The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XLIII
Dated: 29th 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
On what’s happened in the industry this last week. If there’s news you have heard of and think it would make for interesting reading, please share it with us.
At 90, Bapu’s press continues best-selling run
Source: indiainfo.com
The Navajivan Press, founded in Ahmedabad by Gandhiji in 1919, has so far published over 1.5 crore books and reference material relating to his life and philosophy - the number represents a record in the publishing world.
Of Navajivan’s literary offerings, which encompass the most distinguished works on Gandhian thought, The story of my experiments with truth has been the indubitable bestseller.
Till date 50 lakh copies of Gandhiji’s poignant autobiography have been sold by Navajivan. The book was written during the freedom struggle which Gandhiji was leading from his ashram at Sabarmati.
The Navajivan Prakashan Mandir, popularly known as Navajivan press, is one of the major pilgrimage centres for Gandhians from across the world.
The press was the site from which Gandhiji began publishing and editing magazines like Harijan Bandhu and Young India.
A senior manager of Navajivan said that the press would complete 100 years of operations in a decade from now. The first centenary of the press will be commemorated by setting up a museum featuring 600 titles, on various subjects, written by Gandhiji.
“The books will be exhibited at a sprawling 9,000 square metre hall,” the manager said. “A machine used for printing “Harijan Bandhu” and other titles will be exhibited along with similar artefacts at the proposed museum”.
Foreign publishers have always been eager to publish the eclectic range of books written by Gandhiji. So far books such as Pathway to God, All men are brothers, and Nature Cure have been literary hits in many European countries.
And foreign publishers, working with Navajivan’s franchise, have published the book’s versions in Spanish, German, Italian French, Swedish, and Hungarian.
The trust has now permitted Israel and Indonesian publishers to produce translations.
Workshop of translation
The Ayyappa Paniker Foundation, Trivandrum, Kerala,organised a workshop of translation at the DCBooks Conference Hall,Kottayam,Kerala on 12-13 June, 2008. The workshop was directed by Prof. P. P. Ravindran under the supervision of Prof. K. Satchidanandan, the President of the Foundation. Twenty Malayalam essays by Dr. Ayyappa Paniker related to fiction, poetry, drama and performing arts were translated into English in the workshop in which 16 young scholars from different parts of India took part. Prof P. K. Srinivasan, former Ambassador to UN and Vice-President of the Foundation addressed the valedictory gathering. On 12th evening, a symposium was held on the contributions of Ayyappa Paniker to education and literature. It was chaired by Prof. K. Satchidanandan who spoke comprehensively on Paniker’s contributions as poet, critic, translator and editor. Prof. P. P. Ravindran spoke of Paniker as a critic, Dr. V.C.Harris dwelt on Paniker’s engagement with Western literature, Dr, P. Udayakumar on Paniker’s essays,Sudha Gopalakrishnan on Paniker’s contribution to theatre, Prannakumar K.B. on Paniker’s impact on the young poets and Jose Panachipuram on Paniker as a teacher. Priyadas Mangalath, Scretary of the Foundation welcomed the select gathering. The translations are likely to be published soon by Orient Longman.
Controversies go hand-in-hand with Marathi literary meets
Source: The Navhind Times
Controversies and the annual Marathi literary conventions (sammelan) go hand in hand and the next year’s event has already set off a chain of protests against selection of the venue - San Francisco in the US.
In January this year it was the presence of the President, ms Pratibha Patil at the 81st Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, held in Sangli - the most prestigious event in the cultural calendar of Maharashtra - that had led to an unseemly controversy over a relegated position of writers due to the presidential protocol.
The Deputy Chief Minister, Mr R R Patil who hails from Sangli chose to sit in the audience to soothe the sentiments over “undue” interference from politicians at literary events.
Now, the venue of the February 2009 annual sammelan, announced earlier this week by the Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal, the apex literary body which organises the event, has generated a heated debate with a large section of writers, publishers and common readers, who have come out in the open to oppose the Mahamandal’s decision approved by a majority of representative affiliated regional units.
Those who oppose the venue say that it would by practically impossible for the common reader to cross the shores to attend the eagerly awaited literary and cultural celebrations.
Tripura minister conferred literary award
Source: webindia123.com
Tripura Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Anil Sarkar was conferred a literary award Sunday for his outstanding contribution to the state’s literature and culture.
