The Publisher\'s Post

The Publisher’s Post: Vol. I Ed. XLIX

Leonard Fernandes — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:21:15 +0000

Dated: 17th 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.

“Twenty20 of Storytelling”
Source: Daliy News and Analysis (DNA)
The global community blogging platform LiveJournal has made its India entry with the launch of a flash-fiction writing contest, which is being called the Twenty20 of story-telling. Organised along with Caferati, an Indian online literary community, Quick Tales - the LiveJournal flash-fiction contest - is open for participation from Aug 11 to Sep 7, to anyone with a mailing address in India.

“Flash-fiction is an ancient form, but has grown hugely in popularity in these attention-deficit times, with the growth of the Internet. If standard short fiction is like a one-day international, think of the Quick Tales Contest as the Twenty20 of contemporary story-telling,” said Peter Griffin, co-founder and joint-editor of Caferati.

The word ‘journal’ is the theme of the contest and the top entry will get Rs.20,000. There are prizes for positions two to five as well. Each of the 100 short-listed entries will also be highlighted on the India writing community (http://community.livejournal.com/india_writing/) on LiveJournal, where the contest is hosted.

Short-listed stories may also be featured in a book that LiveJournal plans to publish at a later date, its statement released here said. This contest has been conceived to support web users in India with a passion for creative writing. This writing contest will be the first opportunity for Indian web users to engage with a LiveJournal project specifically designed for India.

Frankfurt Book Fair entrance tickets at the German Book Office, New Delhi
German Book Office, New Delhi links the professional interests of the international book industry in our partner countries and the German book market. It also provides the option of purchasing your entrance tickets for the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Timings: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (except holidays and weekends)
Contact Details:
ARINDITA GOGOI¦Administrative Project Coordinator
GERMAN BOOK OFFICE NEW DELHI
No. 3 Rajdoot Marg ¦ Chanakyapuri
New Delhi ¦ India
t +91 11 241 074 03/04 Extn. 202
f +91 11 241 074 05

Amazon acquires AbeBooks
Source: Book Business Magazine
Amazon.com has reached an agreement to acquire AbeBooks, an online marketplace for used, rare and out-of-print books. The Victoria, British Columbia-based AbeBooks will continue to function as a stand-alone operation and maintain its Web sites.

“As a leader in rare and hard-to-find books, AbeBooks brings added breadth and expanded selection to our customers worldwide,” says Russell Grandinetti, vice president of books for Amazon.com. “AbeBooks provides a wide range of services to both sellers and customers, and we look forward to working with them to further grow their business. We’re excited to present all of our customers with the widest selection of books available any place on Earth.”

“This deal brings together booksellers and book lovers from around the world, and offers both types of customers a great experience,” says AbeBooks CEO Hannes Blum. “We are very excited to be joining the Amazon family.”

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close before the end of the fourth quarter of 2008.

New Book Releases and Events
This section reports on new book and journal releases, new imprints and other similar events.

New Imprint, CinnamonTeal Classics, launched
If searching for a copy of P.B. Shelley’s “Adonais” or Jules Verne’s “All Around the Moon” frustrates you, despair not. CinnamonTeal Print and Publishing Services have launched a new imprint, CinnamonTeal Classics, that will bring back to print various classics on a print-on-demand basis.

These books will be printed only on request and can be personalized as a gift or a keepsake. The current catalog of books available for reprint runs into about a thousand titles. There will be five cover designs to choose from and each book can be ordered simply by sending an email to the address provided. The books will be delivered to your doorstep, gift wrapped if you so choose. For further details do visit http://www.cinnamonteal.in/classics.html

CinnamonTeal is also looking for persons and institutions to partner with to extend this service for books in Indian languages.

CinnamonTeal, headquartered in Margao, Goa, provides editorial and publishing services for individuals and institutions. Its publications include novels, books of poetry, customized textbooks, print versions of online magazines, memoirs, non-fiction books and various customized texts. It is also in the process of introducing a web-based service that will make “do-it-yourself publishing” a breeze.

For more details email contactus@cinnamonteal.in

Crossing Literary Boundaries
Source: The Hindu (Kerala)
Kerala has been projected just as a tourist spot abroad. Its rich cultural heritage and literature have not received proper introduction outside the country, Raj de Condappa, managing director of a French publishing house involved in translation of books from Indian languages, has said.

“There are many readers in France and Belgium who want to know about Indian traditions, rituals and literature. But paucity of skilled translators often becomes an obstacle for this cultural interaction,” said Mr. Condappa, speaking on the release of the French translation of K.P. Ramanunni’s novel “What the Sufi Said”. The French title of the book is “Tharavad ce que de sait le Soufi”. Luc Roger, a Belgian philologist, translated it to French from English. “We were fascinated by the detailed account of Kerala’s mythological and cultural background in Ramanunni’s book,” said Mr. Condappa. The story of “What the Sufi Said” revolves around the inter-religious marriage between a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl.

