Indian Publishing Tour – Day Ten. Patua narrators.

Day Ten – Calcutta
Patua narrators
Sunday 1 February 2009

Morning walk around the old centre (the BBD Bagh). In St. John’s Church, Jessica shows off her musical talents and plays on the old piano. Walk around the Lal Dighi tank, with the beautiful Writers’ Building in front. Lunch at a Bengali restaurant in the New Market, where we loose James and Lucy to the shops. 

BBD Bagh, Calcutta's colonial centre.

BBD Bagh.

Piracy!

Then, wonderful afternoon at the Weavers’ Studio, where Scottish professional storyteller Ruth Kirkpatrick shares the stage with traditional Patua narrators. Still a caste-based occupation in West Bengal, Patuas practice storytelling with beautiful scroll paintings that are sung to the audience. Inspiring collaboration between Ruth’s tale about the origins of the tartan and the Patua’s pictorial tradition. (The event was again part of the BC’s Kolkata-Scotland programme). 

Patua narrator.

Brief detour to see more bookshops. Although a bit better than the ones we saw in Delhi, we’re still not very impressed. Late afternoon at the Fair – drinks and a healthy game of shithead in the evening. 

 

Indian Publishing Tour – Day Nine. Kolkata Book Fair.

Day Nine – Calcutta
Kolkata Book Fair
Saturday 31 January.

Morning seminar at the hotel about Indian publishing and retailing. The seminar’s part of the wider BC’s Kolkata-Scotland programme that is taking place during the Book Fair, so the panel is chaired by Sujata Sen (BC Director East India). Representatives from the Federation of Indian Publishing (FIP), Elsevier (the big educational publisher), Starmark Media and Oxford Bookstore are all there to talk about their sectors. The presentations are heavily descriptive though, and they tend to present India as a ‘vibrant publishing industry’ leaving aside its complexities and challenges. So what we get are general facts that show the recent market’s growth, and charts that portray ideal distribution and production chains.

Seminar on Indian Publishing, ITC Hotel.

Nevertheless, the figures are quite overwhelming: there’s been a 30% increase in literacy in the country in the past 50 years; India is the third English-speaking publishing market in the world; its 10,000 publishing houses produce over 80,000 titles each year (60% in education, 40% in general trade books) with an overall turnover of INR 10,00 crores.

Lunch at hotel, sponsored by the BC. Sujata recommends a ‘very special’ textile shop in downtown Cal – the Weaver’s Shop, which sells beautiful scarves and exquisite pashminas. One really never has enough of these, so we take the first taxi downtown to check out the place. Back to hotel in the afternoon, and off to the Book Fair, which is just next door. There’s a special BC office in room 1001, so they escort us through the hotel’s gardens to the back door where we can cross over to the fair. The first thing to say about the Fair is that it is not, like Frankfurt or London, a publisher’s event. Instead, it’s a trading one, directed to the readers. This basically means masses of people walking around the venue, and long queues to enter big stands (like Penguin). Because of this, and due to the infinite politics around the event (which I won’t even try to enumerate – let’s just say that the Fair got cancelled last year three days before!) -, very few publishers are here. Most of them have just set up their stands and left a sales rep to man them. For the group, this is all a bit disappointing. Still, the Fair is a huge and vibrant bookshop (very much unlike the bookshops we’d checked out in Delhi), and besides the usual suspects (HarperCollins India, Penguin India, Rupa, etc.), there are dozens of stands selling titles in Bengali, Hindi, and other regional languages. In a sense, then, the Fair allows us to see another market reality – one that is more inclusive, and that has been totally absent in our previous meetings. The Scottish Pavilion dominates the centre of the Fair’s esplanade. The building is simple but friendly (again, much politics involved in its construction). I’m not sure though I get the idea about having the entire place filled with books that are not for sale (or free distribution). Are we supposed to read an Ian Rankins’ novel while there?

Entrance to the KBF.

Penguin India at the KBF.

Scottish Pavillion, KBF.

Indian Publishing Tour – Day Eight. Calcutta.

Day Eight – Calcutta
Calcutta
Friday 30 January 2009

Very early start in Delhi. Check-out of the hotel and taxi to airport at 7am. Much crankiness from the UK young moaners of the year. Security checks all over the airport, and no smoking areas. C’est la catastrophe, as Davy says. Slight flight delay, but we land in Bangla territory just after noon. Quick, hurried lunch at the hotel. Met with Chhandak, our BC guide while in Cal(cutta). No time to wander around the Book Fair (which is just next to the hotel), or to have a smoke overlooking the Hooghly (views from the rooms are amazing), as we’re already late for our meeting with Naveen Kishore from Seagull Books.

