India now has even more of a Frankfurt connection. India, which is the only country to have been accorded the ?country of honour? twice at the world?s largest book fair, has now become the sixth country where the German Book Office (GBO), a joint venture of the Frankfurt Book Fair and German government, will have a permanent office. The office, located in Delhi, will facilitate interactions between Germany, one of the largest global markets for publishing, and India.
?We are looking to increase India?s participation at the fair,? says Akshay Pathak, Director, GBO India. India?s participation has, however, not been below potential in the past. There is a lot of potential here, he feels. ?We will be a service provider to publishers, printers, federations. The response, after we have established our office here, has been good as we are getting queries,? he elaborates. ?Like other GBO offices, we will help in brokering deals, networking activities and promote outsourcing to India.?
The importance of the fair cannot be underscored as almost all the world?s major book deals are struck here as the world?s publishers gather in this annual five-day fair. But many challenges remain. ?My biggest problem is that there is no collective for the sector in India,? says Pathak. The Frankfurt Fair has a Collective Stand, which is organised by the National Book Trust from India, but there are other bodies too which represent the sector ? CAPEXIL, IPT and FIP. ?Other countries like Thailand, Korea or the South American nations organise excellent stands, apply for money and also get corporate sponsorships.? The fair, which is on from October 15 to 19 this year, will see about 70 Indian participants, which is way below the number for many other nations with smaller publishing programmes. There were 7,448 participants at the 2007 edition of the fair! Some publishers go through their international distributors as the impression is that they might get better placing at this fair, where appointments are fixed six months ahead.
GBO also wants to develop its outsourcing market, where India is seen to have considerable potential. ?We have a section called matchmaking, where we get Indian printers to meet international clients,? says Juergen Boos, Director, Frankfurt Book Fair. While China has cashed in a big way in this market, India too has potential, he explains. ?German publishers want to come, but do not know how to, and we want to bridge this gap.?
Another reason why the Indian publishing sector has not developed as a major market is due to the lack of development of the rights market, explains Pathak, a factor of concern to international publishers.
GBO also has the potentially massive translation market on its horizon. ?We need to invest in capacity building and build databases as a first step,? explains Pathak. ?A lot of translation funding is available. Max Mueller Bhavan offers funding for translations, which has not been used in the last ten years,? he points out. He also points out that most publishers train on the job. ?Frankfurt has a school of publishing, and Indian publishers can train there. We recently did a module for the Arab world, and would like to do this for India as well.?
Whether Indian publishers use the gateway to global publishing, however, is a story that remains to be written.