The shared space between Hindus and Muslims in India has been discussed even in academic forums in Western countries. “What the Sufi Said” is the fourth Malayalam book translated into French by Mr. Condappa’s publishing firm. “My Story” by Kamala Das was the first book.

“Through ‘My Story’ we wanted to introduce a woman revolutionary writer, who fought for women’s rights, to the French readers.Thakazhi’s “Chemmeen” and Chakorel Radhakrishnan’s “The Patches of the Shadow” were the other Malayalam books translated by the publishers.

New Books from Wiley India
Get Your Frog Out Of The Well: Private Lessons For The Global Economy
By Chuck Boyer
ISBN : 978-81-265-1671-1
A new book by Wiley India provides candid and often humorous advice for recent graduates to senior managers on how to survive and thrive in the New Economy-from dealing with Americans to mastering the art of finding your own voice and making it heard.
The author combines entertaining stories from his own experience with words of hard-earned wisdom from exclusive interviews with a star-studded list of business leaders - Subroto Bagchi, co-founder of MindTree Consulting, Dr. Sridhar Mitta of e4e, Ajay Kela of Symphony Services and others - who talk candidly about what works today and what doesn’t.

Cadbury’s Purple Reign: The Story behind Chocolate’s Best-Loved Brand
By John Bradley
ISBN: 978-0-470-72524-5
The story of how Cadbury came to be the world’s pre-eminent chocolate brand and its definitive history are to be told for the first time in the new book by John Bradley, Cadbury’s Purple Reign. This is a no holds barred account of the rollercoaster ride the organization has experienced, and how it ultimately led to its success.

New Launches from Sri Lanka
Centre for Policy Alternatives, supported by the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies, has announced the launch of the Sinhala and Tamil Language publications: Power Sharing, The Federal Idea and Sri Lanka and Local Governance in Sri Lanka: Past and Present

“Power Sharing, The Federal Idea and Sri Lanka” will be introduced by Professor Jayantha Seneviratne, Senior Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Kelaniya while “Local Governance in Sri Lanka: Past and Present” will be introduced by Professor Navaratna Bandara, Head of the Political Science Department, University of Peradeniya

The event will be held on Tuesday the 19th of August, from 2.00 p.m to 5.00 p.m at the National Library Auditorium, Colombo

Other Mentionable Book Releases
Good Times for Everyone: Sexuality Questions, Feminist Answers
by Radhika Chandiramani
ISBN: 81-88965-48-0
This anthology is an absolutely invaluable compilation of questions and answers on the most commonly experienced sexuality-related concerns. Based on the author’s highly popular column, ‘Midlife Crisis’ in The Asian Age, it covers all ages, all situations and conditions, and believes firmly that everyone has a right to self-affirming and enjoyable sexuality. It is a resource for people who are looking for information, but don’t know where to start, for those who are confused about what they already know, those who are about to begin their sexual lives, those who might be bored with theirs, those wanting to know how to have safer sex, and those simply wanting to know more.

Radhika Chandiramani is a clinical psychologist, and works and writes on issues of sexuality, sexual and reproductive health and rights.

For more details contact:
Women Unlimited
(an associate of Kali for Women)
K-36, Hauz Khas Enclave,
Ground Floor,
New Delhi- 110 016
Tel: 91-11-26964947/26524129

The Classic Popular: Amar Chitra Katha, 1967-2007
by Nandini Chandra

ISBN: 81-903634-3-3

For all those who grew up in seventies and eighties middle-class India, Amar Chitra Katha, or ACK as it was popularly referred to among friends, was an important influence if not an iconic cultural artefact. Published at a time when ACK appears to be on the verge of a second lease of life, this compelling new book draws our attention to the stimulating and troubling potentials of Amar Chitra Katha as a force in modern Indian history. Based on a reading of visual practices and the complicated art history informing the comics, the book delves into core issues of communalism, history writing and the ways in which middle-class India negotiates the consumption of products of popular culture to suit its ideological moorings.

For more details contact:
Yoda Press
35 A/1 Shahpur Jat
Third floor
New Delhi 110049
India
Tel.: 91-11-26495016

Indian writers tell AIDS stories
Source: BBC Online
Some of India’s best-known writers have come together in a unique anthology of writing which tells the human stories behind HIV/Aids in the country.

India has one of the largest numbers of HIV-positive people in the world and they suffer serious social stigma.

Aids Sutra: Untold Stories from India has been published in collaboration with Avahan, the India Aids initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a leading HIV prevention project. Roughly $2 from the proceeds of each book sold will go to support children affected by HIV/Aids in cities which have a high prevalence of the disease.

For the project, 16 writers travelled across the country to talk to housewives, vigilantes, homosexuals, drug addicts, policemen and sex workers - and served up engaging essays on the disease and its fallout in India. They include Booker Prize-winners Sir Salman Rushdie and Kiran Desai; Vikram Seth, the celebrated author of A Suitable Boy; and internationally-acclaimed writer and historian William Dalrymple. Other contributors include novelist Amit Chaudhuri, leading Bengali writer Sunil Gangopadhyay, historian-writer Mukul Kesavan and popular novelist Shobhaa De.

