Pub Res Q (2008) 24:202214 DOI 10.

1007/s12109-007-9040-0 ORIGINAL PAPER

Glimpses of Indian Publishing Today in the Words of Publishing Professionals

S. K. Ghai

Published online: 21 December 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Abstract The Indian Publishing industry has come of age as books published in India are highly acclaimed at the international level. The standards of production are also comparable to the world market. Inspite of all these developments there is a vacuum in sharing information about the industry and its personnel. There is no journal on the publishing industry at the moment. I came up with the rst issue in December 2006 containing an interview with a publishing professional and news about the industry with the title Publishing Today (PT). The present article is from the interviews in PT and from my editorials. Keywords Publishing today Indian publishing industry Institute of book publishing Federation of Indian publishers Training Publishing professionals

The Indian publishing industry has come of age as books published in India and its authors like Khushwant Singh, Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy, V. S. Naipaul, Amitav Ghosh, Kiran Bedi and many more are highly acclaimed at the international level. The standards of production are also comparable to the world market. Many international publishers have opened their ofces in India or are planning to do so in the near future, the recent being Paragon, Hays House and Hatchette. In spite of all this there is a vacuum in sharing information about the industry and its personnel. Though the publishers are trying their best by their own efforts which are remarkable, there is no journal on the publishing industry at the moment. After the 19th Condensed Course for publishing professionals in Novomber 2006 organised by Institute of Book Publishing (IBP) which is also run by me, we decided to bring out a monthly of the book industry and its professionals. I discussed the
S. K. Ghai (&) Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, A-59 Okhla Industrial Area, Part II, New Delhi 110020, India e-mails: ghai@nde.vsnl.net.in; ghaisurinder@gmail.com

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matter with other industry colleagues and every body appreciated the idea and encouraged me. I came up with the rst issue in December 2006 containing an interview with a publishing professional and news about the industry with the title Publishing Today (PT). Since then (December 06September 07) 10 issues have come containing interviews and the news.

Excerpts from Editorials Need for a Training for Publishing Professionals I feel that, there is a need for a regular course in book publishing at the graduate level. I hope a university will take up the challenge. From the analysis of the several courses held on book publishing one thing is apparent that a course is only successful wherever its organisers have a liaison with the industry or where they lay emphasis on the practical aspectshands-on-training, eld visits, etc. Where the course lays more stress on the theory rather than the practical part, it fails to develop and phases out. Most of the courses that are offered, whether short or long-term, tend to stress the acquisition of knowledge, and do not focus at all on skills. Though the need for a proper training course was always felt, it can only happen if publishers are willing to invest their time and money, and properly conceptualise a training course on the lines of the Book House, Training Centre (UK), or the more than forty professional publishing courses offered by New York University (USA). Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in association with the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) is trying to introduce a PG Diploma Course in Book Publishing from July 2008. Calcutta University in collaboration with Publishers and Booksellers Guild (PBG) have started a PG Diploma Course in Book Publishing in 2005 and Poona University in association with Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Publishers Association has started a certicate course on Book Publishing in October 2006. National Book Trust (NBT) and IBP have been organising shortterm courses from time to time.

Literary Festivals Delhi: Womens World India was organised by Ritu Menon (Founder) and 40 other women writers from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Peru, USA, Russia and India. They discussed about issues common to women writers womens rights and freedom. Tasleema Nasreen, an exiled author from Bangladesh and now living in India also attended the festival. Mumbai: The second Kitab Fest, Indias international and literary festival was held between 23 and 25 February. Its rst meet was held last year in Delhi. Twentythree-year old Pablo Ganguli, the organizer of the event feels that India has a tremendous literary culture but there has been no literary event where unknown and low prole writers are encouraged. He had conceptualized this festival as one that would not only pivot around books but also around other kinds of writing: movie

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screenplays, criticism, Internet writing, and so forth. He wants Kitab to travel to different places. Another Kitab fest has been planned for August this year in Pondicherry, and the following one scheduled for next year is to be held in Kolkata. For details visit: http://www.kitabfest.org. Jaipur: In January, a 3-day literature festival, part of the Jaipur Heritage International Festival was held at Jaipur. It was attended by Salman Rushdie and Kiran Desai. There is a spurt of literary festivals being held in the country. This is good though coming rather late in the day. India is such a vast country and a literary festival should be initiated in each and every city, state and held every month. The organizers should try to make the festivals broader and more comprehensive in their approach.

