1. art and entertainment
2. books and literature

Volume 6, Issue 1
DL(C)-01/1330/2013-2015
ROI: DELENG/2010/33687
Book Link
` 20
January 2015
New Delhi
www.booklink.in, https://www.facebook.com/booklink01
News, Views & Reviews About Publishing
P2 SPOTLIGHT
Kalam, Naipaul at
JLF 2015
P3 EYE CATCHER
P8 SHOWCASE
Book to film
The 100 foot journey
Chaiwallah author
Laxman Rao
Advt
Available
at all
leading
bookstores
& portals
ISBN :
978-93-82711-54-4
Price : 3200
You can also buy it from
www.
vitastapublishing.com
It is not true that people stop pursuing
dreams because they grow old, they grow
old because they stop pursuing dreams.
— Gabriel García Márquez
New Year:
A call for change
THE YEAR 2014 went with the
whirlwind. I haven’t seen much
change in the publishing industry
in the three years I have been
here. Processes have not changed
dramatically, nor has any cleanup
happened. Chaotic, cumbersome,
cottage-industry are some adjectives
often used. Cheating and piracy are
no less. Now it is more a matter of
chance if a book gets well produced
and without too many errors. More
deadlines are missed, more authors
are aggrieved. Production has
definitely become costlier, even
though paper costs have reduced
somewhat. Eighty paisa per word
is the minimum editing rate and
store front display now costs the
publisher/author over fiftyK a
month. It is being vehemently argued
that content is king, technology only
the king-maker.
2014 has been a good year,
bookwise, many would agree.
Look at the
number of
books that
have raised controversies, be it about
Air India, the UPA government,
the coal scam, the India-China
war or Indira’s rule. The Bhopal
gas tragedy and the 2004 tsunami
are remembered through books.
Fiction that sells is from Chetan
Bhagat, despite a consistent case
for non-fiction. Concrete and glass
bookshops are no longer in vogue,
computer-mediated purchases lead
the way to greater profits. This
way, sales and accounting are more
systems-driven, yet distributors and
retailers do little towards operations
efficiency.
The key word one has heard on all
platforms is change. Processes must
change, become logical, especially
for the small publisher; distribution
must become less tedious and cost
conscious. Most of all, the call to
change the content delivery mode,
go electronic. Change if you don’t
want to close shop, the C word that
wins is change... at least in 2015.
Editorial
Address Box
Book Link Wishes Its Readers
Happy
New Year
Crystal Publishing
gaze or 2015 & beyond
maze!
Shafina Segon
Prashasti Rastogi
Only those who will risk going
too far can possibly find out how
far one can go. —TS Eliot
FROM CUNEIFORMS to books in browsers, the world of words has
come far and fast! We still have to go further as no one will stop reading,
but the question today is, in which Avatar? There is not one answer to
this question, as the future of publishing is a maze. The popular theory,
however, is that e and print will continue to co-exist as different people
have different needs. Indisputable is the fact that publishers need to be
very inventive in their offerings and pricing thereof.
Though ebooks still have to match the reputation that print books
enjoy, the time where e-formats will be the core product and print be the
value offering may not be far. It is at the moment unclear which formats
are the future standard. A volley of formats ranging from HTML5,
EPUB3, apps and books packaged with multimedia and interactive
content are available. While kids have play or read out aloud elements in
books, cookbooks come embedded with cooking video. At the recently
held PubliCon at FICCI, Niyam Bhushan professed the thought – ‘Take
the content and discard the container’. He alerted publishers of the
fact that technology will keep evolving, it is the content that needs to be
— Contd on page 4
IS IT really possible to predict the future of publishing? How will things
shape up spelling a better tomorrow for the publishing industry? Honest
answer – I don’t know. We have reached the digital frontier of book
publishing but the implications of living in this new territory are yet to be
fully understood by many of us.
The new era in publishing is an untravelled road with much to answer
– will big book stores survive? Will traditional publishers be able to
compete with self-publishing in a longer run? Would the e-world be as
promising as it seems to be and will it be able to conduct appropriate
DRMs and e resource management?
The only constant seems to be change.
Rapidly changing technology trends, changing
business models and evolving consumer
behaviours are drivers for a paradigm shift in
the industry as we see it.
Despite all the uncertainty, here is what I
think 2015 would bring:
1. I think the paper book will certainly be
around in India longer than many other countries.
We are, in terms of number, a country of
book hungry. The postulation that the
digital revolution may drive the death or
slow demise of paper book still seems
more of theory to me than reality.
— Contd on page 7
Making publishing a career
Vivek Mehra
Managing Director
and CEO,
SAGE Publications
India Pvt Ltd
I NEVER thought I would be a publisher.
My formal training in mechanical
engineering hardly prepared me to head a
Social Science publishing house. It is true that
publishing happened to me by accident. It was
born by a series of unrelated coincidences. But
the fact is, I am here and I am enjoying myself.
Publishing as a profession has always been
mysterious. Printing was easier to understand
but what made the best seller list was as
mysterious as a veiled woman; you could
tell she was a woman, but not much more.
Acquisition editors were gods who had the
power to make or break authors. There was an
air of intelligence and armour of invincibility
that cemented that image. These individuals
did not choose publishing as a career, and they
were inducted and groomed to rise above the
rest of human kind. And that’s how it was in
India too until the turn of this century.
I have heard many ‘truths’ about publishing
careers. Here are three of my favourite ones—
You can’t just become a copyeditor
overnight. It takes many years of perseverance
and training to become one.
A fresher requires at least 9 years to earn
the right to be called a Commissioning
(Acquisition) Editor.
Publishing is a labour of love; don’t expect to
be paid handsomely for it.
I am perhaps a living example, rebutting all
these theories. And I have many others that
have trained and blossomed under me.
Publishing today is no longer a mystery; it
is science with a dash of art and some sound
business sense. Every aspect of publishing
— Contd on page 6
2
infocus
Where publishing
is still a cottage
industry
LIKE IT or not, India is still a country where
large-scale book production takes place
manually through small, semi-automatic
machines. It is largely because how the Indian
language publishers operate with print runs of
as low as 100 copies produced on not digital
presses but on the letter press and by screen
printing. Even the publisher cum editor is
often an educated entrepreneur or a school
teacher who finds local talent as authors, and
his own family members as proof readers and
copy editors. This is a cottage industry where
some excellent literature takes shape in the
small towns and talukas that never finds the
larger world.