Chennai launch of Vikram Sampath’s Splendours of Royal Mysore
Source: indiaprwire.com
One of the most definitive accounts of the Wodeyar Dynasty, Vikrams’s book ‘Splendours of Royal Mysore The Untold Story of the Wodeyars’ sketches the long and fascinating regime of the Maharajas of Mysore replete with wars, palace intrigues, romance, valour and deceit.

The book revisits the ups and downs of the dynasty over 600 years starting from the genesis in AD 1399 to the age of glory under Raja Wodeyar, Ranadhira Kanthirava Narasaraja Wodeyar and Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar down to the times of spineless monarchs who let the reigns of the kingdom slip into the hands of powerful ministers.

The Chennai launch of the book took place in a colourful function organized by BITS Pilani Alumni Association (BITSAA) Chennai Chapter on Friday May 30, 2008 in the Skills Theatre, Besant Nagar Chennai. Dr Smt Vyjayanthimala Bali who needs no introduction, historian Shri S Muthiah, Professor Emeritus and advisor to BITS Pilani Dr S Venkateswaran were the chief guests for the book launch function which started off with an invocation rendered by young and upcoming carnatic vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan.

Reading of passages from the book was done by theatre personality Mr T M Karthik and TV personality Ms Anu Ananth. The launch function included the screening of the documentary film on the history and ethos of the princely state. The function ended with a flute concert by Kalaimamani Smt Sikkil Mala Chandrasekar daughter of the famed Sikkil sisters.

The eMedha Paradigm
Source: Business Wire India
Rakesh Misra, an IT professional with over 16 years of experience in software consulting, program & project management and entrepreneurial ventures has stepped beyond his realm and launched his debut novel The eMedha Paradigm into the Indian market. The book published by Srishti Publishers is available in book stores across the country.

The eMedha Paradigm is a full-fledged novel with its storyline coming from IT world intertwined with incidents that examine the tumultuous nature of corporate relationships. It is a tri-cyclic story of a woman stuck between the wheels of a cyber odyssey who is helped by none other than almighty God and his Secretary-of-Earthly-Affairs, who get to play supporting characters. The novel threads together the ephemeral nature of problems in software project management as it has an underlying reference to eMedha philosophy which is a realistic paradigm for these problems.

Blogs and Articles
Comments and posts on trends and events in the book industry.

Commercialization of Bengali Literature: Mercenary Writers and Publishers
Source: The Daily Star

On top of these hard times for Bengali literature, the ghost of commercialization has befallen it as a trouble on a trouble. Prompted by mercantile interests, some authors and publishers are jointly doing a roaring business in ‘literature’ and ‘fiction’. Books with high demand and high supply have a greater market value and are considered as valuable books. They and their authors are deemed to be popular. Authors whose books sell well are in great demand. The larger the sales figures, the more well-known the author. The occasional book fairs turn into seller’s market for books by those ‘big’ writers. The publishers are investing heavily in this ‘literary’ merchandising. They kneel in supplication to those popular authors by giving them colossal advances against royalties. The book is advertised as a ‘marvelous’ read.

The entire article can be read here.

Reading Difficulties
Source: Hindustan Times

It costs Rs 900-1,200 for a meal for two at a restaurant in Mumbai. You could get the new Ghosh and the new book of stories by Jhumpa Lahiri (award-winning, finely calibrated, exquisite tales of belonging and loss) for Rs 1,049. It costs Rs 125-150 for a coffee and a sandwich at one of the coffee chains. A Penguin Popular Classic - the cheaper version of the Penguin Modern Classic - s available for Rs 95. Oh, and my Orwell Centenary Edition of Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays costs Rs 367. That’s less than what I would spend for a few drinks at a Mumbai bar. So it’s not the money. And it’s certainly not that we don’t have the time.
It’s just that we’d rather not buy books. Most of us choose not to.

Read the full editorial 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.

News Submissions:
If you have news to report, please contact us by email at at newsletters[at]dogearsetc[dot]com with the word “SUBMISSION” in the subject line. News that includes book launches, book signings, launch of new imprints and publishing houses, book fairs, new entrants among publishers, writer and publisher blogs, comments, opinions, relevant job postings, the works. The newsletter is sent every weekend so submissions are requested by Thursday.

Unsubscribe:
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Subscribe:
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The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XLVIII

Leonard Fernandes — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:47:24 +0000

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
=======================================================
This newsletter is developed by Queenie Fernandes and Leonard Fernandes with inputs from various individuals, publishing houses, websites and blogs.

News Submissions:
If you have news to report, please contact us by email at at newsletters[at]dogearsetc[dot]com with the word “SUBMISSION” in the subject line. News that includes book launches, book signings, launch of new imprints and publishing houses, book fairs, new entrants among publishers, writer and publisher blogs, comments, opinions, relevant job postings, the works. The newsletter is sent every weekend so submissions are requested by Thursday.

