At the Kolkata book fair this year, there were 521 stalls and pavilions and 200 more for little magazines. With regional publishing alive and well?though there are price challenges and quality of production issues? across Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi and other vernaculars, players are trying out new ways to reach the reader.

Some like DC Books of Kerala have well-entrenched distribution strategies, others are learning the ropes. Sudhanshu Dey of Dey?s Publishing in Kolkata says malls are becoming the latest outlets of Bengali books. Starmark, Crossword and other book retails chains now all have Bengali sections that are seeing brisk sales. ?What this has done is improve the production quality,? says Dey. Bengali publishers are now realising that prices have to be increased to meet quality. ?Of all the regional publishing in Hindi, Tamil, Oriya, Gujarati, Bengali books are priced lowest, but if we need to carry on with some innovative marketing, we need to hike prices,? adds Dey.

Ananda Publishers? MD Subir Mitra says it is trying everything to reach books to the reader. ?The Bengali publishing industry was located on College Street; we have tried to move beyond.? It has opened nine showrooms in different parts of Bengal and Assam. ?We have 2,500 titles and need a proper distribution strategy in place to grow,? adds Mitra.

Horses for courses: Major marketing campaigns

Recent?

The Booker was just one of its awards. The publicity campaign for The White Tiger (HarperCollins) won the award for the best use of multi-media in the Asian Multi Media Publishing Awards.

Vampire Nights?parties and events for Stephanie Mayer?s Twilight (Hachette) across hotels and book stores.

Spring Fever (Penguin) drew about 5,000 people to India Habitat Centre was an extensive nine-day affair which included readings, regular as well as dramatised, conversations, a Bollywood quiz, advance readings and bookings, besides special displays. A sneak preview of forthcoming books included readings from One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel; Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna and Jimmy, the Terrorist by Omair Ahmad.

A Suraini food festival was organised to coincide with the launch of Lathika George?s The Suraini Kitchen (Westland).

Chetan Bhagat has been on extensive book tours, meet the authors over the better part of last year to promote his best sellers. There was a tie-up with Big Bazaar. Rupa also issued a box set of this first three novels. Is the pricing at Rs 95 its best-selling strategy? Also an accessible author who blogs as well as attracts controversy. A marketing dream!

A secret that you lied about campaign for Secrets & Lies (HarperCollins) involved use of mobile for advertising and promotion.

Narnia Read it Before you See it campaign (HarperCollins) and Who is the Cricketer Here campaign (HarperCollins) for The Zoya Factor.

Metro Reads (Penguin) saw the first three books in a series being promoted, where else, but in the metro line connecting Delhi University.

Present…

The Publisher?s Promise (Hachette) ensures you return KP Singh?s book, Delhi Durbar, in case you do not like it. The publishers are confident you will!

Bring Home Your Japanese Wife campaign (HarperCollins) to give a fresh push to the sales to Kunal Basu?s book around the time of the release of the movie by the same name.

… and future

Johnny Gone Down campaign (HarperCollins) is expected to be one of the biggest campaigns.