You can see in these places the old
Heidelberg offset presses of over fifty years
ago with just one big printer in the town, all
of them purchased second-hand after being
discarded by the Europeans as non-usable.
Somehow, they work perfectly with a little
refurbishing by Indian owners or enterprising
East Europeans and Koreans who sell them
the machines. The print runs for books in
Print Publishing
Sandip Sen
these machines usually go up to 500 copies
and more successful Indian language books
have been traditionally printed with such print
runs. Only the hugely successful authors who
are less than two per cent of the total find their
books printed in the larger Harris or Komori
web offset presses, with print runs going into
thousands. The new sheet-fed presses are used
largely by those catering to export markets.
With such production patterns, it is logical
that post-press book production is also
largely manual or semi-automatic. There are
still expert book makers who take the books
regularly from the printers to their homes
where they have a cottage industry set up
with a cutter, a stapling unit and a hand gun
for uniform gluing. Stitching, stapling, and
binding all takes place at their homes and you
get costs less than Rs 10 a copy. No wonder a
large number of the Indian language books are
produced by small publishers, priced below
Rs 100. Books are still a cottage industry for
Indian language readers but the advantage
of such low-priced books is that they reach a
large number of readers who can’t afford the
overhead costs of the organised publishing
industry.
(Guest columnist Sandip Sen is the Editor -at -large of
The Indian Printer and Publisher, He is the author of the
book Neta, Babu and Subsidy : Roundup 2000 to 2014
and his twitter handle is @ecothrust)
January 2015 Book Link
JLF’15: Bringing great
writers in the world to India
THE JAIPUR Literarary Festival, brings
together some of the greatest thinkers and
writers from across South Asia and the
world.This year Zee television group are the
sponsors.
The curtainraiser this year was in Delhi
on 17 December with a debate that had the
motion ‘This house proposes the centre of
literary action is moving from the novel
to non-fiction’. Speaking on the occasion,
William Dalrymple, author and co-Director
said, ‘This year’s programme will showcase
Indian writing better than ever and it looks
like a particularly vintage year. We have
sessions on writing criticism, art history,
historical novels and memoir; we’ll take a
fresh look at Homer and Marie Antoinette,
detectives and spooks, aesthetics and erotics
and everything in between.’
This year 234 speakers will participate
in the Festival, and there will be an
additional 117 musicians, speakers and
artists taking part. The List of Speakers
include VS Naipaul, Waheeda Rahman,
Javed Akhtar and Prasoon Joshi. Former
President APJ Abdul Kalam will be a
first-time speaker. Of course, Zia Haider
Rahman of In the Light of What We Know
fame; Valmik Thapar, Shobha Viswanath of
Karadi Tales, Mother and son duo, Sudha
and Rohan Murthy, and Narayan Murthy,
of course. All the Indian greats, Devdutt
Pattanaik, Basharat Peer, Bibek Debroy,
Ashwin Sanghi, Chetan Bhagat, Amish
Tripathi and Arvind Panagriya will be there.
The Jaipur Literature Festival has
announced a new annual writing competition
for budding authors.
The Zee Jaipur
Literature
Festival 2015 will
once again try to
reflect different
aspects of Indian,
South Asian and
global literary
Namita Gokhale
interactions.
There is an emphasis on the
arts and the classics, with talks
on Herodutus, Socrates, the
Mahabharata, Sanskrit, as well
as the launch of the Murthy
Classical Library of India. The
mosaic of folk and performative
art, popular fiction and literary
legends, all build up to the
unique flavor of JLF 15.
In future years, I see the festival
finding deeper roots and more
outreach, so that it becomes a
part of the cultural life of the
community and the region
HarperCollins to
introduce digital
watermarks
HARPERCOLLINS and ebook distributor
LibreDigital are working together to implement a
new anti-piracy technology called the Guardian
Watermarking for Publishing. However, in the
Indian context, authors and publishing houses
don’t think this will help in the long haul. ‘I don’t
think watermarking can control piracy’, said Amish
Tripathi, the author of Shiva Triology.
However, Akash Shah, MD, Jaico Publishing
House believes that piracy is a very big problem
in India and watermarking is a good idea. Other
publishing houses such as Penguin Random House
have already implemented DRM. A spokesperson of
Penguin said watermarks should help, but it is not
tested widely and results are yet to be seen.
—BLD
Uttari Delhi
Nagar Nigam
Pustak Utsav
Manoj Tewari, Hon’ble Member of Parliament inaugurated first Uttari Delhi Nagar Nigam Pustak
Utsav. ‘Books hold a significant place in my life as they give knowledge to me. We should take books
to the readers to connect them with books’ said Tewari on the occasion. He opined that one can read
books of his choice over Internet but such book fairs enlighten readers about the books on several topics
available across the world. The speakers on the occasion expressed their views on the importance
of reading habit. Mohan Bhardwaj, Chairman, Standing Committee, Yogender Chandolia, Mayor,
North Delhi Municipal Corporation, PK Gupta, Commissioner, North Delhi Municipal Corporation
among others also spoke on the occasion.
—BLD
Supported by Teamwork Arts, producers
of the Festival, the competition is open
to applicants from across the world. The
competition will give writers in the 1825 age-group a chance to have their work
published on the festival’s official blog,
which receives over 100,000 hits during
the LitFest, and get to attend the celebrated
event.t
Five poetry collections short-listed for the
inaugural Khushwant Singh Memorial Prize
of Rs 2 lakh for Poetry were announced at
the Kasauli Literature Festival in October.
The award will be given away at the ZEE
Jaipur LitFest. Suhel Seth has announced
the award.
Among those short-listed are Escape Artist
by Sridala Swami, Ranjit Hoskote’s Central
Time, When God is a Traveller, a collection
of stories by Arundhati Subramaniam, Fire
Altar by Keki N Daruwalla and Selected
Poems by Joy Goswami (translated by
Sampurna Chattarji).