India Guest of Honour at Paris Book Fair 2007 This year India was the guest of honor country at the Salon du Livre, Paris Book Fair 2007. This was possible due to the efforts of Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) and the active cooperation of Indian Trade Promotion Organisation, Sahitya Akademi and Indian Council of Cultural Relations made it a great success. Twenty publishers and 30 renowned authors like Vikram Seth, Tarun Tejpal, Abha Dawesar and Sashi Deshpande participated in the Fair. The authors did book readings and gave intensive interviews. The event was a great success and was well covered by the media. The Fair was inaugurated by the French prime minister, who also visited the Indian pavilion and attended the Indian dance recital with great interest. There was a display spread across a sprawling area of almost 4,000 sq ft, which showcased books published in French on India, or by Indians, and had multiple copies of the same for sale. The French showed great interest in these books. It was organised by French bookseller Gibert Joseph. Another highlighting feature of the occasion was the French Indian Professional Meeting held on 2021 March, where issues like legal aspects of copyright in India and France, the general trends in the book market in both the countries, problems in translating Indian books into French and vice versa, the importance of trade between the publishers of both the countries, and Indo-French foreign rights trade in science, technical and medical books were discussed.

Literary Agents and Their role Osian India launched a literary agency to look after the interest of Indian authors in the international market. Certainly a positive step. Literary agencies are a must for the growth of the industry and particularly for the sale of subsidiary rights. At present in India we have a very few literary agencies and the ones we have are not very active. I am sure with Renuka Chatterjee, a former senior editor of Penguin, HarperCollins and Roli, who handles this agency as a senior Vice President, will denitely make it a success. It will also encourage other professionals in the

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publishing industry to follow the trend. Indian authors are already established in the international scene so why not the literary agencies from India. Two leading literary agents expressed the following obsevations: Well, the right time is now, there just has not been enough of a market for Indian writing to make a literary agency nancially viable. One has to convince Indian authors to work with an agent here, rather than do a net search and try and nd an agent abroad. Stated Renuka Chatterjee, senior vice president, OSIANs Literary Agency. Another view as expressed by Anuj Bahri of Red Ink Literary Agency is While most publishers are ready to deal with literary agencies abroad, they are reluctant to deal with the local ones.

Acquisition of Frank Bros. by Macmillan India Today many multinationals are establishing or acquiring companies to have a strong foothold in the Indian market. If we look back in the past, S. Chand acquired Blackies in 1970s and then Laxmi Publications acquired New Age Publishing House in 1990s, after the demise of Mr Asang Machwe, the managing director of New Age. Tatas also acquired a majority share in Landmark Group in the recent past. Now Macmillan, India has acquired Frank Brothers. This shows that Indian publishing is in a vibrant mood.

Taslima Nasreena Writer Attacked Taslima Nasreen, the outspoken Bangladeshi novelist living in exile in India, was attacked at a public function in Hyderabad. She was later on threatened with beheading by an MLA from Andhra. This is not done in a cultured society and should be condemned by everyone. In a democracy every citizen has freedom to speech and freedom to write. Government should provide adequate security to her.

Delhi Book Fair 2007 The 13th Delhi Book Fair ended on 9th September. Around 235 publishers, including thirteen from overseas, displayed over 50,000 books. With the passage of time the book fair has established itself. General public and people from the trade nationally and internationally look forward to it. This was apparent as the trade delegations came from Vietnam, China, Myanmar, Africa, Middle East, Singapore, Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other countries. It has taken the publishing industry thirteen years to establish the book fair. The federation and the ITPO jointly are the partners in organising this fair. I remember at the rst few fairs we used to go to the ofces of different newspapers and request them to visit and cover but now they came daily to cover various events on their own. In stark contrast the New Delhi Book Fair now attracts in the range of 1.21.3 million visitors. These people have immediate access to a larger number of books.

