The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XLV
Dated: 13th July 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.
Narnia speaks Hindi now
Source: The Financial Express
For those who are worrying about the recession, here’s a whole new (well, almost) sector opening up. The just set up National Translation Mission requires 8,000 translators, 2,000 copy editors and 2,000 evaluators to man it, with Rs 99 crore from the union government financing the job.
Not many are aware, of course. Anything that’s not in English barely makes news. In a country of a billion plus people, only about 10 million Indians use English as their first language. Yet an estimated 40-45% of the (again estimated) Rs 7,500 crore Indian publishing industry’s sales come from English publishing. Unending colonial hangover?
Yes, India has more people who know English than in its land of origin. Though most Indians are more comfortable in their mother tongues, our toffee-nosed English publishing sector, the only one really publicised by the media, is just waking up to this fact. But as Kannan, publisher of the Chennai-based Kalachuvadu group that translates books into Tamil, points out: “Authors are keen to see their work in many languages even when it does not mean much revenue. The international trend is marginal writings and Indian English publishing must turn to Indian languages to trace these expressions.”
CEO of Harper PM Sukumar reminisces, “We grew up on English and Hindi translations of Russian works, so translation is important if we want to read the richest literatures in the world.” He agrees with Kannan: “This is the right time to get into bhasha publishing because people want to read good writing, be it original writings or good translations.” Harper has just launched into translations, with a Hindi imprint of the seven Chronicles of Narnia volumes. On the card are Hindi versions of Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello, Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing, and VS Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas. Harper is also translating English, Spanish, Portuguese and other languages into Hindi.
“While Indian language newspapers have been doing well, may be the Indian language books market has not been tapped in a proper manner,” says Naved Akber, Penguin Indian Languages section head. Penguin, India’s leading English publisher, which launched its language programme in 2005, is now doing translations from English into bhasha languages and vice versa. Languages like Malayalam and Bangla have high literary rates and hence large publishing markets, including the translation market. “The Malayalam book market has been performing well since 1960s,” points out Krishna Kumar of the State Institute of Languages, Kerala (SIL). Since SIL was established to encourage the production of higher level academic books in Malayalam in 1968, Kumar says all the major Malayalam publishers have come out with academic, literary or popular translations.
The whole article can be accessed here
Story cards help many climb the ladder of literacy
Source: Mint
In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh this summer, thousands of children are reading about Pahalwan Ji’s adventures. Folded onto a standard A4 sheet, these adventures proceed thus: Pahalwan Ji consumes 10kg of milk and 50 rotis daily. He lifts 100kg in weights, works out a lot and bullies children in his spare time. But one day, as he lifts yet another little boy to squeeze him, the boy tickles Pahalwan Ji, making him dance and writhe. Pahalwan Ji is humiliated, and he never bullies children again.
Pahalwan Ji exists, in line drawings and text, on one of the 40-odd “story cards” of Pratham Books, a Bangalore-based non-profit publishing house. As a part of Pratham’s Read India partnership with state governments, hundreds of thousands of these cards are making for a rather unique reading list in intensive summer reading camps.
“Most state governments are having problems with reading skills,” says Ashok Kamath, managing trustee of Pratham Books. “They’re able to teach kids to read, but they’re not able to ensure that they continue reading.” The Read India campaign was designed to solve that problem, and it has involved efforts such as incredibly inexpensive books and a network of around 5,000 libraries across the country. “These libraries aren’t big places. They’re often just a small cupboard, a trunk, or a plastic bag,” Kamath says. “But these kids can’t buy books; they’re too expensive. So this is the only way to give them books.”
The whole article can be read here
Asom Sahitya Sabha proposes varsity to study art and literature
Source: assamtimes.org
The Asom Sahitya Sabha has proposed to set up a full fledge varsity in the city to promote studies and research on art, literature and culture not only of the north eastern region but of the entire country.Addressing a press conference , Sabha president Kanak Sen Deka said the varsity would be set up at its huge 50 bigha plot beside the Express Highway. Deka said the university will accord top priority on the archaeological studies on the various ethnic groups in the north eastern region.
Deka also said that the proposed varsity will provide the scholars across the world with an opportunity to exchange their views on language, art and literature.
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.