The $50,000 DSC Prize for South
Asian Literature announced the shortlist
at the London School of Economics in
late November. Five shortlisted authors in
contention are: Jhumpa Lahiri and renowned
Indian poet and one of the foremost Urdu
theorists Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. Kamila
Shamsie, British writer Romesh Gunesekera
and Bilal Tanweer. There were 75 entries.
— BLD
VACANCY
limelight
January 2015 Book Link
Remembering
Bhopal
KNOWN FOR its lakes, the city attracted much attention, on the night
of 2 December, 1984. Thirty years ago, during the wee hours, a mixture
of cynide gases leaked at a pesticides factory, killing more than 8,000
people and made more than 5,000 ill for life. In many cases the effect of
breathing these gases continued upto the third generation. Ever since, the
incident is known as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and it is not over yet.
A film, Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, was released in India to mark the
thirtieth year of the tragedy, set in the slums that surrounded the factory and
the workers who lived in these shanties and worked for the multinational
company. Directed by Ravi Kumar, it features Martin Sheen as UCI boss
Warren Anderson (who has been avoiding liability and arrest for thirty
years and has died a few months ago), character actor Rajpal Yadav who
has given a stunning performance, Mischa Barton, Kal Penn, Tannishtha
Chatterjee, and Fagun Thakrar in important roles. Kumar got the idea of
making a film based on the Bhopal disaster after he read a book based on it.
There are a dozen books on the Union Carbide plant’s working and
how the leak happened and what it means in terms of safety issues, for
Americans, one by M Arun Subramaniam and Ward Morehouse, another
by Tulika Books, with Ragu Rai’s photographs. The tragedy has taught
Indians, the meaning of ‘liability’ and it is because of this tragedy that
liability clauses for even nuclear power plants are strict now.
The government is yet to clean the toxic waste that is still lying in
the factory. Thirty years and laws are still to be passed on hazardous
waste management. What has India learnt? Answering this question at a
public meeting to commemorate the tragedy, held at Centre for Science
and Environment (CSE), Sunita Narain, author, Bhopal Gas Tragedy:
After 30 Years, said ‘Indian government did improve its legislations for
chemical industrial disasters but it is still an unfinished business.’ Narain
continued ‘Our response has been incompetent. Thirty years later, there is
no closure.’ It has been thirty years of betrayal. The wounds of this tragedy
are not only evident but continue to hound the victims.
Five years ago, CSE had conducted an independent review and
found soaring level of contamination in the land of Bhopal. Closing the
discussion, Narain said ‘Bhopal must never be forgotten. Bhopal is our
joint battle to bring justice to the people.’
— BLD
3
Eye Catcher
On 12 December Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Everest conquerer Arunima Sinha’s autobiography Born Again
On The Mountain at the PMO Office in Delhi. Seen with the PM are Arunima Sinha (next to PM), Laxmi Sinha, Omprakash
Sinha, Manish Chandra Pandey (co-author, next to PM).
President’s
book
on the
shelf
PRESIDENT PRANAB MUKHERJEE’S
book The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi
Years tells the story of the 1970s– considered
a turning point in the political and economic
evolution of India, dotted as it was with the
India-Pakistan war, internal Emergency,
economic reforms and political upheavals. The
book is based on jottings from Mukherjee’s
journal and his experiences as a politician and
later as a decision-maker, during a decade that
set in motion political and economic changes.
— BLD
A platform for women
PUBLISHED BY Fingerprint, Daughter by
Court Order by Ratna Vira received a letter
of encouragement from Narendra Modi, the
Prime Minister of India.
Congratulating Ratna for her efforts, Modi
wrote:
“Women have a very important role to
play in the development of India. It is the
need of the hour to make women an equal
and integral part of the decision making process at every
level. I have said it repeatedly that whenever there is any
instance of harassment against women, we are overcome by a
sense of despair. It is nothing but a national shame. We need
to collectively work to bring about a positive change. I also
agree with you that society needs to change its mindset and
attitude when it comes to the rights and dignity of women.”
Inspired and encouraged by the words of the Prime
Minister, author Ratna Vira announced the establishment
of the Daughter By Court Order Forum for Women (DBCO
Forum for Women) where women will be able to contribute
their time and skill to support other women who are facing
inequality and discrimination.
— BLD
Chaiwallah author, meet Laxman Rao
Chanchal Chauhan
WHEN I went to meet him, he was already out buying milk
for his customers and guests, leaving his place unattended.
‘He always does this. He knows we’ll take care of his tea stall
when he goes for milk and stuff’, Brijesh who looks after car
parking around Hindi Bhawan tells Book Link. Occupying
not more than five metres of the footpath in front of Hindi
Bhawan, his stall is a sight to behold.
Open stall, stove and kettle at one corner and more than a
dozen neatly packed books at another with a banner, in the
back, that reads ‘for sale’. The books are not really wellknown but they are there. Books on former Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi; on a boy named Ramdas who mended his
ways only to get drowned in a river; on a girl named Renu,
daughter of a peon, who made it big in her life and so on.
Ordinary people who do have an ability to inspire others and
who hardly get any notice have found a place in these novels.
The writings are woven around realities of life. Talk to him
and he will tell you that he has authored all the books on
display.
Meet Laxman Rao, 62, sidewalk tea seller and author
for the last forty years. Rao has written twenty-four novels
and has managed to publish twelve of them under the selffounded publication Bhartiya Kala Sahitya Prakashan.
Currently pursuing MA in Hindi, Rao has planned for a
doctorate degree as well. The main motive being – to become
better. ‘My mother tongue is Marathi but I wanted to write
in Hindi because how else will a poor man read,’ he said
offering me a cup of chai.
Rao came to Delhi with only Rs 40 in his pocket. Worked
at construction sites and cleaned utensils to sustain himself,
but such tedious work never dampened his spirit to become
a writer. He writes from 8 am to 12 noon everyday and has
been on this for four decades. However it hasn’t been easy
for him to be a pavement-based writer. His stall has often
been demolished by municipal authorities but even that was
not enough to dampen his guts to become a writer. Even the
success of new writers, who are more known to the world
than he is, cannot deter him. Writing for forty years, has he
been satisfied? Criticising Chetan Bhagat for his content in
his books, Rao says, ‘Who wants Chetan Bhagat in libraries?
