For instance, the Book Bazar organised on the Nandan complex, is recording sales between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 per day, confirmed the 62 participating publishers at Book Bazar.
Book Bazar features 80 stalls put up by 62 small and medium book publishers.
"Since the book fair was held this year in Salt Lake, many in south Calcutta could not go all the way. They were hungry for an alternative,' said Tridib Chattopadhyay, the general secretary of Publishers and Booksellers Guild which has organised the fair in collaboration with Bangla Akademi.
Book Bazar is being held between April 23 and May 4, at the Nandan complex, the cultural hub situated in central Kolkata.
According to Prabir Mazumdar, treasurer of Publishers and Booksellers Guild, "Book Bazar is a way to help the small and medium publishers whose sales have suffered during the Kolkata Book Fair."
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"Also, most books are being sold at a discounted price at Book Bazar. These are books which have got soiled by travelling to and from the district fairs or in the warehouses. We would otherwise sell them off as trash or donate to charitable libraries. The Book Bazar allows us to reach the books to readers at a discounted price. Redoing the covers and pages will be expensive, so instead a lot of publishers are selling them off at a discounted price to clear stocks," Mazumdar pointed out.
The ongoing Book Bazar has been organised on around 80,000 sq ft at Nandan.
Most small and medium publishers are recording sales between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 per day, confirmed the 62 participating publishers at Book Bazar.
Many booksellers are offering discounts in excess of 10 per cent.
Some are even selling second-hand books with as much as 80 per cent off.
Almost new copies of Pramathanath Bishi's Keri Saheber Munshi, Ashapurna Devi's Subarnalata or Narayan Gangopadhyay's Sunandor Journal are going at 25 per cent off, while partially soiled volumes of Ashapurna Devi or Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay's complete works are on offer at 40 to 50 per cent discounts.
Second-hand art books and encyclopaedia are also available. There are books from the US,
Romania and Africa too. A variety of American literary journals are being sold at Rs 100 a piece.