The Publisher’s Post is a bi-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.

Big B to grace Jaipur Literature Festival
Source: Hindustan Times

Literature will get its fair share of glamour at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2009 beginning on January 21 when Amitabh Bachchan shares the stage with art connoisseur Neville Tuli, the founder of the Mumbai-based auction house and archive Osian.

Bachchan’s presence has been posted on the official website of the festival. He will attend a session on January 23 on his biography, Bachchanalia: The Films and Memorabilia of Amitabh Bachchan, at the Durbar hall in Diggy Palace, the venue of the festival.

Osian’s CARD, an arm of the auction house, will present Bachchanalia: The Films and Memorabilia of Amitabh Bachchan, a biography of the Bollywood icon co-authored by journalist Bhawana Somaaya and Osian’s Centre for Archiving, Research and Development (CARD), sources in the organising committee of the festival said Friday.

Bachchanalia… is a documentation of the superstar’s journey of the film world, illustrated through rare film and exclusive movie posters and publicity material.

The book, the debut publication of Osian’s Publishing and Design House, was launched in Mumbai earlier this month (Jan 3) by Aamir Khan at the Tata Theatre in NPCA in Mumbai.

Somaaya, co-author of the book is the recipient of several awards. She is also the editor of the Indian film magazine, Screen. She had earlier authored “Amitabh: Now and Forever” published in 2001.

The Osian’s Publishing and Design House has lined up several publications this year, which include “The Passionate Detachment: The Osian’s Archive Collection of Cultural Heritage” by Neville Tuli and Osian’s CARD, a five volume magnum opus about the creation of one of the world’s finest collections of Indian and Asian Fine Arts and cultural artefacts, Flamed-Mosaic: Indian Contemporary Painting and Filmistan Hindustan: A History of Modern India as told by Bombay Cinema, 1920-1960 by Virchand Dharamsey & Kaushik Bhaumik. 

IGNOU to start course in publishing
Source: The Hindu

The IGNOU is going to launch a specialised course on book publishing by next month.

The IGNOU, in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Publishers, has designed a PG diploma course .

The university would help the students to get placement, IGNOU V-C Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai said.

“The new course has been designed in a fashion that it would incorporate all aspects of the publishing industry. It is the first-of-its-kind programme in distance learning mode in the country,” he said.

Students will be awarded two certificates — one for theory and another for practical — issued by both the university and the FIP. The FIP would arrange internship for candidates in publishing houses.

“As the publishing industry promises a good career opportunity, it is necessary to provide them with quality education in the subject.”

The eligibility to take admission is a graduate degree from any recognised university. The course could be completed in one year to five years. It will deal with areas like editing, designing, production, copyright, reprographic rights, author- publisher relationship and marketing of books.

Foreign book publishers buying over Indian cos, says study
Source: Times of India

Even as Parliament’s Standing Committee of commerce ministry has asked HRD ministry to conduct a study on the impact of 100% FDI in book publishing on the domestic industry, a study done by the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) shows that foreign companies have made negligible investment (Rs 20 crore) since 2000. Simultaneously, they have taken over Indian companies as reprint business has changed to imports and profits have been repatriated. 

The FIP study points out that in 2000 when 100% FDI was allowed, foreign publishers were allowed to set up fully-owned companies, reprint books as well as import their home products and enter the retail market. 

Citing government figures, FIP says that so far FDI worth only Rs 20 crore has come to India. On the other hand, it shows that more and more Indian publishing houses are being taken over by foreign firms. 

In this regard, FIP head Shakti Malik cites how Butterworth India Private Ltd has bought over NM Tripathi & Company, a leading publisher of law books. Similarly, Allahabad Law House and Wadhwa & Company have lost their independent status. Malik also gives the example of Cambridge University Press, UK, buying Manohar Book Service and Foundation Books. 

FIP also claims that due to FDI, reprint has changed to imports. In the pre-FDI regime, foreign companies allowed low-priced Indian reprints/editions of their works. “This enabled Indian companies to provide books at an affordable rate to readers/students against payment of royalty and expand the readers’ base,” says Malik. Now foreign companies are importing what was earlier published under licence in India. “As a result, book prices have gone up and there is a huge loss of foreign exchange to the exchequer,” Malik says. 

Alleging profiteering by foreign publishers, the FIP report says the ratio of imports to exports is 1:10. “This is an extremely unhealthy situation,” Malik says. 