Is he a writer then? My books are in fifty libraries today.
That makes me a writer in true sense. This is my success.’
An inspiration for the young, the man still sells tea by
roadside to support his family as the income from the books
does not help in meeting the two ends. No publisher was
willing to publish his books which pushed him to self-publish
the books. Being a tea seller and author alongside, Laxman
Rao has come a long way. At an age when one thinks of
retiring, sitting back and relaxing, here is this old man who
wants to learn and write. It is his passion for writing that is
keeping him going. He knows that he will never sacrifice his
passion for just money. It might take him some more time to
become a full-fledged writer but he is on his way.
4
spotlight
January 2015 Book Link
India ripe for new crime stories
Crime
fiction
writer
Joygopal
Podder is
one of the
writers on
the Forbes
top hundred Indian
writers’ list. Talking
to Book Link about the
Crime Writers conference,
to be held in Delhi on
January 17-18, Podder
says, India has great
potential as ‘location’.
The thriller placed in
India can be a beauty.
I WELCOME the Crime Writers’
Literary Festival in Delhi in January.
Such a festival is long overdue in
India. Hundreds of thousands of
Indians read, and have grown up
reading, crime fiction novels and
thrillers, yet strong recognition to
this genre is only now being given
in the form of a literary festival.
The huge readership for crime
fiction deserves a platform in
which Indian readers can interact
with their favourite authors and
discover fresh material being
produced in this genre. There are
many talented new crime fiction
and thriller authors waiting to be
discovered by the reading public of
India, and what better platform for
this than a Crime Writer’s Literary
Festival?
The crime writers festival looks at a vibrant and important
genre of popular literature. Thrillers and detective fiction are
a part of societies self interrogation, and barometers of its
attitudes on individual and social freedom, gender, sexuality,
and indeed every aspect of life, including mortality. It is a
challenging and interactive style and genre, with the writer
and reader both having to actively match their wits with each
other. I’m truly looking forward to the first much-anticipated
edition of the CWF this January !
—Namita Gokhale
An India Festival would look at
encouraging stories about and in
Indian situations. Strong elements
in crime fiction thrillers are the
locations; India has immense
potential in this area. Our forts,
forests, deserts, hill resorts,
chaotic yet vibrant cites, beaches
and highways, all have potential
to provide exciting ingredients to
spice up the crime fiction curries
cooked up by Indian authors.
Indian readers would prefer their
crime fiction stories set in familiar
locales and populated by characters
they encounter in real life. An India
festival would encourage more
Indian authors to develop Indian
flavoured characters and crime
fiction plots and, more importantly,
Technology matching is a must
— contd from page 1
future ready. The content design should be
modularised and extensible, so that a new content
offering does not impel huge investments in new
architecture as both audiences and business
models will change over time.
In order to offer all these different ways of
content, the publisher needs to atomize all the
information that once was collected in one
book. It follows suit from the software world
where each module had its unique existence and
functionality. Modules can be combined, layered
and tiered to work for multiple platforms and
multiple users.
Bowker Market Research data from 2012
reveals that online retail has overtaken physical
retail for sale of books and ebooks. This, in
turn, provides a huge opportunity to know
your customer and widen the base. Amazon
and Google are two of the most data-driven
companies and are becoming increasingly
relevant for publishers as they acquire consumer
footprints. The goal of any publisher is to get its
content bought and read. Data analysis can help
publishers find out what the consumers are willing
to pay for content and what is appealing. Social
networking can facilitate both lead generation as
well as content development. Readers are looking
for content which is personalized, customized
and platform neutral. Technology can allow
them to read across devices, exchange thoughts
with fellow readers/ friends and empower them
with interactivity. The recent announcement of
Hachette Book group partnering with Gumroad,
an e-commerce platform, to turn microblogging
site Twitter into a bookstore with a Buy button
attached to author’s tweets is the perfect example
of agility in adapting to the pervasiveness of
the internet and the possibilities it offers for
easier and faster delivery of content. This also
Advt
is the time for evolution of a new ecosystem
ranging from interface design to digital rights
management. We have every reason to believe
that consumption analytics can improve the
overall effectiveness of digital content creation
and monetization models. It is also an Achtung!
moment, as publishers need to explore a
conjugation of creative process and data-drivendecision-making to generate new revenue nodes
and reach the widest audience at an acceptable
price.
(Prashasti Rastogi started her career
in the IT services industry. Working as a
communications head previously, she has
been intensively engaged in the digital
communication,
corporate
publishing,
marketing and social media domain.
Prashasti Rastogi is currently the Director
at German Book Office of the Frankfurt
Book Fair.)
interact with and share their literary
creations with a ready audience
looking for home grown thrillers to
engage with.
What drives me to write about
crime? I grew up loving crime
fiction books and thrillers, so
when I chose to turn author, this
was the natural genre that came
to me. Besides, we are surrounded
by crime; you can’t open up a
newspaper without encountering
several stories – every day. So there
is no dearth of ‘inspiration’ – and
there is also this satisfaction I get
from knowing that, in my universe
at least, crime will not pay. But
that’s not all: writing a crime
fiction story is like taking a reader
on a journey of solving a complex
puzzle. It engages both the reader
and author alike and writing such
stories is more like playing a game.
I don’t think any author has found
writing a crime story a tedious job!
Chiki Sarkar
gets married
CHIKI SARKAR, editor-inchief, Penguin Random House,
married Alex Travelli, Hong
Kong bureau chief for a news
magazine, at Congressman Mani
Shankar Aiyar’s bungalow in
November end. Aiyar is a close
friend of Sarkar’s father, media
baron Aveek Sarkar.
—BLD
overview
January 2015 Book Link
5
Content that
never goes
out of stock
GLOBALOCAL, THE premier event of the
German Book Office in India is back wiith its
sixth edition. This annual B2B forum for the
publishing and allied industry is designed to
integrate networking opportunities, facilitate
business meetings and training modules among
other interesting avenues of business outreach
and is targeted at bringing together national
and international players from the publishing
industry.
In 2015, Globalocal will again have
panel discussions, rights & licenses
training, workshops, experts’ table, business
matchmakings and keynote presentations.