Novel on Independence of Bangladesh
Source: The Assam Tribune
An English historical fiction penned on the background of freedom movement of Bangladesh by Dr Bharat Kalita, retired Professor of History, National Defence Academy (NDA), Pune was released on Friday by HN Das, former Chief Secretary of Assam.
A host of dignitaries, including Harekrishna Deka, Editor of Gariyoshi were present at the book release function held at Guwahati Press Club here.
The fiction titled A Mole in the Breast revolves round the role played by students and intellectuals for the final secession of East Pakistan from West Pakistan. The book also hits out at the custodians of the principle of human rights, policy matters of Pakistan, India, China and America.
Dr Kalita has authored several books in English and Assamese including the Military Activities in Medieval Assam 1200-1671, which is acclaimed for the portrayal of Assamese bravery, statesmanship and fighting skill.
Books on Post-Colonialism released
Source: The Hindu (Andhra Pradesh)
Acharya Nagarjuna University Vice-Chancellor Y. Haragopala Reddy on Friday unveiled two books authored by the Associate Professor of the Department of English, Acharya Nagarjuna University, P. Rajasekhar.
The titles were P.K. Rajan’s Memorial Volume - Post Colonial Literature: Discourses on Praxis and Pedagogies and Fiction of Wilson Harris: A Study in West Indian Discourse.
Kannur University Dean M. Dasan introduced the books to the gathering comprising of students, scholars and teachers of English from Guntur and Krishna districts. The professor of English later delivered a captivating talk on ‘Modern trends in Contemporary Research and New Literature and Writing,’.
During his address, Mr. Dasan touched upon issues confronting the ‘fourth world,’ – a term coined for ‘people who are being colonized even in post-colonial era,’ and the challenges being faced by aboriginal tribes in Australia and New Zealand and adivasis in India. He said that Mr. Rajasekhar, in his book Fiction of Wilson Harris- A study in West Indian Discourse, has made an effort to decipher the thought and style of Mr. Harris, a less celebrated Caribbean writer when compared to V.S. Naipaul, but one who could effectively present the typical culture of West Indies.
Indian Epistemology with its emphasis on cultured learning of Vedas is different from contemporary worlds, he added.
Book on Ambedkar launched in Pakistan
Source: andhranews.net
A large number of writers and literary personalities from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh attended a book launch ceremony in Lahore. Titled Founder of Secular Democratic India, the book is written on the life of Indian Constitution’s architect Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.
Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation organised the launch of the book written on the first Indian law minister.
PU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran was the chief guest, while Professor Ronki Ram and Lahori Ram Bali from India, guests from Nepal, Bangladesh, literary personalities of Lahore and the book’s author Yousaf Irfan also attended the ceremony, which was held at Avari Hotel.
Kamran said that Dr Ambedkar struggled hard to eliminate social injustice from India and thus served humanity. He said the real reason behind Pakistan’s establishment was the discriminatory attitude of the Hindus towards the Muslims and Dr Ambedkar’s constitution had saved India from further partition, reported the Daily Times.
Blogs and Articles
Blogs and articles commenting on trends and events in the book industry
Urdu and the City
Source: delhidays.wordpress.com
When spoken, a language is mainly practical. To transcend into art, it must be written, its words shaped into poems, stories, and plays. So can written Urdu, once the medium of Delhi’s literary artists, still be found in the city?
My favourite bookshop in Urdu Bazaar is Maktaba Jamia, a branch of Jamia Millia University’s book depot. This unassuming shop is devoted entirely to Urdu literature, and nowhere in Delhi are books cheaper and therefore so accessible. Since 1922, Maktaba Jamia has produced only low-cost, standard literary texts.
The shop also stocks some Urdu literature in Hindi script, the latest books from other Urdu publishers, and a variety of Urdu primers for those who understand the spoken language but have yet to learn the Persian script. And it has booklets in simple Urdu, like the one on poet Ali Sardar Jafri, which make excellent reading material for new Urdu literates.
While I sat browsing through the riches on the shelves, a number of people came asking for religious books and were directed up the road. The next bookshop may deal exclusively in Islamic texts, but the nearby Kutub Khana Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Urdu offers the best of both worlds—literature and religious works. Taking care of the shop is Nizamuddin, son of the man who founded it in 1939. Nizamuddin believes interest in Urdu literature is growing fast.