As for active participation of foreign companies in distribution and retail, FIP says many foreign publishers like Hachette, Scholastic and Random House have got into the retail and distribution business. 

A novel venture in publishing
Source: The Hindu

When the book Nilaviliye Kurichulla Kadamkathakal (Riddles on Lamenting) will be released at Changampuzha Park, Edapally on Saturday, it will set a new trend in the publishing history of Malayalam.

This is the first book from Book Republic, a group of Malayalees, living in different parts of the world and together in the Malayalam blog (http://book-republic.blogspot.com/). The author of the book T.P. Vinod is now doing a research in chemistry in South Korea.

He is popular among Malayalam bloggers as Lapuda (http://lapuda.blogspot.com/), the penname he adopted from the fictional flying island in Gulliver’s Travels. The book features 49 poems written by Vinod that were earlier published.

The team at Book Republic is trying to generate capital for publishing by collecting small amounts from the network of persons and the same network will be used to distribute the products across the world. One thing assured about the system is the reach. The practical aspects will surface when the actual product start moving across the network.

Poet P.P. Ramachandran will release the first book on Saturday by handing over the copy to Kavitha Balakrishnan. Writers and artists Anwar Ali, V.M. Girija, T. Kaladharan, P.N. Gopikrishnan, Sreekumar Kuriyad, G. Ushakumari, Sebastian, Anita Thampi, Vishnuprasad, Crispin Joseph, Sanal Sasidharan, Latheesh Mohan, V.K. Subaida, Vinu Pallippaadu, Aneesh and Manoj Kuroor will participate in the discussions and poetry session that will follow.

Also scheduled for the inaugural function is a Sitar recital by T. Vinod Sankaran and screening of the short film Parole. 

No copyright on Gandhi’s works from Jan 1
Source: NDTV

Mahatma Gandhi’s literary creations are now set free of copyright issues. Starting January 1 2009, sixtieth year of his death Mahatma Gandhi’s literary works can now be published and reprinted anywhere by anyone in the world. 

The Ahmedabad-based Navjivan Trust, which so far held exclusive copyright on Gandhi’s creative works will no longer do so. Gandhi himself never wanted the copyright law but he later accepted it on the condition that the trust would hold these rights only till the sixtieth year of his death.

The sixty years ended on January 1, 2009.

Even as publishing houses gear up, Gandhians fear misinterpretation of his works. 

“Already there been so many controversies due to misinterpretation of what Mahatma had wrote or expressed. Now as his works are going to public domain, the possibilities of more such attempts are high,” said Sudarshan Iyengar, vice-chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapith.

Navjivan Trust, which has published over three hundred volumes of Gandhi’s literary works will continue to do so. But they accept this change with reluctance. 

“We are not supposed to force others to stay away from publishing Gandhiji’s works. But movies have been made, write-ups have been published even when Copyright Acts had ensured that only Navjivan Trust is authorised to publish Bapu’s works, letters or even handling his autobiographies,” said Jitendra Desai, managing trustee, Navjivan Trust.

Gandhians strongly feel that the government should step in to ensure the copyright stays with Navjivan Trust. They fear controversies, particularly if his communication with his family and people close to him become public. 

Oriya readers prefer books written in English
Source: Daily News and Analysis (DNA, Mumbai)

If the sale of books at the Berhampur book festival is any indicator, young readers prefer books written in English and Hindi than Oriya. 

“Young readers bought more books written in English and Hindi than those in Oriya,” said managers of several publishing houses. 

The president of the Orissa Sahitya Akademi Hussein Rabi Gandhi blamed parents for this. “Parents have to play a role to create interest among children about books written in the mother tongue from childhood,” he told a seminar at the book fair. 

Apprehending that the time was not that far off when there would be no space for Oriya books in the state, a local publisher said “if this trend continues for long, publishing houses in Orissa will only publish a limited number of books for libraries only,” said Bijaya Rath, a local publisher. 

Several readers, however, attributed preference for books in English and Hindi to the high cost of those written in Oriya. “The cost of good books in Oriya is very high compared to those written in Engish and Hindi,” said Devadutta Sahu, a visitor at the festival. Books on religious issues and health, translated in Oriya and children’s books, however, were in great demand at the book fair compared to fiction. 