The latest addition is the Experience Zone,
which adds a much needed dimension of
direct display and branding op to the event. ‘I
originally decided to come to GLOBALOCAL
2013, because Frankfurt was the place in which
Kobo made its announcement to the world, that
we would be taking on the world in eBooks.
To see that Frankfurt had identified India as the
next place for them to invite the world to, it
was an obvious choice for us to join them. We
are very keen and excited to be in India’, says
Malcolm Neil,Content Acquisition Direct for
APAC, Kobo.
Among speakers at this year’s session
are Irina Prokhorova,Editor-in-Chief New
Literary Observer magazine and publishing
house, Russia;Emma House, Director
of Publisher Relations, UK Publishers
Association; Ranjan Kaul, Managing Director,
Oxford University Press, India; Vivek Mehra,
MD and CEO, SAGE Publications, India;
Manuel Carcassonne, Managing director,
Les Editons Stock (subsidiary of Hachette
Livre),
France;Renate
Reichstein,Rights
Director,
Verlagsgruppe
Oetinger,
Germany; Judith Habermas,Rights Director,
DuMont Buchverlag; Germany,Sebastian
Posth,Managing Director,Publishing Data
Networks GmbH; Peter Schoppert, Managing
Director, NUS Press Pte Ltd, Singapore and
Sesh Seshadri, Director, Lonely Planet, India.
The GBO every year organises a trip to
discover India’s innovative publishing market,
EXCLUSIVE INDIA, from 8 February – 13
February 2015 where international visitors
from the publshing industry will meet Indian
Publishers (Trade, Children, STM, Education)
looking to exchange rights with overseas
publishers. Prospective international partners
will be given a guided tour of the Indian
industry and chance to interact with Indian
printers, distributors/retailers, and digital
service providers interested in doing business
with overseas publishers.
Registrations are on at www.globalocalforum.com and the event is slated to be held
on 12-13 February 2015 at The Eros Hotel,
Nehru Place, New Delhi.
— BLD
DIGITALIZATION HAS brought a
number of changes in the publishing
sector. It has not only revolutionised the
publishing process, but has also brought
new models of book distribution and new
platforms to read and interact with the
book.
The PubliCon 2014: Publishing Across
Platforms conference, organised by FICCI
which took place on 3 December, looked
into new areas of publishing.
Pavan K Varma, author,
Rajya Sabha MP, advised
the publishing industry to
provide a ‘choice of printed
books and e-books to its
readers’. A mechanism
should be formulated where
‘printed books and e-books could coexist to serve readers across all genres’,
he suggested. Varma said ‘the digital
format of books is becoming popular
amongst youngsters but still, people who
belonged to the era of printed books prefer
hardbound.’ However, he added that
rejecting technology will only get these
readers marginalized.
Urvashi Butalia, Chairperson, FICCI
Publishing Committee and Director,
Zubaan, said that today publishing is not
limited to printed books; its scope has
grown by leaps and bound. The electronic
gadgets such as cellphones, laptops, tablets
and i-pads have come to the fore as new
platforms for information dissemination
and books have also found a place. She
said ‘Digital publishing has also brought
new models of book distribution and new
platforms to read and interact
with the book.’
Rajiv Chilaka, Founder &
CEO, Green Gold Animation
Pvt Ltd (Creator of Chhota
Bheem character and books,
and films), said that in the
publishing industry, content rules and one
must embrace the technological changes
to sustain and survive in the long run.
He added that publishers need to keep
pace with today’s consumer and plan
for tomorrow. Chilaka stated that digital
publishing has emerged as one of the best
options for small publishers who want to
enter the market as it involves lower startup cost. Besides, the content never goes
out of stock and is available globally with
just a click of a button.
— BLD
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Read how India's voice
was muffled by the British
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6
youngminds
The Publishing
Process
PUBLISHING SEEMS like a simple business
at its heart: an author writes a manuscript, it’s
printed or turned into a book, and a reader buys
it. This apparent simplicity actually requires a
lot of hard work and money on the part of a
publisher
Commissioning: which is the right book
to publish? Commissioning editors evaluate
manuscripts, select the ones they think
will succeed, and take them through the
commissioning process. Content editing
includes substantive editing while also
strengthening and unifying the authorial voice.
Copy editing can be critical in catching minor
and major errors the author may have missed. A
copy editor reviews a manuscript for grammar,
punctuation, spelling, and consistency.
Proofreading is the polishing phase. The
proofreader looks mainly for correct grammar,
punctuation, and spelling.
Designing: What’s so complicated about
designing a book? Anyone can do it with a
word processor, right? Well, not if you want
a book that’s optimally designed for ease of
reading, with a typeface that suits your subject,
and that doesn’t just look like every other book
on the market. Are there illustrations needed? .
January 2015 Book Link
Pratham is 10 years old
2014 WAS a big year at Pratham
Books as we reached the ripe age of
ten years!
Our language repertoire expanded
to sixteen, which included four
tribal languages of Odisha, namely
Kui, Saura, Juanga and Munda in
our latest series called Adikahani.
The first ever books for the reading
pleasure of tribal children, many of
them, coming to school for the first
time were written and illustrated by
tribal authors and illustrators and we
won the Publishing Innovation award
at Publishing Next for this effort.
We also published our first
digital book, Too much Noise by
Noni and Angie and Upesh which
was also awarded at Publishing
Next and are steadily advancing
towards a print+digital model
to reach the largest number of
children. We continued our work on
reading promotion by using social
media to draw in volunteers called
champions to read to children so
that they associate books with fun.
On International Literacy Day, we
held more than 1,500 such sessions
of our title Takloo across the country
in multiple languages.
— Manisha Chaudhary
Publishing opportunities
— contd from page 1
Talking Textbooks
Farzana Quader
You must select and pay them. And then there
is the book cover, to make the book stand out.
Production: how do you settle on a printer?
What do you send them? A publisher has an
entire production department to find printers
who can do a good job within their budget; to
source paper and other materials and to oversee
the actual production process.
Selling and distributing: how does the
book get from publisher to bookstore to the
customer? Publishers maintain warehouse
operations and relationships with wholesalers
and bookstore chains.