Naveen Kishore from Seagull Books.

Outside Seagull.

Seagull Books.

Since 1982 Naveen has ‘dedicated himself to quality arts and culture publishing’, building in the process one of the most respected and successful houses in India. Seagull’s backlist includes titles by Sartre, Bataille, Debord, a large collection of texts on cinema, and some work from celebrated Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi (which Seagull represents globally). In addition, they’ve been re-issuing most of Verso Classics since 2004. We walk around Naveen’s beautiful, Bengali intelligentsia-style office, enjoying some coffee and talking to some of the other publishers. There’s a couple of Norwegian women waiting to meet with Naveen, so we leave after a while.

Back to the hotel as Chhandak doesn’t want us wandering around Calcutta. Mind you, we’re very tired. Still, the city looks amazing, laid-back, sunny, and somewhat elegant. So different from Delhi. We meet back at 6, and head off to the Park Hotel for the Indian Young Publishing Entrepreneur award 09 ceremony. Before the announcement, Hari Kunzru gives the keynote speech. Given that there’ll be a panel discussion on diversity in the publishing market afterwards, Kunzru talks about publishers’ responsibility in ensuring/disseminating free thought, free speech. After the horrific events in Bangalore last week, Indian publishers need to realize that as ‘fierce champions of new writing’ their task is far from over. Scottish literary agent Jenny Brown chairs the panel, and S Anand (making a second appearance in our tour) talks about publishing titles on caste in India. For him, the diversity of publications depends directly on diversity of the workforce. Using the Arts Council’s Decibel programme as an example, he talks about the need to enforce diversity in publishing houses – not only Dalits, but Muslims and gay people as well. James joins the discussion next, arguing that diversity and entrepreneurialism need to go together, precisely in the context described by Anand. Barry Sherwin from Barrington Stoke, a publisher of titles for dyslexic and reluctant readers based in Edinburgh, talks next about his work, giving diversity a wider, often forgotten meaning. Peter ends the discussion, and warns us about the dangers of branding authors under the diversity category. Kunzu finally gives the Indian YPE award to Nishad Deshmukh, a successful Pune-based STM publisher. Drinks and dinner afterwards, where I meet Nishad and the group meet several young publishers. Exhausted, so off to bed early.

Hari Kunzru.

Jenny Brown chairs the BC panel.

Indian Publishing Tour – Day Seven. HarperCollins India.

Day Seven – Delhi
HarperCollins India
Thursday 29 January 2009

Last day in Delhi. Morning meeting with Vivek Gaur from the India Today Book Club. One of the biggest business conglomerates in the country (they run Thomson Press and own half of HarperCollins India), the India Group publishes more than 60 magazines and runs its own TV channel. Sales in magazines have been dropping, so they’ve taken advantage of the credibility of their brand and the efficiency of their distribution network to venture into bookselling by creating a Time Life-inspired book club. Their 300,000 members get access to very cheap books (sometimes with a 75% discount), music, clothes, etc. They basically buy large numbers of titles from publishers (sometimes at a 90% discount), and sell these at 25% of their usual retail price, thus making a 60% profit. Recently, they’ve also opened a new chain of bookshops – Media Market – where books and magazines sell at standard market prices. 

India Today Group.

The India Today Book Club is certainly a successful marketing and sales case study. Their use of the existing brand is clever, and they provide an efficient alternative distribution channel (direct promoters, online book club webpage) to the insufficient network provided by bookshops. The problem, of course, is that their exclusive focus on brand and pricing limits their offer to bestselling authors and encyclopaedias. Furthermore, their alternative distribution is not really developing the local infrastructure – on the contrary, by bypassing it, they damage the few existing retailers, who are unable to compete with their prices.

One hour drive to Noida to meet with HarperCollins India. We meet with Karhika V.K. and Krishan Chopra, Chief Editors. Even though it was set after the economic liberalisation, the company is still a joint venture (50% HarperCollins UK, 50% India Group). Brief, interesting chat, where they show us their local books and talk about the main challenges and traits of the Indian industry:
1. There’s been a recent, impressive growth of the market. Ten years ago, a bestseller sold around 10-20,000 copies. The figures are ten times bigger these days: the last Harry Potter book sold 250,000 in two weeks last year; White Tiger has sold so far 140,000. This increase responds mainly to the explosive growth of the English-speaking middle classes, but it also reflects an improvement in the distribution and marketing infrastructure and resources. So far, the English-speaking market in India is estimated at around 30-40 million readers, so it’s around the same size as Canada’s.
2. Piracy! They estimate that piracy accounts for an extra 25% in sales. IP laws are existent in India, of course, but coercion and enforcement is still weak, and the trade associations aren’t doing much about it. There are several pirate-friendly printing presses – especially around Bangalore!