At least 50 publishing houses from different parts of Orissa as well as outside the state put up 80 stalls at the 8-day book fair. 

Collection of Saurabh Chaliha’s works released
Source: The Assam Tribune

An anthology of the works of fiction, non-fiction, drama and translations by noted writer Saurabh Kumar Chaliha has been released. The anthology edited by Shoneet Bijoy Das and Munin Bayan has been published by Katha Publications of the city (Guwahati).

Noted litterateur Hare-krishna Deka speaking on the occasion described Sri Chaliha as the trendsetter of modern Assamese short story. Dramatist Apurba Sarma congratulated Katha Publications and Shoneet Bijoy Das and Munin Bayan for their efforts in bringing out the collection. 

A garbage dump is now a library
Source: The Hindu

Till recently, an open space within four walls of Raichur Fort near the city bus stand was used to dump garbage by hotels and petty shops around it. People in the area were using the space as a toilet.

The open space surrounded by fort walls located within the historical Mecca Darwaza, an entrance towards the city on the western side of Raichur Fort falls under the limits of protected historical monuments. Dumping garbage or using it as a toilet is prohibited. The historical importance of the area was in a state of neglect owing to alleged lethargy of the officials concerned at the Archaeological Department here in providing proper protection to it.

Four years ago, the then Deputy Commissioner Ashok Dalwai took the initiative to clean the area within the Fort walls on either side of the Mecca Darwaza and restored the dilapidated structure of the fort wall to its original shape.

Though a gate was fixed at its entrance to prevent entry of public, the space within the forts walls was used as an open air theatre to conduct small functions during special occasions such as the Independence and the Republic Day celebrations. But soon after the transfer of Mr. Dalwai, the gate fixed to the entrance was pulled down by vandals and area was again turned into a toilet.

Things started changing when the district administration took the initiative to clean the open space at the Mecca Darwaza and fixed gate at its entrance. It has been converted into an open air public library and open for public use after Deputy Commissioner J. Ravishankar inaugurated it formally on January 26.

The library, with has all leading and local newspapers and magazines, set up at the open space within the four walls of the historical fort is being maintained jointly by the district administration and the City Central Library. The city municipality, which had provided water and electricity at the site, has taken up the responsibility to maintain cleanliness around it.

Several social organizations and NGOs, including the Kote Adyayana Samiti, the District Athletic Association and the Bharata Gnyana Vignyana Samiti, have come forward to extend support to the district administration in the maintenance of the library and protect the historical importance of the Raichur Fort. There is a good response from the public as nearly 200 persons visit the library every day, which is open from 8.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6.30 pm.

Fair bait to hook ‘minor’ readership
Source: The Telegraph (Calcutta)

If J.K. Rowling single-handedly steered a computer-obsessed younger generation to books, social organisations in Nagaon are making their own little effort to attract the “minor” readership.

Next Monday (January 19), Neherubali, opposite the district library, will be transformed into a minefield of books, where everybody is invited – to browse and buy.

Over the next six days, the book fair, hosted by a publishing house called Krantikal, will roll out one programme after another to draw the ponytails and shorts to the pavilion.  Aiding Krantikal’s efforts will be names like National Book Trust, Readers Pride, Chitralekha, Sahitya Akademi, Anwesha, Bantata and Sarathi. Thirty-seven books on and for children will be released at the fair, which has been ensured participation by 133 publishing houses from across the country.

A special literary session for children will be held on January 20, followed by three seminars on Writings for Children on January 22, 24 and 25 and a workshop on terracotta. The idea of a book fair exclusively for children came up during a discussion last September, said the joint secretary of the organising committee, Dulal Barua.

“We thought of organising a children’s book fair and discussed the idea with authorities, including the deputy commissioner, and received a very positive feedback. That encouraged us to go ahead with the project,” Barua said. 

Deputy commissioner J. Balaji said all possible initiatives would be taken to ensure participation of schoolstudents from all parts of Nagaon. “Few children these days read anything beyond their textbooks. We are dreaming of creating a new generation of writers and the book fair may just be a step towards that,” he said. 

International Conference on ‘Contemporary Indian Writing in English: Assimilation and Denial’ 

Jan19-20, 2009. Further details may be had from sunainak@ignou.ac.in, sunainaignou@gmail.com 

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

Work and its worth

Tulika released Paanai seivom, payir seivom: Nam kaalathil uzhaippin madippu, in time for the Chennai Book Fair (that commenced on the 8th and will end on the 18th of Jan ‘09). This tidy paperback is the Tamil edition of Kancha Iliah’s Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of labour in our times, first published in English by Navayana Publishing. Educationist Aruna Rathnam’s translation keeps the informative spirit of the original.