POD for University Presses
This from the Creative Commons blog:
ETC Press has just launched as an “academic, open source, multimedia, publishing imprint.” The project is affiliated with the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University and is in partnership with Lulu.com. When authors submit their work to ETC they retain ownership of it but they also must submit it under either an Attribution-NoDerivativeWorks-
NonCommercial or an Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike license. ETC press then posts the works to Lulu.com where they are available for purchase in its hardcopy form, or free download. While the project focuses specifically on writing about entertainment technology, it is easy to see ETC’s model scaling to publishers of other topics and genres.
This points to a range of possibilities for Indian universities too. Universities or departments within them can now publish their reports and journals on an “as-needed” basis without having to bother about upfront costs or unsold copies. The potential is enormous.
Publish your dream book yourself
Source: Daily News and Analysis
Even in this age of the Internet and six-figure advances, a slew of small publishers are attempt ing at carving their own niche. Frog Books in Mumbai has been able to successfully harness the Internet to sell a range of non-fiction books. When he started out five year ago, Sunil Poolani, Frog Books’ publisher, says the big names look only for marketable names when there is “actually quite a lot of talent that could be harnessed”.
And though he admits to doing vanity publishing, Poolani says he has been able to tap talent that may have never made it. A case in point is a book by John Mowat, a foreigner staying in India who wrote Strangers Ourselves-Paul Theroux’s Adventures.
“Today, I sell most of my non-fiction via the net through Amazon where I have my own account,” he says. There are also publishers like Zubaan who focus on niche novels written by women. By keeping overheads down and and cutting corners wherever possible, these small outfits are able to offset their expenses and sometimes earn a small profit. Preeti Gill, senior editor, Zubaan, says that for small publishers, it can help if a book they publish is a hit. In Zubaan’s case, the book written two years ago by Baby Halder and published by Zubaan, gave them a lot of mileage. According to Gill, having a niche can help because some publicity comes through word of mouth.
The whole article can be viewed here
Story of a Small Publisher
Source: seanjjordan.com
The idea of the mass market, however, is not the future of publishing. There will always be a place for mass market writing, of course… consumers are not very skilled at thinking for themselves, and unless they are familiar with the book industry and the literary sector, they rely on reference criteria such as bestseller lists to help them make decisions. But as we move away from the bestseller racks and move into an era where traditional publishing strategies just aren’t cost effective anymore, it’s going to take some savvy and forward-thinking publishers to grab ahold of the customers who are ready to navigate the waters of POD and eBooks… but who need new reference criteria to guide them through.
I’ll offer three suggestions as to how a publisher might do this:
1) Build stronger marketing relationships with end users. Ask most trade publishers who their customers are, and they’ll resort to market research findings to tell you. That’s because, generally speaking, they don’t know who reads their books; they just know sales figures and demographics. Smaller publishers are generally a little bit more in touch, because they can’t afford not to be. The companies who are most successful in the future are going to be the ones who know their customers, who listen to them, and who keep detailed information on as many of them as possible to guide direct sales.
2) Think up new ways to present old products. Audiobooks used to be cumbersome box sets of multiple CDs; now, more and more are being offered on small, self-contained digital devices. Flash memory is getting cheaper all the time. An enterprising publisher might try to offer “enhanced” books that are available on flash drives, allowing readers to take eBooks to any USB-capable computer and resume reading where they left off. The software on these drives could link up to a web-based account that stored preferences and other information. The upshot of this is that publishers would know EXACTLY how, when, and where their books were being read. This information could prove invaluable!
3) Focus less on retail and more on direct sales. This is a tough boat to rock, since publishers need retailers to get their books to the public. Some customers won’t buy online, and will always check for a book through their favorite retailer first. But publishers can take advantage of the web to offer their entire backlist, and they can also offer frontlist books at slightly higher prices than retail by selling signed (and perhaps even personalized!) copies. Direct sales are far more profitable than retail sales, and can lead to stronger relationships with customers, as well as provide basic demographic information that can be used for market research. It’s never a bad idea to know where your customers are coming from, or how they’re using your product (as a gift, personal copy, or textbook).
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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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