tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25948194783074788252024-02-02T02:18:53.490-08:00Let's talk about books...and book makingThese are exciting times in Indian publishing — just right for fresh talent to enrich it and be enriched itself. This blog is meant to be a little window for people who love books and may want to join the small and joyful world of Indian publishing. Welcome aboard!Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-30513589552896038812015-01-14T07:39:00.001-08:002015-01-14T07:39:32.803-08:00INDIAN PUBLISHING—WHERE WE ARE AND HOW WE GOT HERE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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‘What got you here won’t get you there’ is a fantastic title
of a bestselling book by Marshall Goldsmith and is often used by management
experts to crystallise the essence of businesses. The question though that we first
need to ask in Indian publishing is—‘Is where we are the place we wanted to
be?’ Let’s ask a few more questions to understand that.</div>
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So where exactly are we? In the middle of nowhere? Or as the
joke goes<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">—we are exactly where
we were yesterday but are running much faster to remain there!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2015
began with the news that one of the largest e-commerce platforms will only
stock and sell—your guess is as good as mine—bestsellers. Most of the remaining
independent and chain stores have anyway been doing just that, or stocking remainders.
So the mid-list, which is conventionally the backbone of a publishing organisation
is eroding, and eroding fast. Some publishers have already decided to only
publish, what else but bestsellers! So are bestsellers the final frontier of
publishing? Or is there more to this profession?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Festive
seasons come and go but discounts are consistently doled out like Christmas
candies and Diwali mithai—from mostly large and multinational publishers to
retailers on account of the race for bestsellers and the large import lists that
they have to tackle, and from retailers, specifically the e-commerce ones to
consumers for greater eyeballs and mouse clicks, and hence, greater valuation.
But is the market expanding because of heavy discounts and excessive product
landing or is it like treating anaemia with steroids?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Financially,
as revenue per square feet of shelf space, are books any competition to Chinese
toys or stationery? Maybe, only remaindered books are and that is why more and
more shelves in more and more bookstores are filled with them. But as shelf
space gets dearer, more from the accountant’s perspective than from the
booklover’s, how long will books be able to withstand the onslaught?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Finally,
is the age of subtlety really over? And are we in an era of in-your-face
engagement and entertainment? Can a book then, with its old-world charm remain
relevant? Or will it, even in its new
avatar as an embedded e-book or an app be any competition to cinema, television
or internet?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And then,
just how did we get here? Indian publishing industry has seen three
generational shifts in one generation. From largely independent stores driven
market to chain stores to e-commerce and e-books, change has been rapid and
hence, stormy. All this was an extension and a part of what was happening to
the rest of the economy—real estate was booming; rentals were skyrocketing and
a middle class of continental proportions was taking shape bringing with it
huge disposable income. So while the publishing industry has grown, it is no
match to say, the FMCG or white goods industry with which it has to compete,
not just in per square feet of revenue but now, ticket size per click as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It looks
like it’s time to collectively re-examine our diagnosis and treatment. The
system needs a boost of sustainability, even if it has to take a bitter pill,
that is, forego some immediate benefits. For, if we really don’t like where we
are, we know what not to do to get us out of here! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-74571578737461503372014-11-18T04:00:00.002-08:002014-11-18T04:00:58.303-08:00Winds of Change at Frankfurt Book Fair<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Article written for IANS published in Business Standard, Yahoo News, </i></div>
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<i>Assam Sentinel and several other media.</i></div>
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"Will you believe me if I said that nothing has changed in the last ten years? It is still about storytelling; we still need to trust each other and look into each other's eyes. We, in publishing though, like to be scared of the future."</div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">The setting seemed perfect - the Frankfurt Book Fair; the Business Club, a paid-for series of workshops at the fair; the speaker, Juergen Boos, the director of the Frankfurt Book Fair; and the man who asked him about the changes he had witnessed at the fair over the last decade: the most translated living author of our times, Paulo Coelho.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">Coelho was quick to respond: "I don't buy your theory. Booksellers are dying. Whether we like it or not, we are walking fast to the digital world."</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">"Yes, I agree. But Frankfurt Book Fair is now 66 years old and growing every year," Boos countered.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">The real experience, though, was somewhere else. The fair didn't feel the same. It was quieter and leaner but definitely not meaner. Many regulars, not just from India but from across the world, were missing - some of them hadn't missed the fair in three decades, not even post 9/11. There was a shift in the profile as well.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">India, for one, seemed to have much more representation from technology professionals and book packagers for children than publishers. Both, in a way, are an extension of the business process outsourcing culture and represent a shift down the value chain.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">Presentations on how you could convert your native files into 30 different kinds of e-versions like epub and mobi, that too, at a speed of thousands of pages per hour, were attracting not just eyeballs but gray cells too.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">Most of the people, though in awe, couldn't decipher what to do with that information. That, in a sense, sums up the current state of publishing - how and when to take that giant leap into the unknown digital world and secretly hoping we would be rather sucked in than be forced to jump.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">Representing continuity was the German Book Office, Delhi, which carried forward the book fair's tradition of adding value for its clients by organising two guided tours enabling business networking for visitors from South Asia. Also, its director, Prashasti Rastogi, was a part of the Expert Table programme to guide visitors from across the globe on the Indian publishing scenario.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">Starting 2015, the famed Hall 8 of the fair, which houses the English speaking world, would be merged with the rest. A case of necessity leading to innovation! Greater proximity would hopefully lead to greater interaction and increased business, not to forget less tired legs!</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">Expectedly, it also throws new challenges.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">The reorganisation would mean that Indian printers will be placed next to the Chinese, a proposition that they found unwelcoming. Apparently, some stiff, if not unreasonable stance by CAPEXIL and NBT, the bodies that facilitate Indian overseas representation, has meant that unlike in 2012-13, publishers registered in India will not share space with the rest of the English-speaking world. Because of the same reason, the state of Indian hall in 2014 was depressing, to say the least. In the interest of Indian publishing specifically, and the publishing world in the larger context, one hopes better negotiations happen for 2015 and beyond. We need to be fighting the challenges together, rather than fighting amongst ourselves.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4640007019043px;">As Coelho, in the enlightening conversation, summed up: "If we don't adapt, we die and the only way we can survive in publishing is to follow the golden rule: Don't be greedy!"</span></div>
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(26.10.2014 - Shobit Arya is the founder and publisher of Wisdom Tree, an independent Indian publishing organisation. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted on twitter @shobitarya and www.shobitarya.com).</div>
