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boom in quality children's books. And cellular stories –Japan seems to be fascinated with them. Five out of Japan’s top-10 selling works of fiction are the paper bestsellers which were composed for and on the mobile,” says Geeta Dharmarajan, founder of Katha.

Writer William Dalrymple, a Penguin author, can’t stop gushing about Random House India’s new covers for old Anita Desai classics like In Custody and Clear Light of Day. “The new covers are the most attractive repackaging of classics I have ever seen.” He welcomes the arrival of international publishers as good news for the publishing world. “Penguin is very professional and quality is as high as anywher. The work they did on my last book The Last Mughal was excellent, but still, when competition arrives, it can only be for the good.”

Dalrymple admits there has been a design revolution in advertising in Indian magazine publishing. This, he feels, is spilling over into the book industry. The market dynamics have changed too. For example, if Dalrymple’s City of Djinns, a bestseller when it was published, sold 6,000 copies in hardback, The Last Mughal sold 35,000.

Anita Nair, author of Ladies Coupe, says: “Things have improved for writers to the extent that there is greater visibility and perhaps a little more media space. Hence, the reading public gets to know a little more about new books and may be persuaded to acquire them, if not read them.” But does greater income free Indian writers from trying to work in another profession? Well, no — not yet. “It’s still going to take a while before writers published only in India will be able to live off the income derived from writing and publishing in India,” says Nair. A Capexil study, in fact, estimates that 25% of the books are pirated. Challenges remain, of which perhaps the search for the new reader is prime. “A basic problem is the unattractive way languages, especially English, are taught in schools, where no one is even speaking properly,” says Debi. While most are confident about the content being generated by Indians, Vidya Virkar, partner of Strand Book Stall says, “We don’t have enough good Indian writers in fiction.”