A Passage to
India?
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (JULY 2002)
Move
over, Rushdie. That’s the message emanating from bustling
Hyderabad, India, anyway, where a gang of literati recently
met to ponder the bullish future of publishing in this
nation that boasts an apparently fast-growing appetite
for English-language books. Though only 2% of its population
is capable of reading and writing in English, those
18 million people — and the billions more clamoring
for their MTV — give India the greatest English-language
book buying potential in the world. “In the next 15
years,” as David Davidar, CEO and Publisher of
Penguin Books India, recently told the press,
“there will be no dearth of good English writers and
publishers in the country.” In fact, the US Department
of State estimates the demand for English books at about
21% of all books purchased in India, making it the second-most-read
language behind Hindi (at 28%). “The English-language
books have an edge over other Indian languages only
because most bookshops in our country keep only English
books,” adds K.S. Padmanabhan of East West
Books in Chennai. “English books are much more widely
distributed than any other language.”
Realistic numbers for the nation’s book imports are
hard to come by, but “we can assume it should exceed
$60 million,” says Padmanabhan, and it is with this
in mind that many US-based publishers have followed
in the footsteps of their UK colleagues and set up shop
in South Asia. Cyrus Kheradi, VP and Sales Director
of Simon & Schuster’s International Division,
reports that S&S manages a seven-figure business
in South Asia (US & UK sales combined). Categories
sold in India run the gamut from NYT bestsellers,
non-fiction, and reference, to business, children’s
series, self-improvement, and media tie-ins. Random
House also does big business in India, with bestselling
fiction, contemporary literature, business, promotional,
and children’s books, according to Sandra Friedman,
Senior VP International Sales. (Though the education
sector remains a driving force in the Indian market,
both S&S and Random have exited that business, and
are targeting the trade book segment.)
Getting books to market in India can still be a problem.
“The number of bookshops in the country is not enough
to meet the demand,” Padmanabhan says. “While there
are good bookshops in 7 or 8 of the bigger cities, most
parts of India are not properly served by bookshops.”
S&S sells primarily through national wholesalers
and regional distributors/retailers, the biggest being
India Book Distributors, India Book House,
and East West Books, also known as Westland.
Random House works with these same distributors, in
addition to Rupa and Company and TBI.
Foreign publishers also cultivate direct relationships
with some Indian retail chains, such as Crossword,
Landmark, and Fountainhead, the retail
division of India Book Distributors.
The future of India’s book business is looking bright,
partly due to higher educational enrollments, as well
as government efforts to promote reading. And
while there may be more than 10,000 publishers in India,
not more than 20 of them are active in English-language
trade publishing, suggesting some opportunity for publishers
hot on the trail of the nation’s next Arundhati Roys
and Vikram Seths. But as expected, sales can
waver unpredictably depending on economic and political
conditions. Friedman notes that recent turmoil in the
region has all but sacked the tourist trade, stifling
book sales. Still, she sees the growth of retail chains
and online retailers such as Rediffusion, Landmark
E-Tail, and Fabmart as a sign of better things
to come. Kheradi also cautions that sales in India,
along with those to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and
Bangladesh, are subject to the vagaries of everything
from currency exchange rates and foreign investment
to political tensions and piracy — the latter still
a bitter nuisance for the nation. “In India,” as one
Delhi author recently complained, “copyright means the
‘right to copy.’”
©2002
Publishing Trends