Unsubscribe:
To unsubscribe, email us at newsletters[at]dogearsetc[dot]com with the word “UNSUBSCRIBE” in the subject line

Subscribe:
To subscribe, email us at newsletters[at]dogearsetc[dot]com with the word “SUBSCRIBE” in the subject line. E-mail addresses will not be used for any commercial purpose

The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XLVII

Leonard Fernandes — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 13:49:06 +0000

Dated: 3rd 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.

Katha announces Writing and Illustration contest for children

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Katha is conducting a nationwide hunt for Master Storytellers and Artists through its Short Story Writing and Illustration Contest. The contest is open to school students from all over India from classes 8-12. Last date to submit entries is September 15, 2008.

The prize winners will be invited to Katha Youth Utsav (Caution! Ideas at work) – at the Katha Short Stories/Illustrations Awards Ceremony. There is a grand first prize of Rs. 10,000/- each for the best writer and illustrator plus participation in the Katha Youth Utsav, 2008 in New Delhi. Second prizes for 30 lucky students who will be awarded grants to participate in the Utsav. The winners will be eligible for a waiver of the festival registration fee and will win themselves workshops with an eminent writer!

The story should not be more than eight pages. You can write about a fantasy, or about leaders, teachers, common man, artists, taxi-drivers, rag pickers or business tycoons.

For illustrations, you can draw your own story. Or pick up a short story and illustrate – a minimum of three illustrations to be submitted. (Please exclude Panchathantra, folk, mythological and Jatak kathas).

You’ll get a chance to evaluate your stories at the Utsav and interact with leading writers, translators, and illustrators across the world!

For more details, rules and regulations please contact Gowri Palachandran at 26868193 or email at bestpractices@katha.org.

India’s little authors do some serious writing
Source: Deccan Herald

No wishy-washy fairytales, toy lands or flippant fiction for them. Rather, the school going segment of Indian authors like to dabble in more serious themes like the environment and the art of spelling well.

Meet Ishita Gulati, a student of Gurgaon-based Scottish High International, Krittika Sridharan of New Delhi-based Sanskriti School and Vinamre Chaudhury of Apeejay School in Faridabad, the winners of 2008 Scholastic Writing Awards.

These three believe that writing skills can be honed with “voracious reading and originality of thought without external efforts”.

Their essays and short stories will feature in a unique anthology, “For Kids by Kids”, published by Scholastic India Pvt. Ltd for school-going readers. The volume was launched here by the bookstore Crossword over the weekend.

Man Asian Long List
Source: Deccan Herald

The longlist for the second Man Asian literary prize has been announced, and features an unexpectedly strong showing from Filipino writers.

The list, which is chosen from submissions received from all over Asia, comprises 21 works of Asian fiction yet to be published in English from both well established and first-time authors.

Four of the contenders for the $10,000 prize hail from the Philippines. Of these, Alfred A Yuson is by far the most experienced, with 22 books, as well as poetry and essay collections to his name. His nominated novel The Music Child tells of an American journalist who undergoes strange experiences in a southern island in the Philippines.
The three other writers from the Philippines in the running are Ian Rosales Casocot with Sugar Land; Miguel Syjuco with Ilustrado; and Lakambini A Sitoy, nominated for Sweet Haven.

Longlist in full

Melting Love—Tulsi Badrinath
Ugly Tree— Hans Billimoria
Sugar Land — Ian Rosales Casocot
Banished! — Han Dong
Neti, Neti— Anjum Hasan
The To-Let House—Daisy Hasan
The Afghan Girl— Abdullah Hussein
To the Temple— Tsutomu Igarashi
Something Wicked This Way Comes — Rupa Krishnan
Leave Me Alone, Chengdu— Murong Xuecun
The Story that Must Not be Told— Kavery Nambisan
Love in the Chicken’s Neck— Sumana Roy
On the Edge of Pandemonium—Vaibhav Saini
Midnight Tales— Salma
Lost Flamingoes of Bombay— Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi
Sweet Haven — Lakambini A Sitoy
The Last Pretence— Sarayu Srivatsa
Ilustrado—Miguel Syjuco
My Friend, Sancho— Amit Varma
Brothers — Yu Hua
The Music Child— Alfred A Yuson

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.

Book Launched by Pratham

Pratham Books launched their 150th title “Kolhapur to Beijing - Freestyle!”, amidst great excitement and fanfare. The book was released simultaneously by Virdhawal Khade, Olympians Nisha Millet and Hakimuddin Habibulla , Ashok Kamath [Managing Trustee, Pratham Books] and the book’s author Mala Kumar.

In a run up to the launch, Pratham Books had engaged in getting children to wish the swimmer before he proceeded to Beijing. Over 32,000 children and adults sent wishes through post, email, and also posted messages on the Pratham Books website and blog site. A 164 ft (50m) long greeting card carrying these messages was presented to Veer.