HarperCollins India.

3. Mass-market vs. Literary fiction. Mass-market fiction is relatively new in India, but it has proven to be much more successful than (contemporary) literary titles. A title like Advaita Kala’s Almost Single can easily sell over 30,000 copies, and Chetam Bhagat’s books (like One Night @ the Call Centre) are always instant hits. ‘The market is not comfortable reading English in a literary level’, Krishan explains.
4. HarperCollins India publishes around 80-90 titles locally per year (which accounts for 10% of their total business). Those local authors rarely get picked up by UK publishers. Surprisingly, Continental European houses are far more interested in them – even though they need to translate the texts!
5. Books in regional languages are much cheaper and of much lesser physical quality than English ones. HarperCollins India has recently opened a Hindi imprint, and they’re trying to raise the standard book price to INR 100-150 (usually they’re priced around INR 50). Books in English oscillate around INR 250-350, depending on whether they’re hardcovers or paperbacks.  

Krishan from HarperCollins India.

Afternoon free for private meetings, so everyone has plans for after lunch. Some stay in Noida and  meet with publishers at Random House. Back at the hotel, we say goodbye/thank you to Mrs. Mookherjee (mil gracias, tia!!). I take a taxi to Old Delhi, as I need to find a rucksack in the bazaar next to the Jami Masjid Mosque. Tomorrow we leave early for Calcutta, so we’ll be going out for a drink later.

Jami Masjid Mosque, Old Delhi.

Jami Masjid Mosque, Old Delhi.

Indian Publishing Tour – Day Six. Numbers, numbers, numbers.

Day Six – Delhi
Numbers, numbers, numbers
Tuesday 27 January 2009

Early start for our first meeting at the British Council’s offices. We meet with Hema Singh (an ex-British Council colleague who’s a specialist in Indian publishing), Manish Sejwal (from Anamaya, a STM publisher), and Jaya Bhatta (Head of the Journals Division of Taylor & Francis South Asia). Jaya wrote the PA’s report on Indian publishing, so her insights of the industry are phenomenal. Intense conversation to get the basics of the market right, but as Indian publishing dynamics are complex, it’s no easy task and the hour and a half passes quickly. Below some initial guiding notes:

1. The Indian publishing sector is ‘many markets within one market’. India has over 30 official regional languages (plus English which is the lingua franca), and the regional publishing markets work in very different ways. 
2. The boundaries between sub-sectors (distribution, publishing) in the market are very blurred. Publishing multinationals often act as their own distributors (in the case of Penguin, for instance, they also distribute other UK publishers, like Bloomsbury and Faber & Faber), whereas former distributors/importers have also began to publish books.  

The group at the BC office in Delhi.

3. For foreign publishers, India is essentially a volume market selling destination; books are very cheap (the standard price for a novel is around £3) and ‘book tourism’ is common (postage costs are not expensive either). It is not clear though what makes a bestseller (in terms of number of titles sold), as market information is widely unavailable.
4. As in the UK, discounts vary according to the supplier and the retailer/distributor. The ballpark figure across the different sectors/retailers is of 50%, although it can fluctuate between 30-80%. Unlike the UK, the sales-or-return system is the most common one.
5. Reliable market information is widely unavailable (there is no EPO system in place, despite India being a global IT hub). Most information has to be carried out by the publishers themselves, based on end of year returns and long auditing processes.

One hour drive to Faridabad, to one of the new EPZ (economic processing zones) in the outskirts of Delhi. We meet with R.B Kashyap from Thomson Press, who gives us an introduction to the printing company and a tour of their impressive plant. Thomson is the largest printing company in India (with plants in Mumbai, Chennai and Noida as well), and is part of the India Today Group, a massive media conglomerate that invests in radio, internet, TV, and publishing. Currently, they publish over 60 magazines. Their clients overseas include UK publishers like OUP, HarperCollins, Penguin and Pearson. After touring the plant we understand why – the facilities are amazing, and they work on everything from pre-press to printing, finishing (laminating, gilding, stamping, varnishing) to delivery.

Thomson Press.

Thomson Press.

Thomson Press.

Thomson Press.

Thomson Press.

Siesta on the car as we go back to Connaught Place, where we stop at the Khan Market to have a coffee and browse the shops. Then off to our last meeting at the India International Centre with the Federation of Indian Publishers. Founded in 1972, the FIM was born out of the schism with a previous association with the Indian booksellers. When the latter refused to stop importing large volumes of foreign titles (‘that could’ve been published locally’), the publishers decided to leave and create their own federation. Nowadays, they have over 2,000 members, and they mainly work in readership promotion (through government-run education programmes), organise book fairs, and raise copyright awareness across the country through seminars and conferences.

