 "stack of books")
This explains some of the interest from publishers for the ongoing annual ‘World Book Fair’ here, inaugurated on Saturday. It will be on for 10 days. China is the official ‘guest of honour country’.
The statistics cited earlier came from an India Book Market Report, by Nielsen, with the Association of Publishers in India and the Federation of Indian Publishers. It values the print book market in India, including imports, at $3.9 billion (Rs 26,000 crore). Its compounded annual growth was 20.4 per cent between 2011–12 and 2014–15.
Some noteworthy mergers and acquisitions have taken place in recent years. Among these were Penguin with Random House and HarperCollins’ acquisition of Harlequin, all companies with substantial presence in this country. Also in educational publishing, such as S Chand’s acquisition of Madhuban, Vikas and Saraswati Book House, and Laxmi Publications’ acquisition of Macmillan Higher Education.
Jonathan Stolper, global managing director of Nielsen Book, said after their report was issued: “Some of the facts that came to light are very impressive – there are 9,000 publishers, over 21,000 retailers and 22 official languages, and if you include regional dialects, the total is 1,600. Literacy in India is rising rapidly, from 65 per cent in 2001 to 74 per cent in 2011, and it is predicted to reach 90 per cent in 2020.”
However, the Indian book publishing sector gets no direct investment from government, "a serious roadblock", the report says. Other challenges include the fragmented nature of publishing and bookselling, a tortuous distribution system, long credit cycles that make it difficult to manage cash flows, and increases in direct costs. Piracy is widespread, with every other street in the country being home to stalls selling pirated texts.
The Indian e-book market has also seen a major overhauling, with internet expansion and spread of mobile phones, specially smartphones. Many gaps are present and a look at India’s neighbours is interesting. According to a 2014 survey from the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, 58.1 per cent of China's reading population read digitally, an eight per cent increase from 2013, and higher than the paper reading population for the first time.
Rohit Kumar, co-chair of the publishing committee at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry says despite India’s surge in internet users, this is still the lowest in leading economies at 19 per cent. China’s is 46 per cent. Digital revenue is between three and four per cent of the total, at considerable seeming variance with the Nielsen survey numbers. Consumer data survey shows, on average, people read books 2.1 times a week, while nearly two-thirds read a book occasionally. Interestingly, 56 per cent of the respondents bought at least one e-book a year and nearly half of these bought at least three or four, indicating a growing demand here.
Fifty-five per cent of trade sales are of books in English. Books in Hindi are 35 per cent of Indian language sales but the largest share of these is taken by ‘Others’, despite what the report identifies as a "highly disorganised" local publishing sector.
Foreseeing a rosy outlook for the publishing sector, Kumar states, "2016-2018 will see a dramatic change in the way it is going to function. But, India should learn from China because not only are they four-five years ahead of us in terms of the internet revolution but also because their publishing sector has seen a steep growth as compared to others."
