The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XLVIII
Dated: 10th Aug 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.
Culture Cauldron
Source: Times of India
If you are a bookworm, this one’s going to be music to your ears. Municipal Corporation of Delhi has moved a proposal to the state government and to Delhi Development Authority for construction of a Delhi Heritage Centre in Daryaganj, a four-tower, 12-storey building that will house a publishers’ mall — a perennial book fair of sorts — apart from city, police and judiciary museums and institutions of art-culture and education and three levels of parking.
The facade of the building — that is estimated to cost about Rs 150 crore —will be constructed by integrating the art and architectural elements of the Mughal and colonial periods and its components are being designed to make it a one-stop destination for tourists with an eye on the Commonwealth Games 2010.
As per the proposal, the centre would also house a training institute dedicated to various aspects of urban governance and planning.
The centre will also have the necessary public utilities like banks, courier, post office, cafe as well as air, road and rail reservation counters. There will also be a library on the heritage of India with a special section on Delhi’s urban heritage.
Works of Amartya Sen, Abdul Kalam to be translated into Arabic
Source: newkerala.com
Indian-Arab cultural ties are set to blossom when the Arabic translations of some select titles by eminent Indian authors are published here next year. According to Zikrur Rahman, director of the India Arab Cultural Centre (IACC), a total of 10 titles have been selected till now and approved by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Cultural Heritage (ADACH) for release at the annual Abu Dhabi Book Fair next year.
The books will include both fiction and non-fiction work. Some of the selected titles are The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen, The Idea of India by Sunil Khilnani, The Shade of Swords by M.J. Akbar and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Wings of Fire.
Now, Vernacular pulp fiction in English
Source: ndtv.com
Now one can enjoy reading the English translation of our own best-selling Indian pulp fiction from vernacular languages.
Popular Tamil pulp fiction has become available in English. For the first time a Tamil pulp novel and fifteen short stories by best selling authors have been translated into English targeting English fiction lovers around the globe.
Already the first edition has been a huge sell out. Now publishers want to translate popular pulp fiction in Hindi, Urdu and Malayalam as well.
“All translations till this have been on very serious writing. There was no fun writing. We are hoping to come out with a sequel and translating classics as well,” said Pritham Chakravarthy, translator, Blaft Publications.
Popular vernacular writers are excited.
“Actually there are excellent books in Tamil, much more than in English. And Tamil writers are much better than English writers. Only because of the language barrier they are not popular,” said Vidya Subramaniam, a Tamil novelist.
For the writers, it’s an opportunity to enthrall readers abroad.
Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize Shortlist
The shortlist for the inaugural 2008 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize has been announced
The judges, William Dalrymple, Kamila Shamsie and Samit Basu, will pick a winner from seven books that made it to the shortlist this year: In Search of a Future: The Story of Kashmir by David Devadas, Kari by Amruta Patil, A Reluctant Survivor by Sridala Swami, The Music Room by Namita Devidayal, White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif and Smoke and Mirrors, An Experience of China by Pallavi Aiyar.
The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize is the only Indian book prize that honours a first book. By awarding a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh, the prize aims to bring attention to deserving books of any genre by first-time authors. As a measure of the timeliness of this prize, there were more than two dozen entries this year, proof of the depth and quality of new writing in the country.
Postgraduate Diploma In Book Publishing (PGDBP) - Admission Notice
Unique of its kind, the PGDBP course is being run in collaboration with the Publishers & Booksellers Guild (Kolkata), which is one of the premier forums with the country’s leading and well-known publishers. The University-Guild partnership is a path-breaking step that helps widen scope of the graduates
The course covers all aspects and techniques of book publishing and aims to make you just the person the industry is looking for. It ensures creative engagement as a competent editor, pre-production and production in-charge, an innovative expert in book marketing and promotion. The course also enables you to take the challenge of starting your own publishing venture.
For more details visit this page
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.
Nissim Remembered
Source: Mumbai Mirror
Havovi Anklesaria has edited a volume called Nissim Ezekiel Remembered, with the assistance of Santan Rodrigues. The volume, published by the Sahitya Akademi, is an handsomely - produced book, with some lively and useful material: uncollected poems and prose pieces, memoirs by Ezekiel’s friends, plays, a short story, art and literary criticism.
Inevitably, some of the material has its origins in Adil Jussawalla’s archives. Adil always finds useful material for those who go to him for help. Some of the material was collected when he was clearing out the PEN office, and Nissim’s flat, a painstaking task.
Appropriately, the volume begins with a poem Adil wrote for Nissim for this volume.
A group called The Hyderabad Poems, found among Nissim’s papers, contains a particularly poignant section on death. “I like to be picked up and taken there./Must I go myself, now,/the most important journey of all,/if it is a journey, may be/nothing like that at all./Who wants to be wiped off/merely because it’s called Death.”