New book on South Asian history focuses on people’s past
Source: indiaedunews.net

Dissatisfied with the available social history of India and Pakistan, two teachers of Panjab University here have come up with a new book that aims to highlight “the untouched, humble and obscure corners of the people’s past”.

Popular literature and pre-modern societies in South Asia is a collection of 19 papers, edited and compiled by Surinder Singh and Ishwar Dayal Gaur.

“The available history of South Asia speaks volumes about the elite class of society but there is hardly any association with downtrodden segments. Our aim was to reconstruct the past and to erode the boundaries between different states and countries,” Singh told mediapersons on Tuesday.

“We have given a fresh turn to Punjab’s history and we even went to Pakistan to gain first-hand knowledge and to meet resource people there. Two historians from Pakistan had also come here to assist us in our work,” he said.

There is a significant emphasis on the history of medieval Punjab and ample usage of poetry, folk tales, folk songs and folklore in the book, pointed out Singh.

The research papers included in the book are by historians from India and Pakistan and deal with six themes of state formation, resistance and protest, traditions, gender relations, cultural fusion and social conventions.

“Our themes are derived from the vernacular history of Sindh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Western Himalayas, Awadh, Assam, Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Our endeavour is to highlight the untouched, humble and obscure corners of the people’s past,” said Ishwar Dyal Gaur.

The editors have worked for three years to accomplish this task and are targeting research scholars and social scientists to refer this book as a reference book.

New issue of Pratilipi launched

This issue of Pratilipi (www.pratili could have been titled “History and Literature”. It presents the inter-textualities of history and literature in instances where the narrative of history enters a literary text, where a literary text makes history its subject and, also, as a text in which a historian – a novelist in his secret ambition – takes account of these (literary) texts.

This time around, the lead story consists of not one but many pieces: it has Asad Zaidi’s Hindi poem 1857: Samaan ki Talaash along with an English translation and with Rajesh Kumar Sharma’s commentary; it has excerpts from, and the preface to, Chandra Prakash Deval’s long poem in Rajasthani, Jhuravo, based on an incident from the 16th century, long-forgotten by history - in English and Hindi translations; it has the English translation of Kunwar Narain’s story Mughal Saltanat aur Bhishti from the 1970s; and, against the backdrop of these works, it has an essay by the social-historian Sudhir Chandra on the inter-relationships of history and literature.

Book Launch “Kathaurja.com”
Source: delhievents.com

Kathaurja.com
edited by Rajesh Jain
Penguin Books India & Yatra Books
Book will be launched at India Habitat Centre ( IHC ), Lodhi Road, New Delhi on 6th August at 7pm

Blogs and Articles
Blogs and articles commenting on trends and events in the book industry

Fascinating Collage
Source: The Hindu Literary Review

From pulp fiction to little magazines, Bangla literature today is spreading out in diverse directions.

Another remarkable trend in contemporary Bangla literature is the emergence of Dalit writing. While the term “Dalit literature” was coined in the late 1950s and while there has been a strong and very visible Dalit movement in Marathi and Gujarati literatures, Bengal has not traditionally been associated with any such movement. In fact, scholars had largely assumed that there existed no substantial body of Bangla Dalit literature, perhaps because caste-based oppression was not very common in Bengal. It is only a recent article by Manoranjan Byapari in Economic and Political Weekly that has brought the spotlight to focus on a largely ignored and hitherto invisible body of Dalit literature in Bangla. A powerful body of Dalit literature has been building over the last three decades or so in Bangla, one that is very different in terms of its aesthetic sensibilities and political commitment from those of “mainstream” Bangla literature

Lending Voice
Source: Indian Express

Without P. Lal and his Writers Workshop, some of the best Indian writers in English would not have found their voice

In these days of million-dollar book deals and professional agents, what kind of future does small institutions like his have? “The attitude has not changed over the years. No one wants to touch new writers; poets are literary untouchables. But that doesn’t mean that they will not get chances to express themselves. There are plenty of small-time publishing houses like Kali, Stree and Katha which are doing good work,” he says.

And what kind of future does he see for Writers Workshop? “I don’t think it will have a future beyond me,” he says breezily. “Visions shouldn’t be institutionalised. I wouldn’t want Writers Workshop to be institutionalised. I only hope that others take the initiative to bring Indian writing to the forefront,” he says. The Seths in the making will say amen.

For A Life After Death
Source: The Telegraph, Calcutta

Most Indian publishers remain blissfully innocent of copyright laws, which seek to protect the intellectual property rights of authors. All they seem to know, if at all, is that copyright tends to lapse 50 years after the author’s death, after which the book could come into public domain. Any publisher could then legitimately publish it under its own imprint.

But it isn’t as simple as that. For two reasons. First, copyright could be extended by the author’s assigns, or the text could be revised for another lease of life. Second, print technology and the internet have changed the rules of the game.