Selling: how do consumers, bookstores,
libraries, and schools find out about new
books? Publishers send out catalogs or provide
“meta-data” to online sellers, but they also have
sales people, who promote the newest books to
institutions booksellers or librarians
Marketing/promoting: how do institutions or
readers find out about a book? Publishers have
marketing staff that send out review copies,
create promotional items, send out posts on
social media, and book authors for workshops
and briefings.
(Farzana Quader is senior Editorial Manager,
Oxford University Press, India. The views expressed
are strictly personal)
French Illustrator Julia Wauters at Bookaroo evnets, in
Delhi, in Pondicherry and Chennai
Narayan’s
Malgudi
Schooldays
PUFFIN BOOKS India recently announced re-edition
of RK Narayan’s masterpiece Malgudi Schooldays
which revolves around the everyday life of ten-year
old Swaminathan, or Swami as he is known by other
characters. Swami portrays the growing up pangs
of a boy who despises school, as he makes excuses
and roams around Malgudi with his friends. Malgudi
Schooldays is an abridged and deliciously illustrated
edition of Narayan’s celebrated novel Swami and
Friends. A delightfully funny account of a harumscarum schoolboy by one of the greatest writers of our
time, Malgudi Schooldays enchants and exhilarates all
those who step into its world.
— BLD
How you can
help
Project Nanhi Kali is a participatory project where you can sponsor the education of an
underprivileged girl child. You can sponsor a Nanhi Kali from primary school studying in
class 1-5 at just Rs. 3000 a year, while for Rs. 4200 you can sponsor a Nanhi Kali from
secondary school studying in class 6-10. Thereafter, in the first year you will receive the
photograph, profile and progress report of the Nanhi Kali you support, so you are updated
on how she is faring in both academics as well as extracurricular activities.
is being challenged, revisited and reinvented and therein exists the opportunity
and scope to grow with perhaps the most noble of all professions.
India is at the centre of global publishing. Its growing education level has
yielded a staggering number of English literate individuals. This, in turn, has
helped fuel a revolution in content creation, consumption and dissemination.
1. Books are the second most purchased item online.
2. India’s publishing industry is the only one that is consistently growing
(unconfirmed reports peg this growth at 15% per annum).
3. Indian writing of all sorts is now globally recognised.
Besides conventional publishing, there is another stream that has grown
phenomenally in the last two decades. This is the sector widely known as Publishing
Services. By conservative industry estimates, this services sector employs about
three times more individuals than conventional publishing and it continues to grow.
This stream has given rise to a unique term – Knowledge Process Outsourcing.
While this doesn’t have the same glamour quotient as traditional publishing, it
nevertheless is the beginning of an exciting new career path.
Students aren’t particularly thrilled about publishing as there is very little
awareness about future growth prospects. What’s worse is that there is a paucity
of formal training. There are workshops, diplomas and even an attempt at a Post
Graduate Diploma. These are deterrents but shouldn’t be deal breakers. Chances
are, a person getting into publishing will never leave it. However, even a small
stint in publishing will lead to greater opportunities within many sectors. Media,
communication, corporate communication, legal communication, service
provision (freelance or employment by a service provider) and self-publishing
are some of the exciting options that open up.
A good place to start searching for a career is inquiring with publishers if
they have an internship and/or training programme. Most reputed publishers
have these and will gladly accept graduates/post graduates. In addition many
universities are now putting together modules that will help students get
sufficient knowledge of the industry.
Visit any book-fair, especially the World Book Fair at New Delhi, and you can
see the vibrancy and diversity of this industry.
I got into publishing accidentally but I am here because I like being here.
To know more about publishing and/or publishing houses please see
www.vivekmehra.in and www.slideshare.net/vivekmehra03.
marketbuzz
January 2015 Book Link
Hachette India
This was the year that was
Thomas Abraham
Managing Director-Hachette India
THIS HAS been a spectacular year for
us but one that nevertheless reminded
us that silver linings, notwithstanding
the dark cloud that shrouds the trade
publishing environment, have not quite
gone away.
I mention this despite having our most
successful year ever. Because it is the
key to recognise that trade publishing
and bookselling has undergone a huge
change in the past few years and that
churn is still underway. There is a big
debate raging on right now about the
whole online vs brick and mortar and
what publishers can do about it. The
simple answer is nothing, even if one
wants to as it’s clearly against the
law to restrict discounts that benefit
the end consumer. So any solution to
this is only going to be achieved with
the associations presenting a case for
legislation, the way France has done.
But it’s clear the book trade must find
The year
ahead
Manisha Chaudhary
Head, Content
Development,
Pratham Books
2014 WAS a year that children’s
publishing certainly received more
attention and publishers such as
Duckbill , HarperCollins increased the
numbers on their list. The World Book
Fair set the tone with Kathasagara
and the important document The Good
Books Guide to help the process of
book selection being released via the
good offices of National Book Trust.
In 2015, the digital book is likely to
receive a lot of attention as publishers
come to terms with people reading
paper books. The government’s plans
to rapidly increase digital access
will only accelerate the process. The
mobile will also emerge as a strong
contender as a means of disseminating
content and children’s publishing
will be cognizant of this new reality.
Pratham Books, with the help of
Cisco, has already launched a mobile
reading app for android devices with
150 books to test the waters.
its answers and its equilibrium quick.
On the one side we have the collapse of
the chains with barely two left standing
from the original six or seven we had
even five years ago, and on the other we
have the problem of insane discounting
as online continues with the loss leader
principle to get traffic at any cost.
If all this were not enough, then
there the issues of copyright, piracy,
freedom of speech and the draconian
section 295A. So we do live not just in
interesting but in highly exciting times.
While bestsellers grow bigger, what
is worrying is that a title has barely
3-4 months today and the midlist is
becoming much smaller than it used
to be. Not a healthy trend for trade
publishing.
Like every year, there were some
disappointments for Hachette--Deep
Blue a new children’s series sold below
expectations, as did one of the funniest
risqué books written in India Gone
with the Vindaloo. Indian crime fiction
seems unable to break out despite there
being some great books like Lethal
Spice. We had scheduling gaps too
--the new Nicholas Sparks and the new
Subroto Bagchi ended up moving to
next year, but despite these...overall at
year end, it’s turned out to be a really
sensational year.
