Recession...what's that?

recession

When all sectors of industries seem to be getting affected by the ongoing recession in the world markets, the Indian book publishing market is going great guns.

The book publishing market in India stands at approximately Rs 7,000 crore and is growing at a rate of over 15 per cent every year.

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"Publishing is a small business. I don't think recession has had any effect on the same. On an average we publish 75-80 books in a given year and we are still continuing to do so. In fact, we have recorded a growth in sales compared to the previous year. However if it goes on for a prolonged period of time, our cost of functioning might get affected," says VK Karthika, publisher and chief editor, HarperCollins India.

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What about new authors? Are the publishing houses willing to print the works of budding writers and give them a chance to debut their first book in the times of recession? "I think we have become more open to accepting work from new authors since last one year," says Rajiv Sharma of Roli Books.

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"New authors have all the more opportunities in India because the book market has just started expanding and becoming organised. This has led to the sales becoming very consistent which is beneficial for new authors. I don't know about the west but Indian books market will not be affected by anything for the next 5-6 years," he says.

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Roli books just published a book titled Mystic Temple by a young author Asmita Goyanka who is just 13 years old and studying in eighth standard. Her book is about the story of schoolgirls whose lives change after they take up a dare and snoop around the Mystic Temple.

Strand Book Stall, Mumbai, tracks a growth of 20-25 per cent is in its turnover every year which is close to Rs 13-15 crore. PM Shenvi, manager of the store informs that if the cricis goes on, the store may see a difference of 5-10 per cent in its turnover and nothing more. Since recession, there has hardly been any difference in the number of footfalls the store sees, which is approximately 5,000-7,000 people in a week.

However, the sale of books is not very high for the store presently. "During the Diwali time the sales are slacking as people are busy shopping for other things.

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We can actually come to know if we have been hit by recession when the sales don't take off even after November", says Shenvi who also adds that a lot of people are also preferring new age Indian authors such as Aravind Adiga, Amitav Ghosh and Kiran Desai over their foreign counter parts.

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