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Excerpts from Interviews held during December 2006September 2007 Publishing is All I Want to DoMs. V. K. Karthika At the time I had joined, Penguin was doing 4050 titles/year. Now we are annually doing more than 200 titles in English and another 7080 of them in Indian languages. One day David Davidar (now CEO of Penguin Canada) told me to go to Frankfurt. He believes in throwing one into the sea and letting one learn to swim. I landed in Frankfurt without much knowledge of what I was expected to do. I only knew that it was a trade fair where rights are traded. From that day I never looked back. Now, we are working with various publishers across the globe. If I have to mention one name, it is Shobha De. She is always on the move and has always something new to discuss! Another person whose books Ive enjoyed working on is the Dalai Lama, through his translators and editors. Not that I am a religious person, but I respect him deeply as a great human being with unlimited compassion! Theres no doubt that publishing is in many ways a 24-h job, its only a matter of time management. V. K. Karthika, Former Executive Editor, Penguin India joined HarperCollins as Publisher and Chief Editor. (PT, December 2006)

The Art of Publishing is DisseminationTejeshwar Singh Publishing is never ending and needs continuous attention. However I have one interesting experience to share with you. When I became the vice-president and branch manager of Macmillan Delhi, I discovered that there was a book seller who owed Rs. 80,000. I checked the details with my people and went straight to Chandigarh to meet that person. I confronted him with factsthe books had been supplied to him for an exhibition at Punjabi University, Patiala. He had taken the original receipt from a junior member of the staff on the pretext of making a xerox copy and promised to send the original copy to the Delhi ofce. However, he never sent it but, instead, subsequently maintainedand rather vehementlythat he had never received the books and asked us to show the proof (which obviously we could not). This was the situation I inherited. However, I succeeded in convincing him to agree that if we could prove that at least some of the concerned books had been supplied to him then he would pay for the whole lot. I came back to Delhi and talked to my friend Dr Amrik Singh, Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, explaining the problem. A week or so later, he sent me photocopies of the bills raised by the bookseller on Punjabi University Library, Patiala, which included at least 3040% of the concerned books. Armed with these bills, I once again confronted the bookseller who, very reluctantly, paid up the long overdue bill. Another satisfying moment in my career was after I started Sage in 1981. The very rst book we published was by Prof. V. K. R. V. Rao, an eminent scholar and

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economist who had also served as Indias Finance Minister. Now how I got this manuscript as a brand new publisher with no books to our credit was because another distinguished academic, Prof. T. N. Madan (whom I had known for many years), persuaded Prof. V. K. R. V. Rao to try us out. The title was a great success and we kept it in print for 12 years. These days the young entrepreneurs have a tendency to take shortcuts to become successful. But my advice would be to remain patient, to stick to your guns and continue working hard. The art of publishing is disseminationbringing books to the attention of readers. If the book is good (content) and price reasonable it will be a success. It will sell. To say that there is no market for Indian books would be wrong. We should not compromise on the quality of books, bring them at affordable prices and be honest to our authors. Tejeshwar Singh, former MD, Sage on becoming Chairman of the company. (PT, January 2007)

The Future Lies in Going GlobalPramod Kapoor Of course, my family has an allied line of distribution of paper in east Uttar Pradesh, and my brother had a printing press, where I used to go after my college hours and work as a distributor of lead type in the cases. I started liking this job and after nishing my education, I came to Delhi and joined Macmillan as a trainee. I was given the marketing of higher academic list. After working for 2.5 years at Macmillan, I decided to start on my own. There was practically no publisher doing pictorial books in India. I published my rst book on Rajasthanfully illustrated with photographs. I had commissioned a photographer for shooting. I stressed on good quality production and printed the book in Singapore. The rst print run was of 10,000 copies. Of course, more than 25,000 copies were eventually sold. So that is how I entered into the world of publishing. At that time there was a need for handling Indian scholarship with skills. I tried repackaging school textbooks published by FEP Singapore. I packaged them as per the Indian environment/culture and tied up with OUP. Some of the books are still in print. Upon reection of the past I am really enjoying the way publishing is growing. In Roli we have three imprintsLustre Press for illustrated books, India Ink (publisher of Arundhati Roys God of Small Things ) for ction which we acquired in 2004, and Lotus Collection where we publish biographies, non-illustrated, nonction. This year we will end up releasing around 45 new books plus reprints. At Frankfurt we promoted ourselves as a premier publisher from India. We even promoted Indian cuisine collaborating with ITC and released a book named Bukhara. We were able to tie up with different publishers for co-publication and co-edition. France is like another home for us. There is no publisher who does not know us. The fair will help us in establishing a good will. It is our major market and many of our authors and photographers are based in France. It is a selling fair. We have booked quite a large stall. We represent Phidons interests in India. We distribute, co-publish and advise them on the Indian market.