Coming back to the great year we
had, the bulk of our sales this year was
concentrated in the last four months--thanks to an unusual build up of
blockbusters. A huge chunk of the
year’s success is of course attributable
to the blockbuster of the year that
(despite being a relatively high priced
hardback) even briefly toppled the
new Chetan Bhagat off the charts in
its week of debut and still remains the
No 1 non fiction release of the year.
Sachin Tendulkar’s Playing It My Way
was, of course, the title in question
smashing all adult hardback records
with sales topping 220,000 copies in
less than a month. We also had I am
Malala, which after the Nobel logged
up an exciting 70,000 copies. The
new John Grisham Gray Mountain
expectedly moved over 50,000 copies.
Silkworm, the new instalment from
Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) sold
over 25,000 copies. Donna Tartt’s
much acclaimed Goldfinch, Sue Monk
Kidd’s The Invention of Wings and
David Mitchell’s Bone Clocks headed
up our literary lists. The fledgling
local list had some very successful
books too—the latest edition of
the Hachette Children’s yearbook,
Vivek Menon’s masterpiece Indian
Mammals, are just a few of them We
had some good commercial fiction
in Sreemoyee Kundu’s Sita’s Curse.
Raghu Srinivasan’s Avatari and RV
Raman’s Fraudster. Three other major
releases will flow into early 2015—
Krishna Udaysankar’s Kurukshetra,
the third part of the fabulous Aryavarta
Chronicles, Umanath Nayak’s Fatal
Margin, a new medical thriller and
Amrita Chowdhury’s Breach, a cyber
thriller. Armed with these and a lot
more to come that you’ll see next year,
we are fairly bullish about the coming
year 2015.
Move from marketing
books to
marketing content
ALL ACROSS the world, businesses are moving from
traditional marketing to more targeted and content based
marketing and the advantage that publishing has over all
the other industries is the abundance of content; first hand
content but are we ready to put this wealth to use is what we
need to start thinking about.
The publishers of fiction, non – fiction and children’s
books are still creating content for the print medium and
simply converting the files for e reader formats. What is
needed is to think of creating content for the e-format. The
growing affordability of smart phones makes consumption
of content much easier and faster but it also enhances the
Book Business
Lipika Bhushan
need to change the way content is consumed. We need to
start finding ways of converting books to more reader
friendly content if we wish to reach out to a new set of
audience consuming content only through palm tops and
mobile devices. They are the young generation of readers
that would grow our business.
We have the 3 I challenge that lies ahead:
1) Interesting: Creating content that captures the interest
of those who believe in instant gratification
2) Improvising: Continuously improvising on the content,
adding features to suit the tastes of the readers
3) Interactivity: Content needs to be made interactive.
Creation of content well, is in itself, the first step towards
marketing your content. As the current consumption style
for content makes it possible for the content to also work as
an advertisement and teaser for what’s next to come.
More on this next time..
(An award winning branding and marketing professional, Lipika
Bhushan runs MarketMyBook, a first of its kind book
marketing consultancy firm providing offline and online marketing
solutions to writers and publishers)
Trends for the future
—contd from page 1
However, shortage of water, wood, petrol and
growing environmental consciousness may
definitely become a growing concern.
2. E books will become ‘normal’. Currently
viewed as a threat to print books, I see a
transition of ebooks from being that strange
and threatening force outside to being
accepted as a part of the society. As the library
of ebooks expands, formatting improves and
reading devices become more affordable,
the consumption of ebooks should rise
exponentially.
3. Mastering Mobile – the World’s Fastest
Growing Media Platform will become a
necessity for publishers. The former president
Shri APJ Kalam said at a recent conference
that libraries should be integrated with mobile
platforms to empower people in the country
particularly the youth with knowledge from
books and journals. As a growing trend in
2015, Digital and mobile technology should
take more precedence than before. The content
will need to be shortened.
4. Holistic and strategic approach to social
media will play a stronger role in carrying an
influential voice – helping publishers engage
directly with customers and vive versa.
7
Current usage of social media by publishers
and universities in India remains ad hoc and
somewhat experimental; limited to Facebook
and twitter with rising awareness about use of
you tube specially in academic libraries. 2015
should definitely see acceleration in the uptake
of these tools.
5. Marketers will have to become competent
storytellers in 2015. They will need to harness
different strategies to be heard over the ever
growing noise of products in the publishing
world and meet the expectations of the
changing Indian reader. The challenge would
be to put in a more conscious effort and
collaborate across screens, channels, and to
deliver ONE experience to customers.
6. Traditional publishers will have to form
a direct relationship with readers and their
customers – know them, recommend further
purchases, notify when a new book is out
etc. Publishers, who do nothing but sell, sell,
sell, are going to get ignored, dismissed and
overlooked by consumers and prospects.
7. It has been happening quietly through
2014, but happening – we now increasingly
have two separately operating book businesses
– amazon and everyone else. The big question
is – will amazon create a closed world that is
more profitable for an author or publisher than
the other world that includes everyone else?
The challenge would probably be to counter
the impact self-published eBooks will have on
the book publishing business.
8. It will be interesting to see if and how
the epicenter of book publishing shifts from
publishers to self-published authors. Models
of self-publishing and ebooks may usher in
a new era in Indian publishing; creating an
ecosystem that will spawn some new players
and services hitherto absent from the industry.
9. 2015 should also see the people-based
research make a comeback. Publishing
companies would need to think out of the
box and connect more directly with their
customers through qualitative partnership and
collaboration involving more customer insight
than in-house analytics.
10. As researchers, readers, libraries and
students begin creating their digital footprints
and masking their identities online, publishers
need to create more reasons to interact with
them. That may lead to more exhibitions,
fairs and meet-ups, roundtables, conferences,
surveys, twitter parties, and discussion based
forums. So, the Indian publishing industry
is probably moving towards a new evolving
world in 2015 where the written word will go
online and become shorter, satisfying our need
for speed, instant availability and quick read.