The 70-year-old politician, who is also a writer and poet, received the “Bhasa Sahitya Sanman 2008″ award at a function here. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar gave away the award consisting of Rs.15,000, a citation and a memento. The award function was attended by writers and poets from Bangladesh and other northeastern states.
“Anil Sarkar is a pioneer in spearheading the literary and cultural movement not only in Tripura but also in the northeast,” said Kalyanbrata Chakraborty, president of Bhasa Trust, a literary publication house.
Sarkar is the recipient of a number of awards from West Bengal and northeastern states, besides the B.R. Ambedkar national award for his literary contributions. Sarkar has over 60 novels, poetry collections and story books to his credit.
Chinese Copyright Authorities Move to Stop Pirated Textbooks
Source: Lynn Andriani — Publishers Weekly
In what can be seen as a shot in the arm for anti-piracy activism in China, the Zhejiang Provincial Copyright Bureau is cracking down on the reproduction and sale of pirated books in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, an encouraging sign for Western publishers who have long complained about Chinese book piracy. Working with author representatives and national authorities in China, the Bureau raided warehouses belonging to a textbook center affiliated with the prestigious Zhejiang University, seizing nearly 500 suspected infringing titles. University officials reportedly cooperated in the inspection and enforcement action.
The books, many of which are published by members of the Association of American Publishers and the Publishers Association of the U.K., were primarily professional, medical, scientific and technical titles and all were aimed at a university readership.
AAP international director Patricia Judd was pleased with the Bureau’s action. “This was the first time the PA and AAP have complained to the Zhejiang Bureau, and their willingness to act in a timely manner and to work with our representatives to raid this establishment is definitely a positive step in the countrywide battle against on-campus textbook piracy.”
Judd said that this raid was one of about a dozen in the past two or three years. She said Chinese authorities have not disclosed a list of publishers whose works were pirated this time. However, Judd said the publishers that are typically represented in these cases include Pearson Education, John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, Elsevier, and a number of university presses, including Cambridge, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and the University of Chicago.
Holland entrepreneur’s innovative software drawing the publishing industry’s interest
Source: rapidgrowthmedia.com
When Creative Byline, a revolutionary web-based application that streamlines the process publishing houses go through to select new manuscripts to publish, went live last December the company had one publishing house on board.
To-date, eight major book publishers, including TOR, St. Martin’s Press, and Dutton Children’s Books, are using the system, and four more—Skirt Publications, Lyons Press, Outdoor Life and Globe Pequot—each a division of Globe Pequot Press, signed on last week.
The web site allows authors to upload manuscripts or samples for a small fee, have the manuscripts read, and then, if the manuscript is ready for an editor, to have a response from that editor in three weeks. Using traditional means of submissions, authors often wait months, sometimes over a year, to get a response, and they aren’t able to “shop” the book to other publishers in the meantime.
“Our statistics show that right now 88 percent of all authors’ submissions to editors get a response within three weeks,” says Brad MacLean, creator of the software. “We’ve had 300 submissions of book-length manuscripts, and have a couple that could be close to being accepted by a publisher, but we don’t have our first match yet.”
MacLean adds that the site has over 50 editors participating so far, and the list keeps growing.
As the field of publishing houses grows, so does the need for competent staff and MacLean has fulfilled that need by expanding the company’s contractor base by seven, including two salespersons based in New York who call on publishers.
New Book Releases and Events
This section reports on new book and journal releases, besides other announcements. Authors and publishers are requested to take advantage of this section and ensure that their new releases are reported here. All it takes is an email to newsletters at dogearsetc dot com.
Clearing the air
Demolishing Myths Or Mosques And Temples? - Readings on History and Temple Desecration in Medieval India
Edited with an Introduction by Sunil Kumar
Three Essays Collective
ISBN 81-88789-27-5 (Hardcover)
ISBN 81-88789-59-3 (Paperback)
History, it is said, cannot be studied without reflecting on the practice of historians who narrate it. The articles in this volume introduce readers to the writings of four scholars who study the subject of temple desecration in interesting and different ways. They focus on the ways in which historians study the political culture, events, historical narratives, material remains and aesthetic norms of a time very distant from us. Through their focus on the theme of temple desecration, a subject of considerable import in political rhetoric today, these essays also underline how easily history can be subverted to serve narrow, cynical ends. At a time when history has become so important in the making of the nation’s identity, the articles in this book invite the readers to pause and reflect on the craft of history, the exciting and engaging conclusions to which it can lead and the worrying ends to which it can also be nudged.
