely non-commercial venture running on the editors’ investments and on the works of like-minded contributors. It aims to provide space for conversation and debate between diverse sorts of writing and writers.
Contributors to the second issue, released this month, include, Uday Prakash, Ann Jäderlund, Staffan Söderblom, Wagish Shukla, Badri Narayan, Rustam (Singh), Malayaj, Krishna Baldev Vaid, Sampurna Chattarji, Teji Grover, Sara Rai, Sangeeta Gundecha, Udayan Vajpeyi, Chandrahas Choudhury, Purushottam Agrawal, Mangalesh Dabral, K.V.K. Murthy, Sheen Kaaf Nizam, H.S. Shiva Prakash, Sameer Rawal, Vivek Narayanan, Annie Zaidi, Madan Meena.
The magazine can be accessed at http://www.pratilipi.in/
Editors: Giriraj Kiradoo and Rahul Soni
Art Editor: Shiv Kumar Gandhi
Entries invited for Abhidanantar
Abhidhanantar & Poetrywala, a reputed publishing house has published Path-breaking poetry in Marathi, English and translated works since the past one and half decade.
Abhidhanantar-a quarterly, is one of the most respected literary magazines in Marathi today. As a publishing house, Abhidhanantar has contributed immensely in giving Marathi a global presence by publishing significant contemporary poetry in Marathi. Its English imprint Poetrywala- has published books of poetry of established as well as fresh voices in English.
The editors have announced that Abhidhanantar & Poetrywala is launching Poetrywala, a half yearly literary journal dedicated to serious literature and arts in English. Poetrywala will provide the much-needed space for new creative and critical writing in Indian languages in the form of translations as well as original writings in English. They hope it will be highly instrumental in building bridges between existing cultures, regions, languages and nations. We would really appreciate your involvement in this endeavour.
The editors request you to send in your poems (in English), writings or essays along with your short bio-data for the first issue of Poetrywala. A consent letter from you to publish your work in Poetrywala would be mandatory.
* The subject of the first issue is -NEW WRITING IN INDIAN LANGAUGES.
You can reach us via e-mail: poetrywala@hotmail.com
Or by post or courier on the address:
Hemant Divate
Abhidhanantar & Poetrywala
1701/1702, 6A- The Whispering Palms,
Lokhandwala Township,
Kandivali(East), Mumbai-400101.
Tel-9821035103
Of BPOs and sleepless nights
Business Process Outsourcing: Oh! BPO—Structure and Chaos, Fun and Agony
by V Anandkumar and Subhasish Biswas
Response Books, 2008
ISBN: 978-81-7829-878-8
Starting as a nascent industry in the early 1990s, Business process outsourcing (BPO) in India is today poised as one of the fastest growing industries. The industry provides direct and indirect employment to over 2.5 million people from cities, towns and villages across the country.
This is the only book that provides an in-depth understanding of the world of BPO in India. As industry practitioners, V Anandkumar and Subhasish Biswas probe several issues which will set the industry thinking and solidify the foundation.
The book addresses four key issues:
- It dispels myths and presents a realistic picture of the BPO industry—it’s an ideal kit for everyone wanting to join the industry or for every guardian wanting to send their children for their first jobs in a BPO
- It highlights the positives of the industry—while sharing certain unique challenges
- It take a deep incisive look at the work culture in a BPO
- In Points to Ponder, it presents a balanced view on the hotly debated topics of the industry and sets the tone for the future of the industry
Blogs and Articles
Target India
Source: The Assam Tribune
In recent years a host of foreign publishers have opened offices in this country and ostensibly embarked on publishing schedules. One might assume that this is good news for aspiring Indian writers, but reality dictates otherwise. The mandate given to the Indian branches is extremely limited and so far not too many books by Indian authors have been taken up for publication, even less for international distribution. First print orders for publications rarely exceed 3,000 copies and little effort is made by the publishers to promote a writer and his book, the reason why so many India-based writers have not had the literary success of their counterparts based abroad. Thus, whether the new trend of having Indian set-ups by foreign publishers will benefit either India or lovers of books, is moot.
The entire editorial can be accessed here
Selling books like toothpastes
Source: Outlook Business
New Horizon Media has become Tamil Nadu’s biggest book publisher by selling books through paan shops, departmental shops, chemists
It’s what New Horizon’s co-founder Badri Seshadri calls the “FMCG way of selling books.” The company had to go the toothpaste distribution way when it became clear in 2007, at the end of its third year, that the thin spread of bookstores in the state wouldn’t drive growth. Today, it predominantly distributes Tamil books through over 2,000 points of sale, not including about 300 bookstores. “We were surprised by people’s response,” says co-founder K Satyanarayan. “We initially experimented with a few restaurants and shops. People just lapped it up.”
Can the Editor strike back?
Source: The Telegraph, Calcutta
There is a simple reason why marketing and accounts have taken over (over editing, as the more important departments within a publishing house): publishing is a business and like all businesses, it has its priorities — returns and margins of profit. The earlier notion that publishers should seek to improve public taste or disseminate knowledge at all levels has become antiquated. It is a far better idea for books to become a subdivision of the entertainment industry.
The entire article can be read here
Publishers worry as new technologies transform their industry
Source: The Economist
Although e-books may one day transform the industry, another new technology that is less visible to readers is already making itself felt. Print On Demand(POD) allows books to be printed and bound to order, is making millions of books available even if they appeal to only a narrow readership. Here, too, academia leads the way. Stephen DeForge of Ames On-Demand says his POD business, which specialises in printing small runs of customised books for schools and universities, has been growing by 45% a year since 2001. Last year his firm printed more than 800,000 books in runs as small as ten copies at a time.
The entire article can be accessed here
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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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