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Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-77898985083014676272012-03-07T08:18:00.003-08:002023-12-02T08:05:59.790-08:00Delhi Book Fair: Hidden literary treasures often lie in smaller stalls<p style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Article written for IANS published by Economic Times, The Times of India and several others.</span></p><p><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-size: 130%;">B</span>ooks are going to be celebrated yet again. This time at the New Delhi World Book Fair — Feb 25 till March 4, following closely on the heels of the Jaipur Lit Fest (JLF) and the Kolkata Book Fair. The biennial book bonanza organised by the National Book Trust at Pragati Maidan promises to be bigger and better than before. My tip to you all: don't just flock the big stalls.</p><div class="mod-economictimesarticletextwithadcpc mod-economictimesarticletext mod-articletext" id="mod-a-body-after-first-para"><p> Literature knows no boundaries and certainly cannot be confined to a few. You will find hundreds of hidden treasures in the smaller stalls. And if you are lucky, you may also run into a knowledgeable and amenable publisher or bookseller there. And if you are still luckier, a meaningful and fulfilling conversation combined with a cup of tea may make your visit to the book fair really special.</p><p> When it comes to literary specials, JLF is certainly the top of the pops. Where else would you find globally acclaimed guru Deepak Chopra standing in a half-a-mile-long queue? Where else would you spot India Today group chief Aroon Purie pleading with guards who are blocking the entrance to a hall, "Please let me go in, my daughter is one of the speakers here"? And where else would you see one of India's most well-known filmmakers, Shekhar Kapoor, just lazing in the sun, may be secretly hoping that the world will take notice while hardly anyone does.</p><p> For those of you who remember my last year's article "Confessions of a Publisher Who Never Visits Jaipur Lit Fest", you will probably have guessed by now that I stand converted—into a JLF participant.</p><p> We launched our book, <span style="font-style: italic;">Whispers in the Classroom, Voices on the Field</span>, edited by Richa Jha, at the fest. I turned a bit of a lyricist and penned a song inspired by this book, making it the first Indian book to have an independent song made for it. And I got to soak in the literary jamboree.</p><p> JLF is a fascinating place, so fascinating that at times you don't know what you are doing there. Most of the sessions are engaging, but some have age-old lines like 'Write from your heart' thrown at you. What next? 'Write with your pen'? Or better still, 'Keyboard'? But attending these sessions is an art by itself.</p><p> If you want to really sit down and participate in any of the popular ones, you've got to be an early bird, or maybe even an angry bird. It reminds you of the erstwhile British or American visa queues where you even thought of taking packed <span style="font-style: italic;">aloo parantha</span>s along. That may have been just the right idea for an Oprah session. Or as I overheard an angry bird telling her children, 'You got to push your way through; otherwise you will never be able to do anything in life.' Tiger Mom, eh?</p><p>It is said that whatever you think of India, the reverse is also true. In this case, the paradox was just a stone's throw away from the Lit Fest. The 'Dainik Bhaskar Pustak Mela' happening in its shadows was an intriguing study in contrasts.</p></div><p> With Hari Om Sharan's bhajans playing in the background, tables full of scattered books, booksellers sitting in the middle and atop the pile of books and posters screaming 'Pick any book for Rs.10' or 'Limited Stock Rs.99', it was a joy to find book-lovers in reasonably good numbers there too. And when I found some of the books published by us there as well, I knew I had done my job as a publisher.</p><p> Carrying forward last year's tradition, I must make a confession, which is that I was more at home at the Pustak Mela than at the Lit Fest. May be, I have always secretly dreamed to be that bookseller sitting in the middle of the book pile.</p><p> At the New Delhi World Book Fair, if you spot somebody sitting in a similar ambience, do stop by. It will be nice to meet you. </p>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-37421096306722810632011-12-23T02:29:00.000-08:002011-12-23T02:31:46.253-08:002012 will be game changer for Indian Publishing<h1> <span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://ibnlive.in.com/agency/IANS.html">IANS/ibnlive.com</a></span></h1> <div id="floating-box" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255); position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><div><div class="facebook_box" style="float: left; padding-right: 4px;"><a href="http://ibnlive.in.com/printpage.php?id=214482&section_id=40"><br /></a></div> <div class="facebook_box" style="float: left;"><a><br /></a></div> </div> </div> <div class="more_box"> </div> <div id="topbody"> </div> <p><i>Shobit Arya, the founder and publisher of Wisdom Tree on what we can expect from the Indian publishing next year.</i> </p><p>Technology is like an object in your rear-view mirror. It is always closer than you think it is. In fact, for us in Indian publishing, it may actually just be ready to jump out of the mirror. </p><p>Let me first put this in perspective. Last year around the same time, I was asked by a business magazine to comment on the Indian publishing trends for 2011. I had said then that lack of efficiency in chain stores is bound to diminish gains in medium to long term. The sentiment was not without basis. Over the last year itself, we have seen three of the five biggies getting into extremely choppy waters. Most of them seem to have been caught in the trap of going after margins on paper, running the show mostly from an accountant's perspective.<br /></p><p>Books, interestingly, are not like any other FMCG commodity, where data mining could be singularly relied on. This, coupled with the blind race of scaling up, can be a sure recipe for disaster. Hopefully, towards the latter part of 2012, some of these chain stores would have begun to find their feet again. </p><p>But during the initial phase of this churning, with most of these show-stoppers in bad shape, we are bound to see new independent stores coming up, though the ones to survive will be those which are completely passion-driven. They will need to remember that it was the romance of having a book shop which got them to begin one in the first place. As long as the fire keeps kindling in their heart, they are safe. Conventional book business in India has never been a money spinner, anyway. </p><p>The saving grace among chain stores has been Reliance Time Out, who with their prudent use of technology and a responsive and engaged team led by Deepinder Kampany, Tarun Singh and Jacob Johnson, seem to have got their act together. The rapid expansion bug seems to have caught them too though, which by its very nature is high risk-prone. Fingers need to be crossed on that. </p><p>In 2012, as we saw in 2011, fiction's percentage in the overall book sales will continue to increase in conjunction with the rise of paisa-wasool literature. We have seen the Rs.100 chick lit novels (inflation has ensured a price band of Rs.100-150) mushroom and almost every 20-year-old Indian is an aspiring writer today. This will continue in 2012 with smaller towns increasingly shaping the trend, thereby keeping the non-mainstream book wholesalers in business. The beautifully complex dynamics of Indian society ensures that what is looked down upon by one may be aspirational for the other. </p><p>This brings me to the other trend which I bet on - consolidation of book e-commerce. The phenomenon continues and we will see a rapid maturing of this zone - a few managing to scale up and most of the others who have just joined the bandwagon without appropriate long-term plans and awareness of the challenges of book e-commerce getting weeded out. </p><p>The open secret is that Amazon India is slated to begin operations in 2012 and you can be certain it will change the way books are bought, sold and read in India. But the one with the real ace up its sleeve seems to be Flipkart. They have understood the dynamics of Indian publishing and logistics like nobody else and have the crucial first-mover advantage. It is imperative that they will bring in their own intelligent e-book reader in 2012. Between Amazon and Flipkart, they will definitely negotiate territorial e-book rights with differential pricing with the major international players. </p><p>For an Indian reader, it means that an e-book in India will be cheaper than the e-book, say, in the US or the UK, and also cheaper than its Indian printed edition. Indians are known to be among the most intelligent and money-conscious consumers who want to remain updated with new technology and it's anybody's guess how e-books may take off here over a period of time. </p><p>2012 may then well be the watershed year for books. </p><p>Though the lines between the delivery platforms will get increasingly blurred -- books, e-books, applications, films, television and games will witness an interplay never seen before that you can be sure two things will never go out of fashion - content and customers. </p><p><i>(Shobit Arya is the founder and publisher of Wisdom Tree. He can be contacted at wisdomtreeindia.com and shobit.arya@gmail.com)</i></p>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-35054619653202731182011-10-14T11:24:00.000-07:002011-10-14T11:49:44.636-07:00Indian Publishers Need to Take a Leaf Out of the Young Authors’ Book<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Slightly edited version of article for IANS published in </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">The Times of India</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"> and various other publications.