You can read the whole article here

Banana Republic Of Indian Letters
Source: Tehelka.com

Books deals used to be gold dust. Now they abound. Entertainment is the day’s priority and publishers make no bones about abandoning taste for profits. Read the Tehelka report

If you want to remember the smells of your childhood, or the mythical powers of the sweet tea served up in your college canteen and are possessed of even the most slender desire to write a book, take heart. Most of your ilk probably has one book contract in their back pocket and another inside their sock. Or so it seems. The number of books published in India every year has expanded, padding bottom lines and in real terms growing the industry at an estimated 25 percent annually. The old days of having a hierarchy of imprints - when the publisher’s name said as much about a book as its blurb — is long gone. A glut of new publishing houses is sprouting authors who have not been incubated, and consequently have not germinated enough. The overriding impression is one of haste.

Kavita Bhanot, formerly with Osian’s literary agency, says, “Everyone is in a rush, there is no emphasis on the craft of writing.” Books are published and consumed, quickly. Genre fiction, including chick-lit, and topical non-fiction (when it is under-produced, under-researched and over-hyped) both falls into the frothy, confectionary consume-ondate- of-purchase brand of fiction. When editors handle 10 titles a year, there is little time to engender excellence.

Not that there is anything wrong with pulp or genre fiction. Ask any publisher, author or general good egg of civil society and you will elicit a shrill defence of the right for chick lit, college lit, every-lit to exist. Ask them how many have read any of Chetan Bhagat’s books and the response is as unequivocal - none. The bumper sticker version of the argument is: democracy means getting what you deserve. What seems skewed is that all work is pitched as literary, even if the build-up and rhetorical signposts are not explicitly so. After all, who could tell that a book billed as representing the new India, a coming-of-age novel about selfdiscovery and a look at post-colonial type love conundrums, is not the descriptor for A House For Mr Biswas but rather for Lilacs Bloom in My Backyard by Meenu Malhotra. It is the packaging that is overblown; considering that genre fiction is thriving, one wonders why it needs to be dressed up in the vestments of its more august counterpart. And then there are the launches — most authors have the conversations, champagne swilling and articulate expositions down pat; they know how to hold court, and they do it with aplomb.

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The Publisher’s Post: Vol I Ed. XLVI

Leonard Fernandes — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:22:28 +0000

Dated: 27th 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.

LBF sets focus on India and South Africa for forthcoming shows
Source: printweek,com

The London Book Fair (LBF) has revealed that India and South Africa will be the market focus countries for its 2009 and 2010 shows, respectively.

LBF head of international development Emma House, said: “We are excited at the prospect of being able to focus on two such rich and diverse publishing industries.”

In addition, the British Council will reprise its partnership with LBF for the next two years, following the success of the Arab World market focus at the 2008 show.

Susanna Nicklin, director of literature at the British Council, said: “Although our cultural relations with India and South Africa are well established, we are excited by this opportunity to work with outstanding contemporary writers from both these countries.”

Other partners for the India 2009 programme include Capexil, a non-profit organisation designed to promote Indian exports, and the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP).

A spokesperson for Capexil said: “The participation of Indian publishers in the Market Focus programme will not only generate better exports, it should also pave the way for productive business relationships between Indian publishers, distributors and exporters with their foreign counterparts.”

Chandamama goes digital with portals in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu; more to follow
Source: exchange4media.com

Chandamama, the 61-year old children’s magazine, is now going ahead in its cyber avatar. The publication has launched its online portals in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. It already has a portal in English and will soon launch websites in Marathi and Oriya languages.

And if one is expecting only age-old, yet popular stories of Vikram and Betaal and other characters from mythology, then there is some pleasant surprise. The site has a contemporary look and feel, featuring stories in different categories like mythology, history, folk tales, humour, adventure, contemporary, etc.

This apart, the portal is a treasure trove for those brought up on Chandamama as it features an archive going back 60 years. At present, early editions the magazine in Hindi, English, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu can be found on the site. Other language editions as well as all the back issues in the past 60 years would go live soon.

Commenting on the archives, L Subramanyam, CEO, Chandamama, said, “There is a huge demand for classical Chandamama stories. By putting our archives up online, we hope we are in some way able to satisfy this demand. We have only put up six languages now, but eventually, our entire 60 years will be available online.”

On the launch of Tamil and Hindi portals, Subramanyam said, “We like to reach out to children in an environment they are most comfortable. The message of Chandamama is relevant across language and cultures. The Tamil and Hindi sites contain original stories written for the Tamil and Hindi publications, and in many cases these are different from the stories you will find on the English and Telugu sites.”

Still Potty about Harry
Source: Times of India

On July 21 last year, Rajiv Chowdhry was startled by the length of the queue outside Kolkata’s Oxford bookstore. An eclectic bunch—kids, adults, Indians, foreigners—all were standing patiently in line along the length of Park Road to grab Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows , the last book in J K Rowling’s path-breaking series. The Oxford CEO recalls selling close to 8,500 copies in a matter of hours. “The phenomenon was unparalleled,” he reminisces with a whiff of nostalgia. “No author has touched such magical numbers before.”