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I feel the future lies in going global. This is what I have experienced and have been practising in the last 30 years. The Indian publishing industry is in for a major growth due to the large addition of retail space and here the future lies in packaging the material for the masses. Pramod Kapoor, Managing Director, Roli Books. (PT, March 2007)

The Real Challenge is to Make a Social Cause Commercially ViableS. Anand The idea was born in August 2003 and by November that year we hit the market with four small titles, priced between Rs. 40 and Rs. 60 and with extents between 40 and 90 pages. Starting a press exclusively devoted to a critical engagement with issues of caste was primarily the idea of Ravi Kumar, my partner at Navayana. He is a well-known Tamil critic and writer who is also an activist in the Dalit and civil rights movements. In India, there are independent publishing houses devoted to various political and niche issues: Women Unlimited, Zubaan and Stree focus on gender, LeftWord on issues of the Left, Tulika and Tara for childrens books, etc. Yet, there was not one publisher willing to engage with castea social reality that affected the lives of most Indians. We decided to address the lacuna and founded Navayana. Navayana refers to Dr B. R. Ambedkars term for the new empirical Buddhism that he espoused. With the objective publishing for social change, we offered a platform for issues most publisherscommercial, academic and independentshied away from. We publish mostly non-ction; our rst literary title is out only this year. To talk of caste does not mean talking only of Dalits. Our focus is on an anti-caste perspective. The Dalit movement initiated by Dr B. R. Ambedkar is certainly the major anti-caste voice in India, and Navayana does have a commitment to promote writings by Dalits and a commitment to offer a platform to Dalit authors. However, we are equally keen to engage with Brahminism and Brahmins. For instance, our title Brahmans and Cricket is now in its second reprint. I would say the real challenge is to make a social cause commercially viable. We are as yet a small organisation with minimal overheads, driven largely by a computer. By 2008, we should be able to recruit at least two editors and some support staff. And yes, Navayana is committed to recruiting Dalit editors. Unfortunately, our publishing industrymainstream and alternativehardly makes any concession for social justice. By 2012, Navayana will be a name to reckon with and hopes to sell 5,000 copies of each of its titles. We already have touched 2,000. S. Anand, Navayana Publishing House, Chennai now moved to Delhi. Selected for International Young Publishers of the Year 2007 Award (IYPY) at London Book Fair 2007. (PT, April 2007)

Publishing is Fun, and Its an Exciting ProfessionMs. Urvashi Batalia I set up Kali for Womenthis was something I had been dreaming of doing while I was with OUP and then Zed. Ritu Menon, who was with Vikas at that time, joined