</span></span><br /><p><em>The camaraderie is infectious. Their zest and spirit will put the top rugby team to shame. They back one another like there is no tomorrow.</em></p><p>The world though labels them and their writing as irreverent. Irreverent they are, but only about the fact that they are competing for the same space under the arc lights. You guessed it. I am talking about India's brand new generation of pulp fiction writers - chick lit, lad lit et al.</p><p> The support these young writers lend to one another goes beyond 'likes' and 'comments' on Facebook. A young first-time author, Faraaz Kazi, launches another debutant novelist Sweta Srivastava Vikram's book in Mumbai while he himself turns to a more established Tuhin Sinha for his own novel. Tuhin incidentally belongs to the bunch which really 'started the fire', along with Chetan Bhagat and Tushar Raheja.</p><p> Our young Faraaz then goes on to review another young novelist Aditi Talwar Sodhi's book on an online forum while yet again manages to get an established Anuja Chauhan to do the honours for him in Delhi. And the cycle continues. Sujata Parashar, Amrita Suresh and Sonia Kundra Singh - names like many others that you may not have heard of in the literary circles but who are writing prolifically, and writing with a vengeance - to find not just their place in the sun but their identity too.</p><p> These young novelists share an interesting symbiotic relationship with book e-commerce sites like Flipkart, Landmarkonthenet and Infibeam. The sites attract eyeballs thanks to them and the authors don't have to lose their sleep over a Crossword or a Landmark effectively stocking and replenishing their books. A chain store with effective inventory anyways sounds like an oxymoron in modern times. That calls for another extensive article though.</p><p> Now, compare it to how publishers in India collaborate (or don't). The only time you would see an inclusive and eclectic bunch of publishers together would be under the aegis of a foreign institution. Reverse discrimination apparently is something we continuously hold close to our hearts. Most of the other times, you would see members of federations and associations playing musical chairs in their respective executive bodies, much like their more infamous Indian sports federation cousins.</p><p> Talking about foreign bodies, credit must be given to the German Book Office (GBO), Delhi, for doing exceptional work in Indian publishing. Their recent MoU signed by Jurgen Boos, president of the Frankfurt Book Fair, with the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad to jointly set up a long-term training programme for students interested in publishing is a praiseworthy and welcome step.</p><p> These though are challenging and exciting times for the desi publishing industry. It needs the vigour of youth and their enthusiasm to think out of the box and steer it forward. Remaindered books, poor and mismanaged supply chain, lack of fresh talent across fields like sales, promotion and editorial and many other issues need immediate redressal. It is imperative that we get together to face these challenges and make the best use of all the technological advancement before it is too late.</p><p> In the meantime, there is no harm in taking some team spirit lessons from our young author friends.</p><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >(<i style="">Shobit Arya is the Founder and Publisher of Wisdom Tree which has recently started a special imprint called Offshoots for young novelists. Some of the authors mentioned in the article are published by Wisdom Tree. Arya serves on the advisory board of GBO<span style=""> </span>(also mentioned in the article) </i></span></p>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-69596984314458668692011-01-26T05:40:00.000-08:002011-01-26T05:47:21.748-08:00CONFESSIONS OF A PUBLISHER WHO NEVER VISITS THE JAIPUR LIT FEST<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]-->If you think the headline of this article is an oxymoron or that I am a soiled-kurta-clad, beedi-smoking glum publisher in his sixties who hardly ventures out of his dark den full of books, let me confess it’s neither. I am fortunately a part of a rare tribe—a young first generation independent publishing entrepreneur—and considering I have survived for almost a decade now, there is a bright chance that I will be able to recount romantic stories to my grandchildren about venturing into a zone that sane men and women mostly avoided like hot fire. And you thought that dynasties meant business only in Indian politics. <p class="MsoNormal">Come a new year and if you are a publisher in the twenty-first century version of the city of Shahajehanabad (mind you, if you are a publisher situated in the mecca of Indian publishing—Ansari Road—you are closer to Shahajehanabad than you are to New Delhi) all you hear as parting phrases are ‘See you in Jaipur then’ or ‘I know you will be busy with Jaipur’ or the likes. Let me reiterate what I have already shared with you; I have never been to the Jaipur lit fest (JLF) and have never had a strong desire to. I find the experience of reading an evocative book more intimate than watching an author perform on a stage and going and shaking hands with him. But I urge you to not get swayed by my opinion. My track-record in such things is pathetic. Last time, when a gorgeous Bollywood superstar launched one of our dear author’s books, she almost gave up on me because of the lack of a post-great-event excitement. It was only when she saw that I was supremely excited in doing naughts and crosses on our flight back did she infer that I am just differently wired.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">JLF is a great concept for Indian literature, and everyone associated with it should be commended—the festival directors—Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple; Teamwork Productions and the sponsors DSC. Their efforts have gone a long way in making books and authors fashionable. However, there is a genuine need to make the festival more inclusive. Recently, one of the JLF directors is quoted as having announced that the onus of contacting them and participating in the festival is on independent publishers and authors. I would like to humbly submit that actually, the onus of being accessible and welcoming lies with the powerful and it will only be a positive reflection on JLF’s strength and self-confidence if they were to reach out to the larger Indian publishing world. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Let’s begin with what matters most—the authors. JLF needs to provide a platform to fresh voices and a select number of the deserving and new authors could be made part of some of the panel discussions. It could invite requests on its website with transparent parameters thrown in. Even take informal interviews if you have to! And now let’s talk about what matters even more—the books. Ten best representative books from trade publishers could be invited on a complimentary basis to be delivered straight to the venue. The books can be sold during the last two days. Visitors would be able to get a real and comprehensive flavour of Indian literature and JLF would be able to make the process a self-sustaining one. I would even suggest that like this year’s focus was ‘bhasha’ literature, the 2012’s could well be the Indies— the independent publishers and authors.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I, though, intend to do full justice to my role as a publisher and would be immediately writing to the directors of JLF to facilitate the participation of our authors. Who knows I may be sharing my thoughts with you the same time next year with a headline that says ‘Confessions of a first-time visitor to the Jaipur Literary Festival’. Till that time, keep reading.