A year later, much of the buzz seems to have died down. Bookstores and publishers, who did roaring business, have evidently moved on, reconciled to the fact that a phenomenon like Potter happens once in a blue moon. The current crop of takers, Chowdhry says, are “latecomers and second-hand readers”. Still, Oxford plans to have a small gathering and decorate its bookstores on the occasion. “We will give discounts, have theme-based contests and events and hold week-long celebrations. Sales may have been subdued but the series still evokes a reaction from kids,” he says.

The Landmark book chain, on the other hand, has no plans for the ‘death’ anniversary. “There is no euphoria left,” says Himanshu Chakarwarty, COO of Landmark. “We’ve moved on to authors like Amitav Ghosh and Jeffrey Archer, who are doing well for us.”

Chowdhry rues the fact that the paperback editions of all the Potter books have yet to arrive in India. “The Deathly Hallows hard cover costs Rs 995. The paperback, for instance, is priced around Rs 400. Its arrival would have helped sales,” he points out.

Farewell with a difference
Source: The Hindu (Metro Plus, Chennai)

In a few months, it will be fifty years since he entered the publishing industry. Celebrating that anniversary early, R. Seshadri has decided to sever his final links with the industry. He has just sold his last business interest in publishing, the German Book Centre, Madras, to a Delhi publishing house.

Seshadri, who had got interested in German as a hobby after visiting the Frankfurt Book Fair regularly, started the German Book Centre in 1982 to represent leading German publishers whose books were in demand in the IITs, Goethe Institutes and various universities.

For many years, it was the only distributor in India and Sri Lanka for learning material in German, be it for language or technical studies. Ours has been a major contribution towards the propagation of the German language in India, says Seshadri.

Seshadri started his career in publishing as a Sales Representative with Orient Longman’s. While at Longman’s, he was the first Indian from the publishing industry to be trained in sales and marketing in the U.K.. He later founded a local representative service that represented nearly a dozen leading British publishers of specialist books for institutions of higher education. He also founded his own publishing house, T.R. Publications, which published over a hundred original titles on Economics, Business, English etc. before he sold the company and began to concentrate on the German Book Centre.

Write up their alley: chick lit brigade grows
Source: Times of India

She’s hip, humorous, candid, sassy…and she’s making readers fall head over stiletto heels in love with chick lit. Meet the new breed of female authors whose light-hearted tales of singletons looking for love, job satisfaction and the perfect pair of shoes are dominating Indian bookstores these days. The Bridget Jones wave may have been a little late in hitting desi shores (it’s more than a decade since Helen Fielding adapted her newspaper creation to book format) but it’s sure setting off ripples in the publishing world.

For these 20 and 30-something writers are tapping into a new market - aspirational young women, or women who aspire to being aspirational young women. And it looks like there are plenty of those around. Hotel exec turned chick lit author Advaita Kala’s Almost Single has done a 20,000 print run in a year. “That’s quite a feat since even a 5,000 print run is considered above average in India,” says V Karthika, editor-in-chief of HarperCollins which published the book. It’s also going international with Bantam Dell bringing out the US edition in March. Another chick lit from their stable, Anuja Chauhan’s The Zoya Factor , has started with a 20,000 print run.

Penguin India is set to roll out two new chick lit novels in the next few months. Marrying Anita by Anita Jain, which follows the journey of a 30-plus New Yorker to Delhi to find a husband, and freelance journalist Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s You Are Here . Rupa and Co has had a runaway hit with novelist and filmmaker Rajashree’s Trust Me which sold over 50,000 copies and it will soon release Tishaa Khosla’s Pink or Black .

Read the whole article here

Sony opens up e-book Reader to other online booksellers
Source: The Hindu

With the market for electronic books still relatively sleepy, Sony Corp. is trying a new tack: untethering the latest model of its e-book reading device from its own online bookstore.

On Thursday, Sony will provide a software update to the Reader, a thin slab with a 6-inch (15-centimeter) screen, so the device can display books encoded in a format being adopted by several large publishers. That means Reader owners will be able to buy electronic books from stores other than Sony’s.

“This upgrade opens the door to a whole host of paid and free content from third-party e-book stores, Web sites and even public libraries,” said Steve Haber, senior vice president of consumer product marketing for Sony Electronics.

With the move, Sony is partly letting go of its e-book business model, under which it sold the $300 device and the books that could be read on it. It’s also a challenge to Amazon.com Inc., which last year put out its own e-book reader, the Kindle, and tied it to its own online store. Amazon, however, makes it relatively easy for publishers and individuals to submit books to sell through the store, with Amazon taking 65 percent of the proceeds.

Opening up the Reader could also help Sony catch up to the $359 Kindle in terms of book selection _ Sony’s store, which it will keep running, has about 45,000 books available, while Amazon’s Kindle store sports more than 140,000.

Sony’s move could also help energize the e-book industry, which has yet to take off, despite the investment of big-name companies like Sony and Amazon. Neither has released sales figures for their reading devices.

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.

