Businessworld has an article on how the Indian English-language publishing industry is on an upswing.
Arun Natarajan is the Founder & CEO of Venture Intelligence, the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A deals in India. View free samples of Venture Intelligence newsletters and reports. Email the author at arun@ventureintelligence.in
The Indian publishing industry was once a midget on the global stage. Most authors were considered lucky if they racked up sales of 3,000, and a book was declared a bestseller if it hit 10,000. But a new page is being turned. The industry is turning into a force to be reckoned with. The four or five biggest players are bringing out larger numbers of books, and even novice authors are selling in bigger numbers.
...Fuelling the growth of publishing are the chain stores such as Crossword, Odyssey and Landmark, and even Reliance’s new chain, Time Out. They are all on expansion drives, defying even the economic slowdown that gripped the industry between September 2008 and this July.
...Nandan Nilekani’s Imagining India sold about 50,000 copies, and was the star performer of 2008 for Penguin India. This year, the Infosys tag has again proved a winner, with the company’s chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy’s book coming up trumps, and selling almost 45,000 copies. That is a phenomenal number, especially considering it is a collection of speeches given by Murthy, and not an overarching state-of-the-nation report like Nilekani’s magnum opus.
Arun Natarajan is the Founder & CEO of Venture Intelligence, the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A deals in India. View free samples of Venture Intelligence newsletters and reports. Email the author at arun@ventureintelligence.in