</p>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-55537011272573695582010-12-03T09:18:00.000-08:002010-12-03T09:25:12.402-08:00Men’s Fiction Rules India<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Indian men are reading, and writing for their brethren, and how! Already<span style=""> </span>well-acclaimed across the globe in the genre of literary fiction, Indian men seem to have now taken a fancy for commercial fiction too. Authors like Tuhin Sinha, Ashwin Sanghi and Mukul Deva, have treated subjects like politics, war stories and historical fiction and are up there on the circuit. At the same time, fresh voices like Abhay Narayan Sapru, a Special Forces major with a novel on Kashmir Ops, and Hemant Kumar with his evocatively titled book, <i style="">Prey by the Ganges,</i> seem to be the names to watch out for.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Interestingly, the rest of the fiction world is largely a women’s market, especially, the UK and Europe. A notable exception is United States, but then the US is such a huge and evolved market that almost everything works there. An out and out women’s book like <i style="">Eat, Pray, Love</i> is as huge a hit as say, a new John Grisham novel.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Men, worldwide, seem to prefer non-fiction tomes and have a special affinity for biographies. It’s not as if Indian men don’t—the success of Gurcharan Das’s</span> <i style=""><span style="font-family: Garamond;">The Difficulty of Being Good</span></i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"> or P V Rajgopal’s <i style="">The British, The Bandits & The Bordermen</i><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>has largely been possible because of the male readership. What makes Indian men different though, is a variety of factors, demography being an important one. A major chunk of Indian male readership is young and hence hasn’t graduated to the meatier non-fiction titles. Also, being culturally rooted and living in a country where everything is in a constant flux influence the reading preferences of the Indian male reader. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">A sucker for good plots like his counterparts across the globe, one valid criticism that the Indian male reader of commercial fiction has to live with for now is his less than connoisseur taste in language. Equally to be blamed would be the Indian publishing industry which is only too happy to pander averagely written works to him, which he laps up, till as long as the plot is engaging enough. That’s where publishers, editors and the newly formed literary agents need to play a more active role. For, if the Indian male writers are to leave their mark on the international commercial fiction scenario, just like their more elitist literary fiction writing cousins did, they need to certainly spruce up their language skills. Who knows, with a more literary and lyrical style, they may also get the women readers hooked on to their suspense/mystery/political thrillers!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"></span><i style=""><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Shobit Arya is the publisher of Wisdom Tree and can be contacted at <a href="http://www.wisdomtreeindia.com/">www.wisdomtreeindia.com</a> and <a href="mailto:shobit.arya@gmail.com">shobit.arya@gmail.com</a>. Some of the books mentioned in the article are published by Wisdom Tree.</span></i></p>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-46021636030330381002010-10-12T11:10:00.000-07:002010-11-26T10:36:49.474-08:00India at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2010 - Report for IANS. Published in The Tribune and Other Media.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">Frankfurt Book Fair will never be the same again. This is no doomsday call. Well, almost not, but any regular to the most important book fair of the world will tell you that the characteristic buzz of the fair is weaning away, and the change, this time, seems irreversible. Technology is taking over in a big way and 3-D book converters and interactive pen devices are catching the fancy of book publishers. ‘Apps’ seems to be the magic word and the book, as we know it, is ready to reinvent itself as a multi-dimensional experience. This, coupled with the international slow-down and currency wars has ensured Frankfurt was leaner, though thankfully, not necessarily meaner.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">A little away and a little spaced out in time from the centre of all this, which happens to be the international hall, where a handful of Indian publishers like yours truly dwell for six days annually, is the Indian hall. The ambience there reflected the tendency of Indian publishers to resist change, though we did have publishers like DC Books who were showcasing Wink, their new e-book reader and Karadi Tales, who are planning digital downloads of their audio-books, trying to keep pace with technology. Under such circumstances, a session on the success of mythological fiction from India seemed awkward to me, but not to the Western world still smitten by the land of snake-charmers and chillums. As the Swiss agent who represents us said, ‘We, in Europe, want to read books which have the flavour and mystique of India.’ And I thought we were trying to break the stereotypes and showcase the new India to the world. Well, I guess, it is not just the Indian publishers who resist change.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The German Book Office (GBO), Delhi did a praise-worthy job in organizing events—from matchmaking sessions with publishers of the guest country Argentina and the art book publishers of Germany, to guided tour of<span style=""> </span>the German children’s book publishers, to book launches with authors like Bulbul Sharma and Mita Kapur—it was quite an eclectic mix of business and pleasure. It also organized an India-special pull-out with <i style="">Publishing Perspectives</i>, a trade journal that has a show-daily edition. Akshay Pathak, the director of GBO, Delhi was upbeat on the Indian participation and the enthusiastic response to his endeavours.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">More in keeping with the concept of ‘New India’, it was the STM publishers, known so, as they represent the fields of Science-Technology-Management which accounted for the largest representation from India this year. Eighteen such publishers, including the likes of Jaypee Brothers and NCBA Exports represented India in the special hall assigned for STM publishers from across the world. So from children’s book publishers like Navneet to specialized publishers on Islamic books like Goodword Books; from the legendary UBS Exports to printers like Gopsons and from education publishers like Vikas Publishing to the Central Reference Library of Kolkata, the Indian representation at the Frankfurt Book Fair seemed to be as diverse as the country itself. Quite unlike the un-diverse and cultish cuisine preference of Indian publishers—they flock the Indian restaurants all the time.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Did you say resistance to change? I didn’t!</p>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-8367663584009321902010-04-02T20:14:00.000-07:002010-04-02T20:20:16.085-07:00Nothing is personal, everything is personal<div style="text-align: left;">"The author-publisher relationship is more like a patient-doctor relationship—for one it means everything while the other is just trying to do his job", i found myself blurting out to a very nice, wise-with-age lady, who apparently had a terrible experience with her first publisher (and frankly not so great experience with us either till now, but i am determined to change that.) Just like a school-kid, my tongue was in the process of sneaking out from between the teeth, realising i may have crossed the line, when i saw her nodding and gently acknowledging, "yes, you are so right." With great relief, i let the tongue roll back into its place.<br /><br />Now, my family doctor is a great guy and we get along like good friends. Come to think of it, we actually do consider each other a friend. It doesn't mean though that I don't have to be a part of the queue to see him or he doesn't charge me money, or i take tele-prescriptions from him at the drop of a hat, but it does mean that i almost always get the right advice and when i do call him at an unearthly hour, he is there for me. Most importantly, when i go to consult him, i get his undivided attention, which all his patients get too. The catch-word here is mutual respect, i don't cross my limit of expectations and he continuously tries to empathise with my situation.<br /><br />I must confess it is easier to be a good patient than to be a good publisher. Expectations on the other side, more often than not, are high. You are constantly being judged and a fine line divides a friend-for-life and an enemy-for-life. Okay, okay, i exaggerated for effect but you get what i mean, don't you? My solution— remain true to yourself and empathise—usually everything falls in place when the intention is sincere and the thought process clear. And if you feel there is a difference between what you can deliver and the other side expects, recommend him to a super-specialist. At least my family doctor does that, and it works !