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Wanted: CEOs from India

: had no trained sales or marketing teams in India,” points out Shruti Debi, editor, Picador India, explaining why literary publishing in India is particularly tough.

“More disposable incomes, greater availability of books from better format stores will help the sector, authors as well as the reader,” says Pramod Kapoor, publisher, Roli Books. He admits that in the short run, some Indian publishers may be affected, but the process will see more investment from outsiders and publishers getting more creative, ultimately resulting in better books. “The greater acceptance of biographies and non-fiction books are signs of maturity for the Indian market,” adds Kapish Mehra, Rupa. Today, if India can produce quality content it would also find markets all over the world, says Gupta.

“Even international publishers don’t just survive on the basis of their domestic consumption alone. Content is developed keeping in mind the potential sales in their home countries and their possible spin-offs elsewhere in the world, through economical student editions, reprints etc. Today, given India’s growth, a lot of new opportunities for developing world-class content are appearing here.” Navalkar cites the example of Namita Devidayal’s The Music Rooms as an example of a novel that is now available worldwide.

N S Krishnan, marketing head of Random House, points out that the company has seen double digit growth in the last two years, and with a star line up for 2008 including new books by Salman Rushdie, Vikas Swarup and possibly Dan Brown, things can only look up in India.

“Distribution will change for the better,” he says explaining that it might take some years, but will make the situation much better.

“Indian publishers have registered higher rates of growth, given their focus on new Indian authors,” points out Navalkar. “But the need of the hour is for publishers to join hands with their retail partners to market books/authors and build the reading habit,” he adds. So, what are the top genres of book sales in India? According to Navalkar, it’s children’s books (40% of volume sales), fiction and business and management.

“Corporatisation is happening as well,” explains Jaya Bhattacharji, MD-Journals, Routledge, saying this would probably take after the global trend where four-five conglomerates now dominate the sector. However, moving towards a Frankfurt book fair-like facility which is more trade oriented will help the sector get more focused. “Right now the Delhi and Kolkata fair are excellent occasions underwritten by the government,” she says.