Have books, will read

Don't listen to publisher's gripes any more - the industry is growing by, well, words and folios.

Just when you thought the publishing industry was a bit full and weary, the year 2006 sprang a few surprises and might have shed its boring tag in the bargain. Books, and bookstores, saw a lot of activity in the last year.

Newer (or more foreign) publishers got into the act, a larger-than-usual number of books were released, and there was a lot of action on the retail front as well.

In just the organised sector, estimates are that the publishing industry has seen tremendous growth and grew by close to 15 per cent in the year 2006. The 15,000-odd publishers were responsible for the 82,000 books released in all languages in the country.

India is the third-largest publisher of English books after the US and UK, with almost 45 per cent of all titles published in the language. Although there is no official data to back the size of the market, the total size of the publishing industry is said to be somewhere around Rs 75 billion.

Says Shruti Debi, editor, Picador India, "There is immense potential to grow even further and with big names coming into publishing, we expect it to grow even more."

The publishing industry also saw a lot of activity on the retail front. With the retail sector booming, bigger players such as Reliance, RPG and Pantaloon have invested in the books sections of hypermarkets, which has worked well for the publishing industry.

What has given the industry the much-needed charge and brought about these changes? Says Pramod Kapoor, publisher, Roli Books, "The reading habits of people are seeing a lot of change and there is more thirst for gaining knowledge." Kapoor feels a lot of the credit for this should be given to the media as well as the Internet boom.

"People on blogs talk about books and there is more awareness about the titles released . The media too has played its role by giving more space to the publishing industry." Literary festivals too have helped interest in books and authors grow.

"The purchasing power of people has gone up and people spend considerably more on books than they used to a few years back," says Piyush Kumar, director, Ocean Books. Books have become a part of the monthly budgets of people, adds Kapoor.

On the promotion front as well, publishing houses have adopted more innovative strategies. New promotion techniques such as blog discussions, email lists, city tours and book reading sessions at various locations across the country have helped. As Kapoor puts it, "With the industry growing, the promotional bud-gets of publishing houses too have gone up."

Interestingly, there has been a spurt in book publishing in the unorganised sector as well "" a large number of books are now published by unconventional sectors such as art galleries, restaurant and hotel chains, the fashion industry and so on, without the assistance of publishing houses.

These books, for most part, remain outside the purview of titles published by companies that are members of the Federation of Publishers Association of India.

Shruti Debi feels that the industry will continue to see this trend of growth over the next few years, and publishing houses too will reflect this interest and growth. Roli, which saw a growth of 32 per cent in the last year, too expects to register similar growth.

"Unless something drastic happens, the industry will continue to grow at this rate and people will continue to read more," says Kapoor.

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SNIPPETS

Book marts
Indian book stores have started providing more incentives to attract readers. New bookstores have opened up and chain bookstores such as Landmark, Oxford and Crossword have gone national, and more bookstores have mushroomed across the country.

Starting book clubs, providing more reader-friendly environment within stores and tying up with coffee bars are a few things which they have been doing. For instance, Oxford Book Store, which positions itself as a "serious bookstore", opened its sixth book store in the country, while Landmark too has gone pan-India.

The average size of book retail space too has increased. From small and often cramped spaces, book stores are now opening bigger stores. In some cases, retail space has gone up from the average 1,500 sq ft to close to 10,000 sq ft, where people can read, browse and drink coffee in a comfortable ambience.

Crossword has about 28 stores across the country, while Landmark, which was seen as a south Indian bookstore, has opened an outlet in Gurgaon which, at 23,000 sq ft, is one of the biggest book stores in India.

Book clubs run by bookstores too offer a lot of incentives to members. These are membership schemes that entitle a club member to avail of offers by logging up frequent buying points. Club members can participate in events related to theatre performances, the screening of films and, important, a number of activities geared specifically towards teenagers.

Language reads
Vernacular publications have seen spiralling growth as compared to the stagnancy of a few years ago. Apart from books in Hindi, publishing houses are bringing out books in regional languages such as Bengali, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu.

Although English publications still dominate the sector, others such as Marathi and Malayalam too have picked up. Close to 25,000 books were published in Hindi in 2006, while Telugu and Marathi books also picked up. About 6,000 titles were published in Tamil and Marathi as well. Although the numbers are small, they are expected to grow in the next few years.

Translations of books have found a lot of buyers. Says Piyush Kumar of Ocean Books, "Although translations aren't that popular as of now, there is a segment of readers which looks out for translations in their native language." Bengali and Malayalam are two languages where translations are most in demand.