Between the boom and the bust

SPEAKING VOLUMES

One of my favourite seminar subjects of all time is the flamboyant "Is Indian Publishing Booming or Busting?" The paper was, sadly, far less bombastic than the title, but the question remains valid.

We usually announce a publishing boom on the back of some author's success""Kiran Desai's Booker win, a new Rushdie novel""but that's short-sighted. If you take a look at old and new entrants in English language publishing, though, the scene does appear to be changing. This week, the column spotlights some of the key players in trade publishing, with an emphasis on fiction; later this month, I'll look at general non-fiction publishing.

Penguin India: Former CEO David Davidar, who now heads Penguin Canada, used to say that Penguin India had published "every Indian author of any importance", and that boast still holds true. Some authors grumble that Penguin has become a factory where the bottom line, rather than literary merit, rules. Others praise Penguin's professionalism and the effort it puts into training its staff. Most debut authors still send their manuscripts to Penguin first. It still finds room for specialist lists, such as the Penguin Classics. And it has built innovative partnerships, such as the one with Zubaan, which had a runaway success this year with domestic worker Baby Haldar's autobiography.

Led by Thomas Abraham, an astute marketing maven who is also a compulsive reader, and the quiet, shrewd Ravi Singh on the editorial side, Penguin hasn't yet been seriously challenged, except by Rupa, but that could change soon.

Roli Books: Often dubbed the "maharaja's press" for its signature coffee table books, many of which feature India's erstwhile princes, Roli Books is branching out. Pramode Kapoor started Roli in a ramshackle warehouse in Daryaganj and soon turned it into India's best-known publisher of coffee-table books. Recently, Roli has moved into fiction, general non-fiction and translations. IndiaInk, the imprint that got off to a fairy-tale start by publishing The God of Small Things, is now under its umbrella. But it's the landmark edition of Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan that indicates Roli's real USP might lie in marrying their flair for working with images""Margaret Bourke-White's searing Partition pictures, in this case""with the right book.

Rupa & Co: Rupa prides itself on knowing what the "real" reader wants""Anurag Mathur, in a previous generation, Chetan Bhagat in our time, for instance. Rupa, one of the largest in the business, has an incredibly efficient network, which makes up for its uneven editing. But publisher R K Mehra and his son Kapish Mehra both know what works in the market. It's been a long way from Rupa's quiet start, with two slender volumes of Bengali verse, to its present status as the publisher that others ignore at their own peril.

HarperCollins India: When HarperCollins first came into India, Penguin and Rupa prepared for a battle that never happened. HarperCollins scored minor successes, but was plagued by unrealistic expectations and trouble on the editorial front. This week, seasoned Penguin executive Karthika Karthikeyan""one of the top three there""took over at the helm. With enough editorial support, she might change HarperCollins peripatetic fortunes in India.

Picador India: Picador India began brilliantly, and still has authors of the calibre of Amit Chaudhuri and I Allan Sealy on its list, but has stayed very small. Where it scores is in the care that goes into design and editing, and its willingness, unusual in this age, to build up a stable of literary authors rather than focus on instant bestsellers.

Tara Press: Tara Press is part of India Research Press, known for working in close conjunction with authors and editors. The emphasis on design, layout and editing shifts wildly; some books are almost-perfect, others riddled with errors. But bookseller Anuj Bahri's expertise shows in the eclectic range of its books""Tara has published books on tigers and Tibet, respected writers like V K Madhavan Kutty and is publishing science fiction by a pair of precocious twins, the Guptara brothers.

Random House India: New entrant Random House has just a scant handful of books to its credit""Manju Kapur's Home, Abha Dawesar's That Summer in Paris""but it seems to be in India for the long haul. Random is led by the formidably intelligent Chiki Sarkar, who packed in a wealth of experience at Bloomsbury before shifting to India. She is also one of the few top editors in India to have her own Linked-In page, and to have the blessings of the legendary Sonny Mehta himself. Random should be fun to watch in the next few years, if it doesn't trip up over the problems that have plagued so many other foreign publishers.

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