The Clay Sanskrit Library
The Clay Sanskrit Library has been created to introduce Classical Sanskrit literature to a wide international readership. This literature combines great beauty, enormous variety, and more than three thousand years of continuous history and development.
For many interested readers access to this vast treasure store has been hindered by an unfamiliar language and a difficult script. The new Clay Sanskrit Library makes everything easier: the Sanskrit text, written in familiar Roman letters, faces the English translation, and the convenient pocket size is both elegant and practical.
Forty-four leading scholars from ten countries are cooperating to produce fresh new translations that combine readability and accuracy. The first fifteen titles appeared in 2005, co-published by NYU Press and the JJC Foundation, followed by nine volumes in 2006 and eight volumes in 2007. They will be followed by three volumes in April 2008 and six more in August 2008. The selection will focus on drama, poetry and novels, together with the famous epics.
This new and expanded website brings you more information on the titles of our series, plus details on how to buy CSL books.
New launches by Star Publications
Star Publications are one of the largest distributors of Hindi books (under the name Hindi Book Centre) published from over 500 Hindi publishers of India. They claim to be the largest distributors and stockists of Hindi books on all subjects. They have also included books in Hindi, Panjabi, Gujarati, Bengali and Tamil, in their distribution section, and are, arguably, the only booksellers with books of major Indian languages under one roof.
From the 15th of September this year, Star Publications will launching a new large section for English books from India and abroad, at their show room at 4/5 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi 110002, for retail and whole sale distribution.
Additionally Star Publications will soon be introducing Audio Books in Indian languages.
Star will be launching its first set of 16 Audio books, consisting of novels of popular and favourite writers of Hindi, Urdu and Panjabi, each completed in 3-4 CDs. Authors of these books include eminent writers such as Sharat Chander, Premchand, Amrita Pritam,Gulshan nanda, Krishan Chander, Ismat Chughtai, Sahir Ludhianvi (his collection TALKHIAN), Himanshu Joshi and Rajvansh.
In this first set, are also included CDs that will enable listeners to Learn Hindi, Learn Urdu and Learn Panjabi
Bangalore in Books
Source: citizenmatters.in
While Bombay found many an obsequious reference in timeless books by its Vikram Chandras and Suketu Mehtas; William Dalrymple wrote home about Delhi in The City of Djinns; and numerous homegrown authors did as much for Kolkata, Bangalore drew a near blank in the English literary scene. Until now, of course. No longer the poor cousin, Namma Bengaluru is coming to seal its place on literary firmament with authors increasingly finding inspiration from Garden City. Thanks in part to the Indian Publishing industry opening up, leading to writers of diverse backgrounds.
Blogs and Articles
Blogs and articles commenting on trends and events in the book industry
Russia’s literary light who illuminated dark world of Soviet regime
Source: guardian.co.uk
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who has died aged 89, was a prolific novelist and memoirist, whose life’s work, in the best traditions of Russian literature, transcended the realm of pure letters. He was a moral and spiritual leader, whose books were noted as much for their ethical dimension as for their aesthetic qualities. Between 1968 and 1976, he was a towering figure in the twin worlds of literature and politics, expressing the pain of his long-suffering people and single-handedly challenging the autocratic government of one of the world’s two superpowers.
Read the whole obituary here
Kannada: Changing Concerns
Source: The Hindu (Literary Review)
From accommodating nationalist ideals to capturing the globalised experiences of today, the Kannada short story scans a broad spectrum.
Presently the writers of the post-modernist era seem to come to grips with complex realities. Writers like Vivek Shanbhag try to perceive experience in fragments. Though some other young writers — Ashok Hegde, Gopalakrishna Pai, Sridhara Balagar, Nagaraj Vastare — have attempted to capture the essence of present reality which is more global in nature (like the booming IT sector, disintegration of family, migration of rural folk to the cities, degradation of biosphere, new forms of alienation, devastating impact of the media, etc.) and devoid of the values the previous generations cherished, they are yet to exploit the resources of language and metaphor to give shape to this contemporary experience.
Hindi pulp art’s last man standing?
Source: Mint
At least two of the publishers that Shelle painted for - Manoj Publications and Shagun Pocket Books - have stopped printing novels. “The craze for the Hindi novel has come down,” says Vinay Gupta, the proprietor of Manoj Publications. “There are serials and films to watch on television, and people have started reading only what they absolutely need to.”
Shelle phrases it elegantly: “Man doesn’t read any more. He watches.” A couple of decades ago, one of Hindi pulp’s best-selling authors, Ved Prakash Sharma, would sell 300,000, even 400,000, copies of a single book. “Now only he sells around 60,000, at a price of Rs40 per book,” Shelle says.
Naturally, then, new blood - of authors as well as artists - is proving hard to come by. One of Shelle’s sons is an art teacher in a school in Faridabad near New Delhi, but he has not followed his father into pulp design. His other children are not even artists.
Read the whole article 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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