</div>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-56073087514791437932010-02-21T08:18:00.000-08:002010-02-21T10:19:41.859-08:00Knowledge without ArroganceArrogance is just about tolerated with resentment even when there is a great master sharing eternal wisdom in its guise. It's worse when there is a genius on the other side throwing it at us, at times willfully because he knows he can get away with it, and at other, unconsciously because of the eccentricity which is usually married to exceptional brilliance. Now imagine, arrogance with roots in mediocrity. You can't have a better recipe for disaster.<br /><br />Unfortunately, unaware of the presence of one or both in us, we continue to cause hardships to ourselves and the people around. Even if we were to discount the concept of being a humble life-long learner, we must at least do a reality check on our competence and skills. People in Indian publishing have been living in a sort of an island, not really ready to change and sharpen their skills, even when faced with an opportunity, or worse still, a dire need to do so. As is the case with most of the ills, ego has a major role to play here too. We, in Indian publishing — writers, publishers, editors, sales and marketing people et al, seem to have inherited <span style="font-style: italic;">ahankaar</span> from certain characters of Indian mythology, not ready to learn from the examples of as great a character as Ravana, who despite being full of knowledge succumbed to arrogance.<br /><br />So before it's too late, let's drop the ego and remain faithful disciples of life and till we reach that stage, let's take it on, let our ego-crashes catapult us out of our mediocrity. No fun in being an empty utensil and making a lot of noise.Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-80880770052150864382010-01-07T09:56:00.000-08:002010-01-07T09:57:35.025-08:00Remaindered books killing Indian publishing!<h1 alt="Remaindered books killing Indian publishing!">Remaindered books killing Indian publishing!</h1> <div id="ynmain"> <div id="storybody"> <!-- Buzz Share buttons Code --> <div id="sharetools"> <ul><li> <form action="http://in.buzz.yahoo.com/vote/" method="post"> <input name="from" value="orion" type="hidden"> <input name="assettype" value="article" type="hidden"> <input name="guid" value="/43/20100105/812/tnl-remaindered-books-killing-indian-pub_1" type="hidden"> <input name="publisherurn" value="yahoo_india_n449" type="hidden"> <input name=".crumb" value="ladfwLv.yOa" type="hidden"> <input name="votetype" value="1" type="hidden"> <input name="market" value="in" type="hidden"> <input name="language" value="en-IN" type="hidden"> <input name=".done" value="/article/yahoo_india_n449/http%3A%2F%2Fin.news.yahoo.com%2F43%2F20100105%2F812%2Ftnl-remaindered-books-killing-indian-pub.html" type="hidden"> <input name="summary" value="At some point or the other, you may have bought books from one of those 'UPTO 200% OFF!' (forgive the exaggeration) sales at your neighbourhood bookstore. You saw a colourful, glossy imported book at Rs.300, the cover price of which was $" type="hidden"> <input name="headline" value="Remaindered books killing Indian publishing!" type="hidden"> <input name="category" value="news" type="hidden"> <input name="targetUrl" value="http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100105/812/tnl-remaindered-books-killing-indian-pub.html" type="hidden"> <button type="submit">Buzz Up</button> </form></li></ul></div><img src="http://track.gslb.in.yahoo.com/news/in/track/most_viewed.html?prop=in&type=n&cat=nl&id=/43/20100105/812/tnl-remaindered-books-killing-indian-pub&sig=xm5iGKK6iwkafMbOK5v1sA--&ts=1262886933" width="0" height="0" /> <!--<b>Remaindered books killing Indian publishing!</b>--> <p style="padding: 0pt; float: left; margin-top: 7px; width: 270px;">Tue, Jan 5 12:23 PM</p><p class="first" style="margin-top: 0pt;">At some point or the other, you may have bought books from one of those 'UPTO 200% OFF!' (forgive the exaggeration) sales at your neighbourhood bookstore. You saw a colourful, glossy imported book at Rs.300, the cover price of which was $20, and gave in to the temptation, only to find later that it was high on effect and low on substance. If given a second chance, you may not even want to spend 100 bucks on it.</p><p>Here is the behind-the-scene story of how that book reached the bookstore. Warehousing and distribution facilities in developed countries like the US and UK are outsourced. Once a book has outlived its relevance - a children's encyclopaedia published a couple of years back or a coffee-table book done a few autumns before - local sales become negligible and it begins costing the publisher a considerable amount of money to keep such a book in stock. What he does then is remainder the book, which essentially means that he invites glorified 'kabadiwalas' (scrap-buyers) from countries like India and offers them such stock at throwaway prices.</p><p>So a book with a cover price of say $15 is offered at something like a 50 cents. There is a mad rush of people who gleefully participate at the Remainder Book Fairs across the globe and bring back container loads of such books.</p><p>But did anyone ever give a thought at what cost? Firstly, such cheap imports are a setback to the local publishing industry and thus, to the indigenous writers, illustrators and photographers. They snatch away opportunities from local talent which are richly deserved. Not to mention, the loss to the national economy, as the book hasn't used Indian paper, printers or binders. Since book imports don't attract any excise or customs duty, it's a loss-loss situation for the country.</p><p>Also, not knowing exactly what is happening, sincere on-the-fringes readers get put off by reading such books and actually lower their book buying. The worst part is that this whole circus breeds corruption. Having got excessive margins, some suppliers bribe librarians and book purchasers, causing rot to a system which ought to be a pure facilitator of knowledge.</p><p>The solutions are simple. At the policy side, the government should apply anti-dumping laws on book imports - any book which hasn't been published or reprinted in the same year as it is being imported shouldn't be allowed to enter Indian shores. Also, just as we can't export a book for less than 40 percent of its listed value, similarly, a book shouldn't be allowed to be imported for less than 40 percent of its cover price.</p><p>Till all that is achieved, we can fall back on our wonderfully discerning and patriotic reader to never buy such 'cheap' books!</p><p>(Shobit Arya is the publisher of Wisdom Tree, an independent Indian publishing organisation. He can be contacted at shobit.arya@wisdomtreeindia.com)</p><div class="auth">Shobit Arya </div></div></div>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-42606047413329787482009-12-17T07:22:00.000-08:002009-12-17T07:23:58.378-08:00Article in The Hindu on Kindle<span style="font-size:85%;"><p> <span class="storyhead" style="font-size:130%;color:blue;"><b> Virtually yours </b></span> </p><p align="justify"> </p> <p> </p><p align="justify"> </p> <table bgcolor="#ffeeff" border="0"><tbody><tr><td> It's not just for those in the business of publishing, ordinary readers too can gain immensely from e-books </td></tr></tbody></table><p align="justify"> </p><p align="justify"> </p> <p align="justify"> </p> <center> <span style="font-size:-2;"> </span><br /> <img src="http://www.thehindu.com/mp/2009/12/17/images/2009121750180301.jpg" width="326" align="center" border="1" height="350" /> </center><p> </p><p>A certain Mr. Gutenberg may be turning in his grave because of it. Many conventional book lovers would rather be caught dead than use this devil. The publishing industry is biting its nails not knowing what shape this semi-explored genie will take. But one thing is for sure — e-book readers are here to stay. Rather — even at the cost of making preposterous predictions — let me say that e-book readers are here to rule.</p> <p>I'll tell you why. The biggest challenge in the book business anywhere in the world is distribution. Whether an author rolls out a bestseller or not, he/she will always have the complaint against the publisher that not enough copies of his/her book have been made available at the x or y bookstores. Suppose we look at the scenario where people only read e-books, a book would never go out of stock. It can be downloaded to a hand-held gadget within seconds in any part of the world. Technology has the power to be a great leveller here and can rid the publishing industry of distribution hiccups, arguably one of the biggest headaches it suffers from.</p> <p><b>Affordable pricing</b></p> <center> <span style="font-size:-2;"> </span><br /> <img src="http://www.thehindu.com/mp/2009/12/17/images/2009121750180302.jpg" width="350" align="center" border="1" height="298" /> </center><p> </p><p>Now, it's not just about people associated with publishing, book lovers too can gain immensely from this technological revolution.