(Shafina Segon is Head of Marketing –
Journals & Online Resources, South Asia,
Taylor & Francis India)
8
showcase
January 2015 Book Link
Date of Publishing 24 December / Posting on 27-28 December
That unexpected phone call
Papri Sri Raman
FROM BOOK to Film is a 100-ft
journey, it would seem. And it is not all
flower-strewn. That is what the ‘most
talented’ panel at the Times LitFest in
Mumbai said. Best according to bestselling author Chetan Bhagat whose
three out of six books are now turned
into films.
He was the moderator on the last
day of a session at the festival (Dec
6-8), where the others speaking on the
process through which a book goes
while becoming a movie were actor
Om Puri, business journalist Richard
Left to right: Richard Morais, Chetan Bhagat, Om Puri, Marie Brenner and Basharat
Peer at the Times Litfest, Mumbai
Morais whose book, The 100 foot
Journey, is a very successful film in
which Puri is the star, Vanity Fair journalist Marie Brenner he got a call from the producer’s office. He was frightened
whose article on Jeffery Wignad and the activists’ wars when he got the screenplay and Steven Knight told him, go
ahead, look at the people, the names involved, ‘you are in
a win-win situation’, the book will sell again after the film
and more people will get to know your writing by seeing
the film.
Bhagat’s own books and the process into film were
In 2014, around forty novels have become movies
studiously kept out of the discussion by both, the panel
in Hollywood and two, 2 States based on Bhagat’s
and the audience, and no one talked of Five Point Someone
novel of the same name and Haider, an adaptation of
and the rights controversy with Amir Khan starring
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in Bollywood. Author-journalist
Three Idiots. But the question hung in the air and finally
Basharat Peer scriptwriter for the Vishal Bharadwaj
Bhagat asked, ‘how do you negotiate the money?’ Morais
production Haider, says, Bharadwaj ‘wanted a third
explained what is known as the Hollywood Accounting,
film, a sequel to his first two, Maqbool (2003) and
where there is money for everyone in the process but the
Omkara (2006), adaptations of Macbeth and Othello’.
writer. The Producer buys an option, a rights option for a few
Maqbool won Bharadwaj two international awards.
dollars, that gives them the right to develop the story into a
‘When Bharadwaj wanted to do a third in his Shakespear
film, not necessarily the book. The way an author can keep
series, he asked Basharat to write. Peer’s first book is the
his earning flowing from the film is if and when a ‘bonus’
acclaimed Curfewed Night, based on his Kashmir roots.
is written into the contract, and in Hollywood, this is
Bharadwaj had two stories in mind, Hamlet and King
the norm. In India, ‘it is one-time flat down payment’,
Lear.
Bhagat said. Om Puri said, this is not so in Hollywood.
‘Hamlet was the obvious choice and Kashmir, there is
Quoting old films, he said, how famous writer’s works
something rotten in the state of Denmark... and Kasmir,
were made into films in Bollywood in earlier days.
the scene of multiple tragedies,’ says Peer
However, he made no bones about the fact that the process is
There are not many authors who liked the movie
better today, ‘less thieving of stories’ happened today,
version of their books. The Shining, one of the best
‘chori kam hoti hai’.
horror films of all time, had found its critic in its own
Talking of the Russel Crowe, Al Pachino-acted film, The
author Stephen King. Among others were Ken Kesey
Insider, Brenner said, ‘movie-making is hyper-reality’ and
for the adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,
‘it is an extraordinary feeling... film-making is a great art...
Winston Groom for the adaptation of Forrest Gump,
how Hollywood can turn a piece of text into a film...it filled
Roald Dahl of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
me with awe’. ‘The story starts with obsession, the story of
Dahl expressed his grief by calling the movie character
a whistle-blower, the effect the film has on an audience’.
of Willy Wonka, ‘a pretentious and boastful guy’ after
Morais called the process ‘surreal’. Puri noted that reading
the movie adaptation was released. He never gave
the book gives the role-playing actor a glimpse into the
permission for the adaptation of its successor Charlie
writer’s mind.
and the Great Glass Elevator.
Basharat Peer, talking about his first film experience
In India too, the transition of books into film is
with Haider, said, ‘It was scary and exhiliarating’. He
not new.There were many intervening, salient years,
admired Irfan Khan’s entry, the subtlety of it and says,
however, between these books turning into films. ‘Let
how in his book, he had not given too much importance
the books live for a while then turn them into movies’,
to a young boy jumping out of a ‘truck of dead bodies’;
said Dan Brown at the Penguin Annual Lecture in Delhi
how the film had turned it into an unforgettable shot.
last month.
— BLD
‘I like to be a journalist, it helps you sharpen the cinematic
image into writing’, Peer said. ‘Don’t read just bestwith the American tobacco lobby, The Man who Knew sellers’, he added, ‘this is not your canon. There is a
Too Much was turned into the film, The Insider. Journalist- pantheon of writers out there. You will not get much
writer Basharat Peer wrote the script for Haider. Three from reading us, read the dead ones.’ There was one more
authors of the films were quintessentially journalists who author at the festival, Upamanyu Chatterjee whose English
found their processes awesome and had no major quarrels August: An Indian Story (1988) has been made into a film
with either the process or the producers. The best part was by Dev Benegal. Chatterjee, a bureaucrat by profession
that the audience got to see complete ad clips of the three and filled with self-importance, defied all Rahul Bose’s
films, which most had not seen.
attempts to draw him out about the process of writing and
The film-maker Ismail Merchant had befriended Morais had nothing to say about the little known film’s making
as a young journalist of Forbes Magazine in Paris; or the though he was script writer too.
other way about and Morais said, Merchant would ‘curry
Book and film are stand-alone entities, they all admitted.
favours’ after he fed his visitors well. He cooked. From
Talking of their moment of awe, all except Bhagat,
this came the germ of the idea, ‘currying’ and a story on recalled that first phone call, Vishal Bharadwaj for Peer, to
currying and cooking. ‘There is no poetry in business Michael Mann for Marie Brenner. For Anand Neelakantan
journalism and writing fiction makes me a better journalist’, the journey has been happy, his English books Asura and
he said. He admitted and he had not believed it first, when Ajaya are Tamil films.
Book to film
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Architecture of Fatehpur Sikri
Embodied Vision delves into a series of
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in the constantly shifting axes, complex
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and the conflicting pulls of traditions and
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Professor
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978-93-83098-48-4
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