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Wanted: CEOs from India

: We need to make a book look sexy enough.” When Thomas Abraham, the India head of Hachette, the latest and biggest of international publishers to enter the Indian publishing market makes that statement, you sit up and take note. To launch its operations in April this year, it is the most eagerly awaited entry by the rather minuscule Indian publishing industry. Abraham concedes that festivals and fairs — of which the three most prominent in the country are on or about to start — the Kolkata and Delhi international Book Fairs and the Jaipur Literary Festival —attract eyeballs and media space. “But what we need is good old hardsell,” he asserts.

Statements like these are no flash in the pan. Signs that publishing will be a big ticket sector in the future are aplenty. Chains are becoming the norm as exemplified by Tata’s Landmark, Shopper’s Stop promoted Crossword, RPG-led Spencer’s Books & Beyond, Apeejay Surrendra Group’s Oxford Bookstore, Future Group’s Depot and the Reliance Group’s Timeout, which launched last month in Bangalore and is set to inaugurate its second outlet – a mega 40,000 sqft store on the Delhi-Gurgaon border. Then there are standalone chains like Corner Bookstore Company and Om. Random House, Harper Collins, Picador, Paragon, Routledge, Taylor & Francis — all leading global imprints — have had sales and marketing departments in India for a while, but in the last year or two have started editorial departments challenging the position of the leading trade publisher in India, Penguin.

“There’s consolidation everywhere, which means the widest sweep — ranging from self-help books, textbooks, management, career enhancement, leisure reading or coffee-table books and what have you,” says Vikas Gupta, MD, Wiley India. “I can predict a phenomenal growth curve for Indian publishing as the market has massive potential — and would like to include both English and regional language publishing,” says Sage India’s VP-commisioning, Sugata Ghosh. “While the book retail industry has been growing steadily, the book retail category is still unorganised and fragmented, with stand-alone bookstores accounting for more than 80% of book sales,” points out CB Navalkar, CEO, Crossword.

Experts in the sector agree that hitherto the bulk of publishing has been textbooks. Along with distribution right, that’s where the big bucks were. But with Amazon and Borders looming over the horizon, distributors in India, in keeping with the global pattern, may well be a threatened lot, say insiders.