</p> <p>Almost half of a book's cover price is what could be termed as ‘middlemen's margin'. Add to that the cost of production of the book, warehousing, transportation, wastage in the form of damaged copies and the cost of managing these operations. If you shift to e-books, the price, say of a book that costs Rs.100, can come down to Rs.30! What more could a book lover ask for — being saved from the disappointment of not finding the book he/she wants to read in the neighbourhood book shop and actually getting it at the click of a button from the convenience of her study at an absolutely affordable price. Add to this, the contribution e-books would make to our environment. According to statistics, more than 40 per cent of logged trees are used in making paper. Couple this with the air, water and sound pollution caused by the paper mills, the printing press, the vehicles used for transporting raw materials. Also, materials like inks, chemicals, rubber rollers and plastic get used regularly. The resultant collateral damage to the environment is colossal. A simple e-book reader can save our earth from all this, and it works well with coffee.</p> <p align="justify"> </p> <web> </web> <p align="justify"> </p> SHOBIT ARYA <p> </p><p align="justify"> </p> <i> (The author is the publisher of Wisdom Tree, the first Indian publishing organisation to sell its books through Amazon Kindle.) </i></span>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-51974207164873739772009-12-05T09:28:00.000-08:002011-10-14T11:52:02.659-07:00The world is the market for e-book readers<div class="feedStory"> <h1><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Article on e-book readers published in The Economic Times, Khaleej Times etc</span></span><br /></h1> <h6 class="time"> Shobit Arya</h6> <p class="provider">ians.in</p> <p class="time">Last Updated: November 29,2009 11:36:39</p> <div class="body"><p>The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is a novelty, a fad. These were the words uttered famously by a president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford's lawyer Horace Reckham not to invest in the Ford Motor Co. in 1903. Blame it on the Theory of Technological Evolution or call it the Survival of the Fastest (with due respects to Mr. Darwin) but for a majority of people, travelling in an automobile is as much a part of normal activity as may be bushing their teeth. The day also is not far, oh you lover-of-the-scent-of-paper, when e-book readers will fall in the same bracket.</p><p>Coming back to the story, Rackham ignored the advice and bought $5,000 worth of stock and eventually made a fortune by selling it for $12.5 million. The natural question here is: in whose position would you like to be? Horace Rackham's or the banker's? If that's not already easy to answer, let me make it easier for you.</p><p>Kindle, the popular e-book reader was the #1 bestselling, #1 most wished for and #1 most gifted item on Amazon. Nook, the brand new e-reader unveiled by Barnes & Noble (who claim it to be the world's most advanced e-book reader), is already out of stock because of unexpected demand.</p><p>This is when e-book readers today are priced a bit uncomfortably around $250 and are in a nascent stage in terms of features, much like the first Ford car, if I may carry forward the analogy. By the end of 2010, it is expected that 10 million people will be using e-readers. And if by any chance they break the $100 barrier, which I believe they will eventually, the floodgates will really open.</p><p>There are reports that we already have an enterprising Indian publishing industry representative planning to bring in an economical e-reader for the Indian market with Chinese collaboration. And Apple, of course, is rumoured to have a real ace up its sleeve. So, apparently, there is a lot waiting to happen in the near future which could turn things completely around for electronic reading.</p><p>This really brings us to the all-important question -- what's the whole song and dance about? We are pretty happy reading our books, why do we need an electronic reader?</p><p>For one, it weighs approximately the same as a paperback but can store about 1,500 books; so that's like your personal library moving around with you -- to the conference, on a flight, in the waiting lounge, just about everywhere.</p><p>And then, you don't have to desperately keep looking for that elusive copy of the book you have been looking forward to read because it's just a click away -- log on to a supporting website like amazon.com and you have the book downloaded in less than a minute in almost any part of the world.</p><p>Mind you, there is no extra fee, apart from paying for the book. If that's not all, your e-book reader also remembers the last page read for each book and has a zoom feature with various levels of text size among a lot of other features like letting you take notes on a page and saving them, MP3 playback and basic browsing to check your e-mail (where available) as also working like a GPS.</p><p>Still not excited? All right, the biggest bonus is that an e-book already sells at a lower price than a physical book and soon we should see a dramatic lowering on that -- you can expect the price to be actually lower than half of what it is now.</p><p>Do I finally see your eyes lighting up?</p><p>Let me confess I am no techno-freak. Actually, I just about manage to use my phone for sending and receiving calls and messages. Also, I quite love the look and feel of a book. In fact, my wife perennially complains that she married someone who was already married -- to books. But at the same time, I can see that the future of reading is beckoning us and there is no use closing our eyes to it.</p><p>I am planning to switch sides. From a love marriage with books, I plan to get into an arranged marriage with an e-book reader. I am sure love will follow, because I could feel it at first sight.</p><p>Let me invite you to join the party too, unless you want to be in the company of the legendary Thomas J. Watson, the former president of IBM and one of the richest men of his times, who had famously remarked in 1943: 'I think there is a world market for maybe five computers'.</p><p>For the whole world is a market for e-book readers.</p><p>(Shobit Arya is the publisher of Wisdom Tree, first Indian publishing organisation to sell its books through Amazon Kindle, the popular e-book reader. He can be contacted at shobit.arya@gmail.com or www.wisdomtreeindia.com)</p></div> <div class="copyright">@ Copyright 2009 Indo Asian News Service.</div> </div>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-7758738444974645852009-08-08T10:35:00.000-07:002009-08-08T12:40:35.231-07:00I am an IndianIdeally, there is a first mover's advantage, which, unfortunately India has seldom had. If that wasn't enough, we don't even inculcate learning-from-the-first-mover's-mistakes advantage. So what have you ? Most of the newly born and toddler book retail chain stores in India not learning from their grandpa like stores in the West. They seem to be repeating the same mistakes, if not actually inventing graver ones. Book buyers looking at what gives them better profit on paper rather than understanding what a book has to offer is certainly a doomsday call in book-selling. And then you have salespersons in book-cum-music-cum-gift stores who don't know their Erich Seagal from their Enrique or their Jagjit Singh from Khushwant Singh. Singh is King after all, same difference !<br /><br />A great lesson for them could be Foyles Bookstore at Charing Cross Road, London. An amazing bookshop where the salesperson is also the book buyer. In one stroke, they seem to have eliminated most of the recent day problems in book retailing and seem to be doing<br />wonderfully well.<br /><br />This is nothing madamji ( pardon me sirji, i prefer concentrating on what deserves concentration), look at what we have managed to do with the deadly-but-let's-not-call-it-so Swine Flu...err H1N1 virus... lest the pigs take offense. We knew the whole world was getting it; we knew we have cities with some of the highest density of population in the world; we knew we have the maximum number of young people in the world, yet what did we do ? I can give you a first hand account. A brave me with my wife and our two young angels (did you hear devils, that was my wife, sorry) arrived at I.G.I.A, New Delhi straight from New Jersey, USA in the middle of the H1N1 scare. The anxious masked young girls sitting behind the desk looked at us with an expression that said don't-be-angry-but-even-we-don't-know-what-we-are-doing-here and quickly parroted what they had been trained to say — " Do any of you have fever ? Or a cold ? Or a cough? If you get any of these symptoms, do call me dearies, for now, please leave." This, in a country where confirmed patients run away from hospitals and ministers have to personally ensure that they are fetched back.<br /><br />I don't know why i am sounding so skeptical. I am an Indian. <span style="font-style: italic;">Upar wala sab theeek karega</span>. He will take care of all of us. After all, He is the one who also created the pigs.Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-11168528699094277192009-07-26T08:22:00.000-07:002009-07-26T10:41:41.204-07:00Books — everyone's punching bags ?"Do you have a <span style="font-style: italic;">Rakhi</span> gift for me?"<br />"Yes, a book,"replies the young boy.