Sunil Kumar is professor of medieval history in the Department of History, Delhi University. His previous publications include The Present in Delhi’s Pasts and The Emergence of the Delhi Sultanate. He has also participated in the current revision of the NCERT history textbooks and is the managing editor of the Indian Economic and Social History Review.
For more details email threeessays@gmail.com
Madras Revisited
Madras - Tracing the Growth of the City Since 1639
by K R A Narasiah
Oxygen Books
The history of Madras - renamed Chennai in 1996 - is linked with the destiny of the country; finding the populace to be willing subjects, the East India Company’s trading venture soon became a mission to rule. The book answers many questions: Was every Englishman honest and just? Why is there no record of prominent Indians of the era? Where have the Armenians and Jews, once the backbone of the city’s commerce, gone?
The author brings to light several forgotten gems of history and recounts with pride the antecedents of several Madras institutions such as the Corporation of Madras, the film industry, and the trail-blazing newspapers and magazines of the time.
Born in Orissa, K R A Narasiah had his early education in Tamil Nadu. He joined the Indian Navy in 1949, qualified as a marine engineer sailed with the Navy for ten years. He has authored more than 100 short stories in Tamil. They have been published in three volumes, of which two of them have won State Government and other awards. His book on sea trade, and the history of Madras in Tami, have both won Tamil Nadu state awards. He is a member of the Madras Book Club.
For more details email translatingindia@gmail.com.
The Story of Dance
Dance, the English translation of M Mukundan’s award-winning Malayalam novel Nruttam, was launched on the 26th of June, followed by a book reading and signing session. The book is published by Katha.
The book follows the journey of Agni, a dancer from a small village in Kerala. As his dancing career takes off, Agni meets a man who will change his life forever. As their relationship grows, Agni is compelled to confront himself in his many dimensions. The story is in a truly post modern style, with impersonal messages across the internet powerfully conveying both the dancer’s elation and anguish.
M Mukundan is one of the pioneers of modernity in Malayalam literature. He was born on 10 September 1942 at Mayyazhi in Mahe, a former French territory in Kerala. He is the current President of Kerala Sahitya Akademi
The French government conferred on him the title of ‘Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres’ in 1998 for his contribution to literature.
A Journey through Sindh
Sindh: Past Glory, Present Nostalgia
edited by Pratapaditya Pal
Marg Publications
ISBN: 978-81-85026-88-6
Three major events have contributed to the shaping of Sindh’s history, politics, and culture: the Muslim conquest in 711, the British conquest in 1843, and the Partition of India in 1947. The last has been the most dramatic and far-reaching, altering the demography of the region when the Hindus moved out and Muslim refugees from other parts of India moved in.
This is the first lavishly illustrated book to look at the heritage of Sindh, with chapters by scholars from both India and Pakistan.
Pratapaditya Pal is the General Editor of Marg Publications. He has been associated as curator with leading American museums with Indian collections and has taught in several universities. Recognized as an authority on the arts and cultures of the subcontinent, Himalayas and South East Asia, he is a prolific author of over 60 publications.
For more details email margpub@tata.com
At the beginning of the middle path
Source: Hindustan Times
Lives of Early Buddhist Monks
by Saroj Kumar Chaudhuri
Abha Prakashan
While the earliest impressions of India in China were based on accounts of traders and diplomats, it is the more vivid, first-hand records of Chinese Buddhist monks who came to the Indian subcontinent that are best known. Among other things, this is because of the impact that these sources have had on the archaeology and historical geography of India. Saroj Kumar Chaudhuri’s book, though, is not about such travellers. It is a compendium of the biographies of Buddhist masters that are contained in Chinese historical works. Considering that so many of these were Indian monks, he provides a window into the Chinese reception of Indians and China’s perceptions of India that go be yond the better known travel literature of pious pilgrims like Hsuan Tsang and Fa Xian.
Blogs and Articles
Blogs and articles commenting on trends and events in the book industry
So where’s the reading tonight
Source: Hindustan Times
It has been raining book readings. At cafes around the corner, swish lounge bars and resto pubs. At fancy lifestyle stores, theatres, audio-visual rooms, museums and library gardens. At bookshops nestled amid glitzy multiplexes. Some soirees are cheese-and-wine evenings amid elegant chaise lounges with celebrity readers. Others are no-nonsense the-book-is-the-thing dos.