This is a very important book because children’s books shy away from tackling troubling issues such as caste, race and class. Professor Iliah not only breaks this ‘taboo’ but uses a creative and analytical approach to get young people to rethink the disdain they have for manual labour. 

He takes them through the science and art of the skills of adivasis, cattle-rearers, leatherworkers, potters, farmers, weavers, dhobis and barbers, so they understand the value of the work done by these communities considered ‘backward’. Bhopal-based artist Durgabai Vyam’s dramatic folk-style illustrations speak visually for the dignity of labour.

Hard hit by Globalization

Never Done and Poorly Paid: Women’s Work in Globalising India
by Jayati Ghosh
Women Unlimited (an associate of Kali for Women)
ISBN: 81-88965-44-8

This book investigates the complex interaction of the forces of globalisation with shifts in the nature of women’s work in the Indian context. It shows how rapid economic growth in India since the early 1990s has not been accompanied with the required expansion of productive employment opportunities. This has generated unexpected outcomes for patterns of women’s employment in India, which has shown quite paradoxical trends: simultaneous increases in work participation rates, unpaid labour, migration for work and open unemployment of women. 
 
The author attempts to unravel this complicated set of outcomes for women workers, by situating them in wider economic processes and relating them to economic policies and labour market developments. She argues that while the Indian economy’s recent boom has excluded the bulk of women in the country from its benefits, such tendencies are no longer unnoticed or uncontested.
 
Jayati Ghosh is Professor of Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has taught at several universities in India and abroad, and served as part-time adviser and consultant to many governmental and international organisations. 

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

New horizons, new challenges
Source: The Hindu Literary Review

What’s different though is what’s happening at the smaller level in India. In many other countries, multinational publishing has meant the death of indigenous publishers. Not so here. A look at the last two decades — also the period in which joint ventures were set up — reveals the growth of a vibrant, exciting, new sector of Indian publishing, the independent publisher. One doesn’t even have to search for names, they’re everywhere: Blaft, Phantomville, Yoda, Navayana, Kalachuvadu, New Horizon, Tara, Leftword, Tulika, Daanish, Rainbow, Social Science Press, The Little Magazine, Tara Research Press, Full Circle, Mosaic, Mapin, Seagull, Women Unlimited, Stree, Vani, Yatra, Rajkamal, Zubaan… and the list goes on. And they’re in different languages, and different cities.

More, the independents have experimented in ways that are completely new and innovative — for example, teaming up with larger publishers to do books under a joint imprint, drawing on the collective strengths of both. Rather than put their somewhat unequal muscle and economic power against the biggies, the independents have chosen to find ways of working with them, and with each other, that allow both to preserve their identities and to gain an edge. So Ravi Dayal has partnered with Penguin, as has Zubaan, Mapin has partnered with HarperCollins, Yatra and Penguin publish jointly in Hindi, and Seagull Books now helps to take books published by smaller publishers to a wider audience abroad.

Read the whole article here

‘I’m the luckiest novelist in the world’
Source: The Guardian (UK)

By day Vikas Swarup is a high-flying Indian diplomat; by night he’s a bestselling author. And now Slumdog Millionaire, the film based on his first novel, has won four Golden Globes.

They changed the title from Q&A to Slumdog Millionaire. (”That made a lot of sense,” says Swarup.) They changed the ending. (”Danny thought the hero should be arrested on suspicion of cheating on the penultimate question, not after he wins as I had it. That was a successful idea.”) They made friends into brothers, axed Bollywood stars and Mumbai hoodlums and left thrilling subplots on the cutting-room floor. Crucially, they changed the lead character’s name from Ram Mohammad Thomas to Jamal Malik, thereby losing Swarup’s notion that his hero would be an Indian everyman, one who sounded as though he was Hindu, Muslim and Christian. Instead, they made Jamal a Muslim whose mother is killed by a Hindu mob. (”It’s more dramatically focused as a result, perhaps more politically correct.”)

Read the full interview here

Rearing a reading habit
Source: Deccan Herald

M S Sridhar lists out the reading phases of children and gives tips on how to get your child to read more.

