It was an action-packed 2013 for literature in India with some exciting titles, controversies and new faces grabbing their own slice of attention.
Indian authors continued to win prestigious awards and get shortlisted for them. Festivals were galore with Jaipur Literature festival leading the way. A number of high-profile authors like Jeffrey Archer, Mohsin Hamid and Aminatta Forna visited India.
The year saw publishers coming out with numerous autobiographies and biographies, and books on titles on business, commercial and mass market fiction, literary fiction, self help, chik-lit and culinary. There were a number of works by new and little-known authors.
According to upcoming author Rahul Saini, whose fourth novel "Paperback Dreams" was published this year, "Everyone is an aspiring author these days. People write and they want to get published quite desperately for their own reasons."
"It was a year of innovation and discovery, with the launch of Harper XXI, our ebook imprint, and several titles that caught the attention of readers, starting with Anuja Chauhan's 'Those Pricey Girls', through Reza Aslan's controversial biography of Jesus, titled 'Zealot', and ending with Amitabha Bagchi's wonderful new novel 'This Place', about South Asians in an American neighbourhood," says Karthika V. K, Publisher & Chief Editor of Harper Collins Publishers India.
According to Hemali Sodhi, vice president (Marketing and Corporate Communications) of Penguin Group India, "2013 has been an incredibly exciting and rewarding year on all fronts.
We've recorded excellent growth, have won awards - both literary and industry (digital marketing), have acquired and published some fantastic authors, and in a rapidly changing marketplace have continued to retain our Number one position. We have also seen tremendous success in both the commercial and young readers segment."
Rahul Srivastava, Managing Director, Simon & Schuster India, says, "2013 was a good year for S&S India as we consolidated and improved our market share in Indian market within 2 years of operations. In 2013, we managed to publish best-sellers like 'Accidental Apprentice', 'Reimagining India', 'Hero', 'Guide to your best body', 'Perks of being a wallflower' and 'Dork Dairies'. Indian book industry continues to be in a state of flux but we managed to achieve our targets in terms of sales and profits and are poised to grow the business in 2014.
"We also launched our complete range of eBooks in India through Flipkart.