Though opinion seems to be divided about the book events, Jerry Pinto, author of Surviving Women and Helen: The Life and Times of an H-bomb, believes, “Once you’ve got a big advance cheque or the Booker prize, like say Kiran Desai, you get the draw.. you don’t need readers. It’s only for first time novelists that the whole song and dance of the book reading becomes important.
“Getting a celebrity reader (read Bollywood star) is about getting the television cameras and news photographers there. It doesn’t really do much for the book, but once the Bollywood star is there — it means coverage,” says Pinto.
Hemu Ramaiah contends that an evening of ‘theatrics’ around the book release is important. “All writers are not good readers. Some are just shy, and would prefer others to do the reading. For example, V S Naipaul doesn’t like to read, and would rather have someone else fill in.
Usually theatre personalities make for good readers — they have great modulation and diction. In fact, when we launched Sudha Murthy’s Dollar Bahu in Chennai, a local theatre group put together a performance, enacting excerpts from the book — it really worked well.”
According to Ramaiah, “Using film stars is debatable. It depends on how good their diction is. It can never bring in sales if the book doesn’t work in the first place. In any case any book reading does mean loss of business for the store — since a section of the store is cordoned off.
“Book readings are never about money - they are about presenting the writer to the reader.” Hemali Sodhi, General Manager, Marketing, Penguin India agrees. “We have never asked a Bollywood celebrity to read from a book just because they are famous. Sometimes, celebrities from theatre can make the reading really interesting by the added nuances they bring to it.
Open to books
Source: The Hindu
The fun way to get kids to read
Even before a child enters school, reading aloud can be a pleasure shared by both parent and child. When parents read to young children, especially during the first three years of life, they lay the base for a lifelong interest in learning. Reading can be most enriching when it’s not imposed as a duty, but enjoyed for fun. While reading, the parent and child can have a great time adding their own jokes, or acting out the different characters in a story by modulating their voices.
Attractive picture books are a visual treat for the child who cannot yet read. The parent and child can find many new things to discuss in the story and illustrations of a favourite book each time they read it together, setting the base for future creative thinking. Reading while children cuddle up to a loving parent also nurtures them emotionally. Parents who are booklovers themselves, must encourage extra-curricular reading in children of all ages. External reading fills up knowledge gaps left by the school syllabus and nurtures curiosity and independent thinking. The child can also learn to appreciate moral values like courage, honesty, and loyalty in an interesting way through the stories they read.
Pages from a long literary life
Source: citizenmatters.in
Sudha Narasimhachar, an ex-banker and freelance writer, writes about her meeting with translator, novelist and poet, Ramadevi
she started her writing career very late, though she contributed articles to magazines like Karmaveera, Bharati, Jeevana, Jaya Karnataka and Kannada Nudi, occasionally during her college days. Some of these were translations of Hindi articles. She could not pursue her passion seriously until after retirement, except for a few translation projects that she took up.
In 1980, Geetha Book House published her Kannada translation of the Hindi novel Nayika of the famed Bengali writer Bimal Mitra. Another translation of Russian short stories for children which was published by IBH won her the Sahitya Academy Award in 1983. Ramadevi was also felicitated as ‘Makkala Bhavishyada Roovari’ at the Karnataka Makkala Sahitya Academy Sammelan held in Dharwar in 1985. All this encouraged her to take up writing seriously. She started penning poems and joined the International Poets’ Organisation headed by the famed Chaturbhasha poet Muddanna. Ramadevi published her first collection of poems Hombelaku through Gorur Prathishtana in 2001.
Ramadevi has worked with literary organizations like the National book Trust and Central Sahitya Academy, and has written extensively for prominent publications like Prajavani, Janapada, Kasturi, Mallara and Karmaveera. Her Kannada poems and couplets have been published in various anthologies. She is also a very active member of Poets International, an association of international English poets. Her English poems have been published in their annual anthologies and in Biz Buzz and Samvedana publications too.
Why publishers should blog
Source: booksquare.com
Just as authors need to better market themselves and their books, so do publishers. While the audience for a publisher website is diverse - authors, booksellers, journalists, agents, readers, and more - talking about books on your website the same way you talk about books in your catalog simply isn’t cutting it. In printed material, you have various constraints. On the web, you have the ability to do something special: tell the world what excites you, the publisher, about a particular book.
The entire article can be read 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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