The board is having a meeting, but we’re invited to join in at the end of the session to have a chat with them. Mostly elderly STM publishers, we spend over an hour with them discussing the challenges facing the industry these days. They all seem to agree that besides piracy and low literacy rates, the main problem in the sector is distribution. For Ramesh C. Govil, the current Chairman of the FIP, ‘bookshops are way too small to ensure that titles get adequate exposure and promotion’, which is why they constantly organise book fairs around India. Interestingly, no one seems to consider the lack of proper market information management a problem. There is a silence when Davy brings out the issue, which is an essential one for foreign publishers. For the FIP board, market information is an individual matter, something that each publisher needs to find out by him/herself. Not convinced, we all wonder if the younger generation of publishers share the same views. The liberalisation of the economy, the establishment of EPZ zones, and the removal of export barriers for publishers (2003) are all important measures, but will India be able to complete its integration to the global market without an adequate (digital) distribution system that produces a proper, numerical understanding of the local market?

The FIP.

Indian Publishing Tour – Day Five. Republic Day.

Day Five – Delhi
Republic Day
Monday 26 January 2009 

Lazy morning. It’s Republic Day today, so everything is shut. Some of the guys sneak out to see the Parade, others stay in and enjoy the hotel’s spa. The Cleopatra Mil Bath is particularly reccommended. After lunch, I go for a walk with Jessica, Davy and Nii. We walk to the now deserted Rajpath, which connects Victory Square and Raisina Hill with the India Gate.

Republic Day, Rajpath.

Republic Day, Rajpath.

India Gate.

Delhi’s new town, designed by Lutyens in the early XXth century, feels like a European city. We could easily be in the Champs Elysees, or in the northern tip of L’Eixample in Barcelona. Back to the hotel, we take an hour rest and then head to the Nizamuddin Complex to meet with S Anand, the IYPE 07 winner, MD of Navayana Publishing. Peter and Lucy have gone to a Random House book launch nearby, so they might join us later. We meet with Anand near the Ghalib Academy, where the broad, Hussman-like boulevards of Vijay Chowk have disappeared. An old basti (medieval settlement), the complex revolves around the grave and shrine of Sheikh Nazrat Nizamuddin, a XIVth century Sufi mystic. The winding, atmospheric alleys are full of merchants who sell rose petals, religious offerings and all types of souvenirs. We enter the congregational area, pay our respects to the mystic (Jessica has to wait outside the marble pavilion as women are not allowed in), and then we head off for a gourmet tour of the area. Mutton, cottage cheese with onions, sweet roti on the street. Anand tells us about the Ashoka Fellowship he’s just won, so we decide to move to Delhi’s Defence Colony to get a drink and celebrate it. Unfortunately, it’s a dry night because of the holiday, so we end up going back to the hotel.

We’ll celebrate in Kolkata.

Nizamuddin Complex.

Nizamuddin Complex.

Nizamuddin Complex.

India Publishing Tour – Day Four. Amber Fort.

Day Four – Jaipur, Amber, Delhi
Amber Fort
Sunday 25 January 2009.

Early start to get to the provincial border on time before it closes. It’s funny though how there’s no single official version of its closing time. We assume we need to get there before four, but have no idea if we’ll have to spend the night in the car and wait for the frontier to re-open. Amitava, still with us, promises to get us through no matter what.

Saying good-bye. Rambagh Palace.

Saying good-bye. Rambagh Palace.

Brief stop at the Jal Mahal on our way out of Jaipur, the beautiful ‘water palace’ built by Madho Singh I in the middle of a lake. Next stop is Amber Fort, just 11km north of the city on the road to Delhi. Founded in 1592 by Man Singh I before the capital moved to Jaipur, the fort is absolutely stunning. Harassed by dozens of polyglot souvenir sellers, we manage to rent some elephants to climb up to the fortress. Once up there, we can’t help marvel at the beauty of Islamic architecture and the wonderful views of the sleepy town of Amber. Brief, unsuccessful attempt to get some proper coffee at the Illy coffee shop. Once back down, it’s souvenir harassment again, but we find the car quickly and get en route to Delhi.

Jal Mahal.

Jal Mahal.

Amber Fort.

Amber Fort.

Amber Fort.

Amber Fort.

Amber Fort.

Four hours later, we arrive at a strangely deserted and foggy Delhi. Tomorrow’s Republic Day, which is a national holiday, so the streets are empty.