There was a time not so long ago when India was not on the radar of many big publishing houses of the West. Even in the early 90s, American publishers did not want to do business with India. Overnight the scene has changed. Distributors say they get so many enquiries from foreign publishers. Penguin was the pioneer and the publishing house actually started operating out of India only 20 years ago.
Big names in the industry like Hachette set up shop in India last year. Random House too is a recent entrant. HarperCollins, which is part of the Rupert Murdoch empire, has strengthened its presence in the country.
Book sales have reached a saturation point in the West. Big time publishers are therefore hoping that India and China will open up new markets. India is a more preferred destination with far less regulations than the Chinese market and a large number of English readers.
Although last September and October were not very good for Indian publishers, things have started looking up again. Says Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO, Landmark Ltd, the country?s largest book retail chain: ?We are planning to expand.? He admits that things were slow last year, but the book trade was not affected as badly as apparels or high-end luxury goods. Landmark has showrooms in Chennai (where it was set up originally by entrepreneur Hemu Ramiah), Bangalore, Bombay, Pune, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Lucknow. They recently opened up in Hyderabad .
Publishing is not a business where accurate statistics are available. According to some earlier estimates (at least six or seven years old), the publishing industry has been growing at the rate of 10% per annum. There are 16,000 publishers in India with an annual turnover of Rs 7,000 crore. They publish around 70,000 books a year of which 40% are general books. All these figures must have increased substantially by now. ?In terms of volumes, we must be the third or fourth largest publishing industry in the world,? says Gautam Padmanabhan, CEO, Westland Ltd, which is the publishing and distribution arm of Landmark. The majority stake in Landmark is owned by Trent Ltd, a Tata enterprise.
If a book sold 2,000 copies a few years ago, it was considered decent and 5,000 seen as a great triumph. Today, selling 1,00,000 copies is becoming the norm for block busters. Nandan Nilekini?s book Imagining India, launched October last year, has already sold around 50,000 copies in expensive hard cover editions. Amitav Ghosh?s last novel, Sea of Poppies, has done 40,000 copies and that too in hard cover. It is not just fiction that is doing well. Management books, Cook books, self-help and self-improvement books are all flying off the shelves. Rujuta Diwekar?s diet book was a runaway bestseller.
What are people actually reading? Each city has its own lessons to teach. Chakrawarti says graphic novels caught on in a big way in Mumbai. Bangalore and Chennai are catching up fast. Books on cinema are also very popular in Mumbai, with its proximity to the film industry. The North is obsessed with civil services for employment opportunities. There are whole sections devoted to civil service books. Books on management are a growing category. There is a huge demand for books on specialised subjects like supply chain, HR, organisational behaviour, performance measurement and so on. Children?s books are seeing tremendous growth. Landmark has tie-ups with key content providers like Disney to enhance the content in this area. Language books are doing very well, although language publishing remains a fragmented industry. Landmark is adding on lines of local language books in different cities.
Sales have been climbing steadily. The middle class is spending more on books. Increasing literacy levels and everybody wanting an English education is helping.
The book industry distribution network has also expanded hugely.
Retail expansion has helped more bookshops to come up. As Padmanabhan says, with more stores and more expansion, the publishers have more opportunity than ever to sell books. And more important, books are available at a reasonable price in India. Publishers have maintained a tight check on prices. Book prices in India have been historically low. India?s first PM, Nehru, saw to it that there was no sales tax on books and no import duties. Distributors have been able to negotiate special prices for India. Although this is good for the customers, the industry of course finds the low margins a hindrance for growth. If India can price books higher, more investment will flow into the publishing industry.
The West is now moving towards e-books. Its problems are different. The publishing industry there has to figure out the pricing of e-books. Sony Electronics has recently announced it was lowering prices for new and best-selling books at its e-book store, to $9.99 from $11.99. Then there are the readers to read the e- books. The new Sony Readers are replacing more expensive models and will be taking on Amazon?s Kindle. Sony is also introducing two new electronic reading devices. Barnes & Nobles, the large book retailer, is about to launch its own reader.
In India we are some distance away from moving to the electronic way of reading and even buying books. Buying books online is growing fast. But still, compared to the country?s size and the number of readers, the base is small and not significant yet. Publishers continue to feel quite optimistic about the immediate future. They say things are still on an upswing. On the other hand, India tends to leapfrog technologies. If reading through mobile devices becomes reasonable and accessible, who knows which way the country will turn?