'TV and books are complementary'

Delhi was designated the world book capital for 2003-04 by Unesco and the Geneva-based International Publishers Association. As part of the year-long celebration, the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) recently held a national convention "" "Towards making India a book reading society".

Anand Bhushan, president, FIP, spoke to Business Standard on the state of the Indian publishing industry and the federation's plans to popularise books.

What was the recent national convention about?
Our endeavour is to push the publishing industry forward. And the only way this can be achieved is by making books popular. In India books are not marketed, only celebrity authors are. The convention was a platform for an exchange of ideas. We invited educationists, librarians, publishers and media to brainstorm on how to make India a book reading society.

How are you going to market books?
We plan to organise seminars, book exhibitions and book reading competitions. Our major thrust is to involve children by holding exhibitions in schools. We have already started doing this. In the last few weeks, we organised book fairs at three Delhi schools. The response was very impressive. We are helping the National Book Trust to organise book fairs in smaller towns across the country.

Are you thinking of holding exhibitions outside the country? What about book exports?
Last year India exported about Rs 300 crore worth of books. That is just 5 per cent of the total worth of books published. We plan to boost exports. Last July we held an exhibition of Indian books in London. We have also opened a distribution centre there.

This year in February we will hold an exhibition in Port Louis, Mauritius and in April in Durban, South Africa. The last time we held an exhibition in Port Louis, in 2002, we did business worth Rs 20 lakh. This year we are targeting at least Rs 50 lakh from book sale. For Durban, which has a bigger Indian population, our target is Rs 1 crore.

Are there other export channels?
Indian academic books are much in demand in the US, UK and West Asia. There will be a quantum jump in demand as a number of Indian schools are opening branches abroad, especially in the Gulf countries.

How has piracy hit the Indian publishing industry?
Well, frankly, piracy is not such a big issue, though Indian text books are pirated in Pakistan and Bangladesh. It's only the foreign publishers that get affected. Even then only bestsellers are pirated. But that is just a minuscule percentage of the total business.

Do you see foreign publishers as an unwelcome challenge?
Challenge "" yes. Unwelcome "" no. Competition is good for the industry. Foreign publishers bring in state-of-the-art technology also.

What are the hurdles facing the publishing industry?
Our biggest problem is the distribution network. We need to have more book shops and libraries. For this the government has to step in. Our second problem is the steep postal rates that the P&T department charges. It's around 30 per cent of the price of the book. The postal charge is passed on to the customer. The government should reduce the rates.

Do you think television is killing the publishing industry?
I think that's a wrong impression people have. Television and books are complementary. The sale of Tamas shot up after the film was shown on television. In Sri Lanka, we shipped 5,000 copies of the Ramayana after it was telecast there. Look at the Harry Potter phenomenon "" the films have not affected the sale of the books at all.