Motorcycle Diaries

One Life to Ride: A Motorcycle Journey to the High Himalayas
by Ajit Harisinghani
Bibliophile South Asia, 224 pp. Paperback

Beginning with a beautiful cover page, the book continues with its tryst with capturing the rugged beauty of the roads leading to Khardung –la. An entrancing travelogue of a journey performed by a practicing speech therapist with a yen for the dugh …dugh…dugh of a Royal Enfield bullet! Beginning with the description a trailer ride from Pune to Goa, the actual action begins with plans of a 4300 kms motorcycle journey, solo. The witty, incisive reflections gives the reader a feeling of actually being there with the author. The tea-stall encounters with entranced village folk, mysterious Sufi saints, the pleasure of riding on very rough mountain roads, maintained by the Border Roads Organization and the brave faces of Indian soldiers guarding our border in hostile conditions ..are just not to be missed.

Selling less to grow more

The story of a magazine with a difference.

In a world driven by cut-throat competition, what does one make of a publication that wants to sell less? That is the claim being made by Sameera, a Bhopal-based niche magazine. Yet, it is not as if the magazine is aiming for a diminishing readership. What it really wants is to develop the habit of sharing among people to help save the environment. This unique approach to magazine circulation is guided by the fact that Sameera is perhaps the only magazine of its size in the country to be printed on handmade paper.

Blogs and Articles
Blogs and articles commenting on trends and events in the book industry

The right to copy
Source: ravi.givemebackmyguitar.com

An article that explains in simple language the copyright law in India

Words Worth
Source: Deccan Herald

Magicians, sharks, jackals, pimps, blood suckers lit agents have been stamped with these and many more labels. But, says Mita Kapur, with everyone writing a book these days, it may not be such a bad thing to hire one afterall.

Literary agents in India were and are a realistic need. With the publishers receiving a barrage of manuscripts every day and not being able to find time to wade through the pile, we may have lost out on some exciting writing talent. If an agent with a good nose steps in, it is a significant help to both - the publisher and the author.

I heard someone remark very pragmatically that representing an author is a business and the reality is that the agent isn’t your mom and publishing isn’t really as much art or science as it is timing and professionally crafted material. The timing is right - for aspiring authors, for lit agents to link the two up. The estimated market for popular books in India is around Rs 1000 crore. The industry is growing at between 10 percent to 15 percent annually.

With these kind of figures, it is only practical that literary agents step in to play a significant role. For Indian writers, they can help sell overseas rights since publishers in the West don’t consider manuscripts that don’t come through agents. For now, even if the role agents play in the whole business of pitching, selling, arranging deals for authors, “it will take a long time before agents start wielding power like in the West,” says Thomas Abraham, managing director of Hatchette Publishing (India). True enough.

Also read Working as Catalysts, an article on the growing number of literary agents in India, that appeared in Business World.

Blogged in India, between covers in Pak
Source: Hindustan Times

He has broken new ground on the blogosphere. Twenty-eight-year-old journalist-blogger Mayank Austen Soofi, 28, could become the youngest Indian to be published in a Pakistani textbook. Soofi’s blog Pakistan Paindabad aims to shatter stereotyped Indian perceptions about its neighbour. “People treat Pakistan as a country of terrorist camps, but there are swanky cafes, pretty girls, galleries, writers…a very Delhi crowd. I wanted people to see that it’s as normal as India,” he says.

Samuel Ray, editor, Oxford University Press, Pakistan, recently wrote to him eliciting interest in using material from his blog for an English textbook for class XI students. “Nothing’s finalised, but if published it will be a slap to all people who think Pak publishing is all about India haters,” says Soofi.

The excerpts being sought are from a series called ‘Five Best Things About Pakistan’ wherein Soofi got writers, activists and common people from Pakistan or of Pakistani origin to pick their top five.

How Indian Is Indian Writing In English?
Source: littleindia.com

What is it that makes the most talented of India’s literary geniuses steer clear of Indian shores to settle down in foreign lands?

What is it that makes the most talented of India’s literary geniuses steer clear of Indian shores to settle down in foreign lands? Is it the promise of fame, recognition and money that comes from catering to the western market with a much wider reader base? Or is it the ennui of having to pander to Indian readers, still far behind in terms of cultural and literary sophistication than their western counterparts? Or is it something much less sinister? Do these writers move away from the land that sparks their stories to achieve a heightened sense of intimacy and observation that distance is known to create?

Engineering the Risk Out of Book Publishing
Source: portfolio.com

Is HarperStudio the future of book publishing?

That’s what HarperCollins is calling its new unit dedicated to changing the high-stakes economics of the book business. The idea behind HarperStudio, is to do away with the “mega-risks” built into the system as it now exists: large advances, high marketing costs and, for books that sell poorly, the added expense of pulping unsold copies. In exchange, they’re offering authors a 50/50 split of profits.

HarperStudio plans to publish 25 books a year at first, and has 17 titles signed up so far. HarperStudio will try to save money by focusing its marketing efforts on web outreach.

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