Publishing

                                                           

The unromantic fact that publishing is a business like any other-books must sell and if they have to move from the shelves, the publisher has to know the marketing. The book buying public is exclusively limited. Books themselves are seen as some thing of a luxury. Most families can think of dozen s of parities that would take natural precedence over purchasing a novel. In such an environment, it is difficult for a writer to get noted and for a book to move off the shelves.

Besides, the book buying traditions itself barely exists in the metros. Here again it isn’t fiction that sells so much as self help books from overseas. People who visit book fairs are shopping around for bargain prices for expensive journals on technical subjects. They aren’t there to pick up best-sellers those are bought at stations, airports and traffic lights. Writers with a thin skin should stay away from books fairs till they are sufficiently established.

We lack both the will and the experience to exploit a book’s commercial potential by providing the right infrastructure to author. If the individual lacks that ambiguous factor called “Charisma”. If he or she does not interest the media, if he or she is idealistic enough to believe that at the end of the day a good book will succeed in finding its own audience-that’s a major misconception, especially in India.

The poor sales are because of low public awareness. Why should someone think of buying a book nobody even knows is available? Which is why no amount of publicity is too much publicity for this underrated largely misrepresented vocation? Without readers these are to books. Only self-indulgence and vanity. Call it a horse race. Call is a commercialization. All the end of the day, even this lofty game called publishing is all about numbers.