Apart from improved academic achievements, reading non-fiction develops an inquisitive attitude in students. In children, 8 to 13 years age is considered to be the golden age for developing reading habit as a leisure activity and children in this age show maximum interest in reading as well as visiting libraries.  After passing this age, interest in reading fades and relationship with books wary with motivation to read replaced by other dominating interests like love, adventure, etc. Reading habit is considered as ‘passport’ to many different new ‘worlds’ like the world of past, future, technology, nature, outer space, other countries and above all the innermost part of human heart. And in children, if developed in the right age, reading habit remains strong and grows continuously through out life. The talent and interest developed through non-fiction   reading is for lifetime and the knowledge acquired and updated through regular reading habit is the source and a way for developing character. In order to inculcate reading habit in children, understanding the five reading phases is necessary. 

Read the whole article here

But who reviews the reviewers?
Source: Hindustan Times

Frankly, it’s hardly an exact science. While someone may appreciate the ‘literary’ traits of an Anita Desai, someone else may find exactly those very qualities ‘pretentious’. Similarly, what strikes some as the utter charm of ‘the-way-we-speak-in-urban-India’ language in Chetan Bhagat novels can be banal for others. Then there’s the other problem with book reviews – what I call the ‘incest factor’. Consciously or not, the reviewer and the author of the book share the same blood sport – both deal with words; they deal with tricks of the same trade. And here’s where the book is so unlike all those other things like film, music or food.

Read the entire post here

Putting it together: The joy of anthologies
Source: Business Standard

Eugenides does a wonderful job of recording the random but focused nature of the anthologist’s task: “In discovering and gathering these stories, my method has been maximally random and sociable. At lectures and book parties, in elevators with editors and at literary festivals with fellow novelists, on college campuses, in loud tapas bars, over a Delirium Tremens at the Hopleaf on Clark Street, I asked whoever happened to be nearby to name a favourite love story.”

This captures the compulsive nature of the true anthologist—a need to collect, to weed out, to have everything that is necessary—as well as the nature of the task, which is to plunder the treasures of the collective reading mind. Eugenides, a disturbingly brilliant writer, had an edge in that the brains he picked belonged to the likes of Jonathan Franzen and Jhumpa Lahiri, but most anthologists would confess to employing the same technique.

Read the whole article here

Jab we speak
Source: The Times of India

In this linguistic melange, if there is one language that’s making itself audible across the country, it’s chutneyfied English. Used by everyone from cabbies to CEOs, it is fast becoming the country’s best-loved (and most hated) characteristic. It is inventive, witty, colourful and uniquely Indian because we speak like that only. If someone’s a big bore, you can tell him to stop pukkaoing you. If you don’t want to work, you can chill, yaar. If you want to show appreciation, you say it’s kickass maga (in Kannada English). 

It is definitely not the Queen’s English. Call it the Maharani’s English if you will. There’s nothing royal about it though, it is about the masses. Be it the Banerjees of Kolkata, the Ramanathans of Chennai, the Kapoors of Delhi or the Ambegaonkars of Pune, everyone is mixing it up. The only difference is that while some are salting their English with local lingo, others have a smattering of angrezi in their local dialects. 

Read the entire post here

On the trail of some must-read stuff
Source: expressbuzz.com

Random House’s first release, though, is non-fiction, Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight by Rujuta Diwekar, the nutritionist responsible for Kareena Kapoor’s weight-loss programme. “Her point is simple and clear,” says Tanzer. “You can eat anything you want, it just matters how and when you eat, and of course, exercise, which is something one can’t escape.”

Among other notable releases planned are, Baulsphere by Mimlu Sen. An intimate portrait of the baul musicians, Baulsphere takes you into the heart of rural Bengal. Mimlu Sen who lives in Paris, one day witnesses an electrifying performance by the mystic minstrels, who spin like pillars of dust. Their music inspires her to return to Calcutta, and an extraordinary journey with one of them, Paban Das Baul. It’s passionate, enthralling and lyrical.

In My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose, four middle-aged men sit together in a railway station, waiting for dawn to break. To pass time, each tells a story of a woman they loved secretly in their youth…romantic, elegant, suffused with melancholy, My Kind of Girl is a classic love story from one of Bengal’s greatest writers.

Read the entire post 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 writetous[at]thepublisherspost[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. 

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

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