<br />" A book?" asks the sister with a grim expression and suddenly her eyes light up when she realises the gift pack actually has chocolates inside. Hmm, so what the creative copywriter is trying to say is books are boring, are they?<br /><br />Now move over to an ad of ' teach yourself English' CD. This guy actually has the audacity to literally throw away books and choose the CD because one CD can replace a whole encyclopaedia in book form. Hmm, stuff for another P.I.L, is it?<br /><br />The first thing to suffer when the government has a resource-crunch — books of course!<br /><br />The first thing corporates decide to deduct their budgets from in recession — you guessed it, books!<br /><br />And finally, the first thing newspapers ensure vanishes from their pages during meltdowns — book reviews, what else!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Times of India</span>, India's leading newspaper, has no space for books in the main paper, not even in their Hindi version. The only little space they have is for spiritual books, that too is actually sublet to their sister concern Indiatimes. Now, these poor fellas apparently have something that the whole world is ailing from — a resource crunch and to beat that, they have started selling that space. Thankfully, no self-respecting publisher wants to get into a frivolous arrangement, so what do you have? All kinds of strange books being showcased in India's flagship newspaper. But who is the sufferer? Books and book lovers!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Hindustan Times</span>, the other print biggie recently shifted the book reviews to Saturdays, ( from the leisurely Sundays) a bit of a letdown, but they still give it a whole page. May Goddess Saraswati bless them!<br /><br />I would be failing in my duty if i were not to mention the messiah of writers, book lovers and publishers — <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hindu</span>. They have stood by their values undeterred — recession or no-recession. May both Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Lakshmi bless them!<br /><br />And for rest of the above, may Ganesha bestow them with some good sense. Amen!Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-82615971922032589112009-06-21T00:09:00.000-07:002009-06-21T00:16:43.503-07:00Taking India to the World<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwtbvgiVwN0Fq7jsrs1VFV4Rd6viG3vWfqjK8x6Ma7CEn-lY81fYEfmc16YVZK_gUQ96qu9bgrJr8X4dc2ENsSHQfTbpo4nCAvfUl1wEh3Gl85nhUrgjmtYVNCuYNyqwB8Wzoxu_3XaHw/s1600-h/9_vol2_epaper_Page_23.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 152px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwtbvgiVwN0Fq7jsrs1VFV4Rd6viG3vWfqjK8x6Ma7CEn-lY81fYEfmc16YVZK_gUQ96qu9bgrJr8X4dc2ENsSHQfTbpo4nCAvfUl1wEh3Gl85nhUrgjmtYVNCuYNyqwB8Wzoxu_3XaHw/s200/9_vol2_epaper_Page_23.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349675520940155266" border="0" />A recent interview published in New York based newspaper called The South Asian Times coinciding with my recent visit to the Book Expo America, guess i am more photogenic in Indian ambience !</a>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-66286143490709170982009-06-11T08:17:00.000-07:002009-06-12T23:18:36.458-07:00The Knowledge Trinity<div>It seems i am getting hooked to blogging, haven't blogged for a couple of months and i already have withdrawal symptoms. So here i am, returning from back-to-back London and New York trips which kept me away from the routine ( thankfully i still take a bath everyday unlike a lot of people in London :) </div><br />London and New York, two big cities — two of the biggest hubs of world publishing. It is almost as if they were separated at birth — strikingly similar and teasingly different. Let's begin first with what binds them. They say the London weather is as unpredictable as Indian women, if that's the case then New York weather is no different from a T20 cricket match, to use a cliche, the only thing predictable about it, is that it is unpredictable. The roaring, rather deafening subway trains in the two cities— the New York Subway and the London Underground — almost simultaneously built in the beginning of 20<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">th</span> century are remnants of the might and vision that was, and a loud (literally) reminder of the need for constant improvement. Another queer similarity is the number and kind of Indians you come across — be it on the Wall Street or the Oxford Street — and mind you a lot of them are not the "<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Paaji</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">ki</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">haal</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">hai</span> ?</span> ( 'Brother how are you? ' in Punjabi) types".<br /><div><br />Talking about Indians, most of the Indian restaurants in London are actually run by Bangladeshis — majority of them serve good-for-nothing food and are actually doing a dis-service to both Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine. To top it, they are downright rude.<br />I have a suggestion. I think all Indian-run restaurants should start writing "Run by Indians" underneath the restaurant names to retain the brand-value of Indian cuisine. Food reminds me of the American tradition of 'big things' — from big cars to bigger buildings and the biggest portions of food you would ever eat, they seem to have a fetish for size. Bookshops in New York faithfully follow the pattern too, though as of now, there are more people buying books in a London bookshop than in its compatriot in New York. Americans seem more clued on to the mind-body-spirit genre while for the British, lifestyle books appear to champion the non-fiction genre. There is of course far more interest in India and Indian subjects in London than in 'The Big Apple'. A visit to the museums in the two cities clears any misconceptions that one may have on this. British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum also display the inherent capacity of the British to look beyond the obvious. Their impeccable upkeep is even more creditable because they <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">don't</span> charge a penny in entrance fee, (except for special shows) unlike the US museums which have more-than-a-nominal entrance fee. No wonders British take pride in their sense of history.<br /><br />It is time the book people of Darya <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Ganj</span> too realised that they have a chance to create history — to make New Delhi one of the three big cities of world publishing — the missing link of the knowledge trinity.<br /><br /></div>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-83162825605683738602009-04-10T09:53:00.000-07:002009-05-10T04:10:32.315-07:00Blowing Our Own Trumpet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6VjPmYGr4b2-dDCCaD4-FITh80vHhWHngXUdK5jpeJLMNk1jGuioGm-J6-dXEiHzY-qq9NqZE1N2Ob3cORT5R_yWGCEpOde7g4i2dbZ6qR58f6t1yKxzWPynIfL1AqvEmAcZlI8hyR4s/s1600-h/Wisdom-Tree_17April_issue.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 242px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6VjPmYGr4b2-dDCCaD4-FITh80vHhWHngXUdK5jpeJLMNk1jGuioGm-J6-dXEiHzY-qq9NqZE1N2Ob3cORT5R_yWGCEpOde7g4i2dbZ6qR58f6t1yKxzWPynIfL1AqvEmAcZlI8hyR4s/s320/Wisdom-Tree_17April_issue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323308162182208178" border="0" /></a><br />Alright, i am trying to be not my usual self. To begin with, i will try and blow our own trumpet.<br /><br />Wisdom Tree, since its inception ( or is it germination) has been involved in some pioneering and path-breaking work. Be it doing books in unconventional sizes based on unconventional themes or selling them through unconventional mediums, we are known to be the trendsetters. Don't believe it ? Alright then, here we go.<br /><br />We brought Garfield books to India, priced them at Rs 50 and sold them though Barista coffee shops and really started the connection between coffee and books in India. The book cafes followed. ( For documentary evidence visit http://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/headlines/y2k3/nov/novmam31.htm)<br /><br />Understanding that reading is a one way process, we started <span style="font-style: italic;">Wisdom Tree Interactive</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Under the Wisdom Tree</span> to bridge the gap between our authors and readers and made the process interactive.<br /><br />We gave value addition to our books — adding a free magnetic compass to a vaastu book or a <span style="font-style: italic;">tulsi mala</span> to a book on mantras; sold our books through pharmacies, restaurants, garment stores; sold rights to our books in more than a dozen countries and established a global distribution network.<br /><br />We again did pioneering work in book marketing by distributing complimentary preview booklets for one of our books and are mentioned in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Limca Book of Records</span> for being the first Indian publisher to do that.