The Publisher’s Post Vol. I Ed.III

Dated: 22nd Sept. 2007

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

News This Week

Osian’s Literary Agency Announces Its First Sign-Ups
Since starting operations in May 2007, Osian’s Literary Agency has signed its first five writers, including renowned, award winning film-maker Saeed Mirza, IT giant and head of Mphasis Jerry Rao and three exciting newcomers - Omair Ahmed, Karan Bajaj and photographer Shalini Saran, who has written her first novel.

Worldwide Collective Bookshop Planned 
The Athens-based Floras Group, which owns Greek’s third biggest bookselling chain, has ambitious plans to create the world’s largest collective online bookstore, linking a network of wholesalers and booksellers in 60 countries around the world, with access to more than 30m titles.
Floras aims to have one exclusive partner per country and each will only supply books produced in their territory, unless agreed otherwise, “thus protecting local independence of all parties involved”. Source: Publishing News

Simon & Schuster Picks Up Sinha’s Novel
Simon & Schuster have taken the U.S. rights to Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People. Sinha’s second novel was the last of the six books on the Booker shortlist to pick up a U.S. publisher. The book is based on the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster and follows a young man who has walked on all fours since he was a child as a result of a chemical explosion in his slum. S&S will publish the book in spring 2008.

11 – 16 March 2008 - The 18th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 
The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is growing fast. In 2007, the fair broke all previous records, as 400,000 visitors and 406 publishers from 46 countries gathered to do business.

In 2008, Abu Dhabi promises to forge even stronger ties between the international and Arab publishing worlds as the first day of the fair will be exclusively reserved for trade visitors.

Second Tools of Change Conference Set
The second annual Tools of Change Publishing Conference, hosted by O’Reilly Media, has been set for February 11-13 in New York City. Over 500 publishers are expected to attend the 2008 event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel with a variety of industry professionals - agents, authors, consultants, production managers and others - signed up.

Could Harry Potter wish Book Piracy Away?
An article (whose full text I could not get free access to) reported that “thanks to a campaign organised by the UK Publishers Association, three pirated versions of the last Harry Potter book were prevented from reaching the streets of Mumbai and Bangalore”. The scourge of book piracy has been there for some time now and though there are laws that forbid it and excuses that condone it, it is indeed hurting the book industry.

Book Launches and Other Events

2008 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize
September 27 would have been the 27th birthday of writer and editor Shakti Bhatt. To celebrate the occasion, her friends will read from her work and remember her with poetry, short fiction, and music. The event will be held at 7pm at Charbagh, British Council. The Shakti Bhatt Foundation will also announce the inaugural 2008 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize that day.

For further information contact: jeet.thayil@gmail.com

A Prattler’s Tale: Bengal, Marxism, Governance
Samya Publications is doing the first reprint of Ashok Mitra’s A Prattler’s Tale: Bengal, Marxism, Governance on 24 September. The book was first published in January 2007. The hardback is priced at Rs 595/-.

Blogs

Advertisements In Books?
Think about this long and hard because the idea is gradually gaining acceptance, albeit grudging. The idea of advertisements in books. People are fine with advertisements in their personal email box so would they really fret too much if Captain Spencer sold KFC on page 225? Especially if that made books cheaper, even free? In his post, Booksellers Association blogger Martyn Daniels has this to say:

Generating Buzz
This one’s not a blog but I came across it through one. CyberbookBuzz is a service that will publicize your book on the web for a fee. I cannot see many publishers using such a service but I bet self-publishing authors would be interested. Besides, here is an opportunity for entrepreneurs. India could probably do with a service like this. With fees in Indian Rupees, please.

A Database of Publishers
In a forum discussion, T.V. Prafulla Chandra, Senior Editor, NISC Export Services Pvt. Ltd. has suggested that a national database of Indian publishers/booksellers in English and all other languages giving contact details (postal, email, web, etc.,),  name of the contact person, their areas of specialisation (discipline-wise, topic-wise, etc.), regions served, terms of supply be set up. Even the author publishers could be invited to become members of this database. I think it is a wonderful idea. In fact, we had started a list of independent publishers but couldn’t carry it on for lack of time. That’s one is listed here, so we could start a new one or expand the scope of this one to include all publishers.

How NOT to approach Publishers
This one is both funny and tragic.

Feedback
we participated in the Presidency College bookfair which took place on 12 and 13 Sept. There was hardly any sales for any publisher! The students had restricted it to the college inmates; students did come and see the books but said these could be had in the library (!) and few teachers came. When it rained (as it would during the Monsoon), the stalls were not really safe for books. No matter. It is true one wants students to see books, but it was not much of a success.
 
So you have to sift through what you see in the press (no doubt an ex-student wrote it!).
- Mandira Sen (Samya/Stree), by email

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This newsletter is developed by Queenie Fernandes and Leonard Fernandes, co-founders of Dogears Etc. and CinnamonTeal Print & Publishing Services with inputs from various individuals, publishing houses, websites and blogs.

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