<br /><br />Flying in authors from abroad for book events ( well before a certain Mr Archer decided to look up India) to organising a live conference with the much loved and my absolute favourite Paulo Coelho, we did it all and ahead of the rest of the publishing world.<br /><br />Now I am told, our experiment with the genre of graphic novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Indian by Choice</span>, which we believe is again inherently unique and Indian — it is colourful and bright unlike the usual graphic novels, has got Indian publishing industry really excited and if my information is correct, you will see many graphic novels from India in the future. The credit for this one goes to our dear author Amit Dasgupta and artist Neelabh Banrjee.<br /><br />And here is the latest. We are launching <span style="font-style: italic;">Indian by Choice</span> on 19th April at India House and <span style="font-style: italic;">Indian Saris</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Indian Birds in Focus</span> at the Nehru Centre, London on 20th April coinciding with the London Book Fair. To add to it, we have placed a one page advertisement featuring our UK lead titles in the prestigious UK magazine <span style="font-style: italic;">The Bookseller. </span><br /><br />Did you say another first? I did'nt.<br /><br />Phew! That was taxing for me. Imagine you.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span>Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-51640791140976214182009-02-21T09:04:00.000-08:002009-02-21T10:28:21.340-08:00Lucky by ChoiceIt's usually between 6 and 8 in the evening that i reign supreme in the office. That's because i am the only one around that time. What stops me during the day, you could ask. Now, i would like to believe that i am quite a democrat and we all know the state of Indian prime ministers, don't we?<br /><br />It was one such evening, around 7:30 when the calming silence of Ansari Road — an interesting place caught in the middle of old and new Delhi and infested with people who are ready to give their lives to get space for parking their severely dented cars, (my car and driver included) was broken by the loud ring of the phone. Unwillingly, i took the call. A heavy but warm voice with a strong South Indian accent beamed, "Is this Wisdom Tree? What is the price of <span style="font-style: italic;">Zen and the art of Happiness ?" </span>'Okay', i thought to myself, 'here we go<span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><span>'</span> The gentleman did know how to get me out of my shell though. He ended the fifteen minute conversation with these words, "My dear young man, i must really compliment you, the kind of books you publish, it's really commendable and you should feel lucky that you are earning your money by doing what i think is actually social work. God bless you." I muttered something like "You are being very kind, thank you." and hung up.<br /><br />It was only after a few seconds that what he really said registered in my mind. How many people in this world receive a call from a 70-year old complete stranger, sitting several hundred miles away, blessing them for what they have been chosen to do?<br /><br />I surely feel really lucky to be a publisher.Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-14986746570617135292009-01-28T02:32:00.000-08:002009-01-28T04:52:42.777-08:00The Reading EffectIn economics, they have what they say is the 'lipstick effect', wherein, during the times of meltdowns, the sale of lipsticks goes up significantly. The reason is understandable — lipsticks don't cost much and have a special 'feel good' effect.<br /><br />I believe books are much better — most of them cost as little as a lipstick, sometimes even lesser, and the 'feel good' effect is far more endearing. Not to forget, a book is not a consumable and gives us wisdom that may change our lives for good.<br /><br />So go ahead, intuitively pick up a book from the millions available (don't bother about those funny bestseller lists) and beat the 'meltdown blues'.<br /><br />That also makes publishing one of the most recession-proof professions, so better still, join it !Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-48089126854974586462009-01-04T06:29:00.000-08:002009-01-04T11:23:15.375-08:00Boycotting Books from PakistanSo what is more important — nationalism or universal brotherhood? While Pakistan relentlessly bleeds India with a thousand cuts, we continue to create stars out of Pakistani singers, comedians and writers. The nation of Gandhi seems to be following his philosophy of offering the other cheek when slapped on one religiously. We are the big brother — forever resilient and pluralist. In that sense, is the Oxford Bookstore's decision to ban books written by Pakistani authors the right one? Or is it merely a knee-jerk reaction?<br /><br />Well, if they have done it because it's a well thought out stand and they would replicate it across India, we should respect their decision and maybe even follow suit depending on our free will. But if they have done it because they are scared of extra constitutional powers or out of some pressure, all of us who believe in the power of democracy should condemn it in no uncertain terms. Our freedom of speech and independence are our strengths and we must do everything in our means to preserve them.<br /><br />Forced bans are absolutely unacceptable, voluntary boycotts though are always welcome. Remember we live in India, not Pakistan.Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-37131533648209865192008-12-03T10:39:00.000-08:002008-12-03T11:09:10.944-08:00In the Author's Shoes<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cabc%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C03%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The easiest thing to do is to judge others, but amongst the most difficult is to judge them responsibly. A person who works as an editor should surely be more conscious of this fact than anybody else. For an editor is empowered — to pass a judgment on another person’s piece of work; to wield her pen as decisively as a sword. Unfortunately, more often than not, if something doesn’t fit into our expected parameters, we are quick to reject and castigate it.
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<br /></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">We have new recruits in the editorial department. One of them, a young man with some experience of having worked in a large daily, apparently intelligent, looked at the first script he got and within minutes trashed it. He did it with so much conviction, for a moment even i started doubting the script, though i had cleared it myself. When we sat down to discuss it, his biggest grievance was that the author wasn’t saying anything new. Only when he was made to understand that the author didn’t mean to write anything new since his aim was to provide a general overview on the subject, did he change his opinion. To his credit, he did understand the difference between his expectation and the author’s motive.
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<br /></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">The question to be asked here is — is it necessary for an author to fit into your parameter? Or should your parameter itself be expanded to at least empathise, if not justify the author’s stance?</p><p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">No wonders, best editors are the ones who themselves grow and evolve with each script they edit. The young man, I hope, like others who are a part of Wisdom Tree, is on course to be one of them.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594819478307478825.post-13767611230835171612008-11-21T11:00:00.000-08:002008-11-21T22:21:52.201-08:00Publishing GroomsA friend who is a publishing industry veteran recently shared an interesting incident. Almost thirty years back, his parents were looking for a bride for him. The prospective families, for obvious reasons, inquired about his profession. When they were told that he was in book business, all of them seemed to develop cold feet. Apparently, <i>kitaaban da kam</i> ( book business in Punjabi) was looked down upon as unprofitable and of low stature.<br /><br />Around 2001, when i got into publishing, hardly anyone i met, knew the difference between publishing and printing. They thought a publisher takes money from authors and prints the book for them. Partly, Indian publishers could be held responsible for this perception as a lot of them were doing just that. So whenever i shared with anyone that i was into publishing, more often than not, what i got to see was a blank and unimpressed face.<br /><br />Come 2008. The world seems to have changed, or is it Indian publishing that has! Publishing is now one of the most happening professions and Indian publishing is up there on the global scene. It has money, stature and job satisfaction. Being on priority in the marriage <i>mandi</i> may just be the bonus.Shobit Aryahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03444958592340874761noreply@blogger.com11