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me in this when I returned to India with a business plan and a name. I was deeply involved with women issues during my college days. I participated in the antidowry and anti-rape movements as well. I found that at a time when women were becoming active all over the country, no publisher was focusing on women studies, so I thought of starting a publishing house for developing a list of books by and about women. We have so many excellent women writers, but for a long time, much of their work remained hidden because most publishers felt womens writing was not something to be taken seriously. When we rst started Kali, we were often asked why we wanted to publish only about women (no one asks publishers why they publish only about men!), whether women wrote at all, whether they read books, whether we could run a business!! Today, every major publishing house, and many of the smaller ones, publish books by and about women! I have coauthored a number of books but The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India is my rst full-length book. It was published by Viking Penguin and has been translated in 10 national and international languages. I did not expect it to be a success, and was delighted when it was. I enjoy publishing more though I love writing also. Publishing gives you an opportunity to meet new people every day and to have continual exposure to new ideas. I was reading Outlook in which Sheila Reddy, the book review editor, had written about the Hindi edition of Baby Halders book A Life Less Ordinary. Then my colleague Jaya found a short interview of hers on BBCs web page. I liked very much what the book was trying to do and I tried to get in touch with the author, who works with Premchands grandson, Prabodh Kumar Srivastava. I spoke to my friends Alok and Sara Rai who are also Premchands grandchildren and through them I was able to reach her. She was working as a domestic help in Prabodhjis house. After discussing things with Baby and Prabodhji, it was agreed that Zubaan should publish the book in English but then the question of the translation came up. So I offered to do it and I did. Till now the book has been published in 21 national and international languages including French, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, Urdu and there is an Australian edition from Penguin Australia, as well as an American edition from HarperCollins USA. The Italian edition will shortly be published by one of the major publishing house, Rizzoli. We have learned to do marketing subsidiary rights internationally over the years. You need to know your titles well, and the people you are selling to, so that you choose what you offer, and continue to maintain contacts. We have found this very useful to do. Publishing is fun, and its an exciting profession. You may not get rich on it, but its guaranteed youll enjoy it. I feel more and more young people should join publishing as it gives an opportunity to learn and be in touch with new ideas. Ms Urvashi Butalia, Zubaan Books, A Feminine Publishing House, formerly of Kali for Women. (PT, May 2007)

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Enjoy What You Do. If You Dont Enjoy Dont Do ItShri Vishwanath It was my mother who brought me up and had an important inuence on my life. She was active, educated and guided me to live a pious life. Arya Samaj also had a great effect on me. After my father passed away, my mother took the responsibility of the publishing house. I joined her at the young age of 17 in 1937 and continued my study along with it. During the pre-partition days the publishing was basically conned to religious and political subjects as textbooks were published by the publishers selected by the Britishers. They used to honour the publishers by giving the title Rai Sahib or Rai Bahadur. We were publishing patriotic books in Urdu and Hindi and the government many a time used to proscribe those books. Our six publications were conscated. To name a fewTarikhe Hind by Bhai Parmanand and Massacre of Jalianwala by Dr Satya Pal, as these books were giving the true history of Hindustan but the Britishers wanted the students to know the history from their own perspective. To counteract that we started bringing out patriotic books to give the true picture of Indian history. In 1941, during the Second World War, I got into the business of supply of books for the ghting Indian troops which gave a boost to our business. Then the partition took place. All our assets were left in Lahore and we started life afresh in Delhi. However, God was kind and I personally compiled 15 Hindi readers which were approved by the government and again established myself in publishing. DN (Dinanath Malhotra) my young brother joined me in 1950 and we were able to publish textbooks for the states of Punjab, Pepsu (Patiala state) and Rajasthan. My elder brother Pran Nath was a prolic writer. He wrote 48 books and got awards for four. He also got the highest award from the UP government in 1949. In the independent India three things got an impetus. First, the concept of copyright, second, national and international book fairs and third, the formation of publishing associations. Our Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru established Sahitya Academy and NBT which encouraged publication and dissemination of good literature. NBT also started book fairs and promoted participation in international fairs. Globalisation also changed the face of Indian publishing. The phrase that keeps coming to my mind is Enjoy what you do. If you dont enjoy dont do it, whatever it may be. Publishing is a creative business. Discover creativity and joy in this business where you meet and interact with scholars, writers, poets and artists. The business of publishing can enrich your life in many ways. Shri Vishwanath, the oldest publisher in India. (PT, June 2007)

Book Distribution is the Best BusinessOm Arora It is the relationship with booksellers and one-to-one contact with every good bookshop in India that counts. Moreover, I am also in the business for 41 long years.

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A right product always clicks, which I select with my experience. If there is a solid relationship with the individuals in the book distribution channels. I joined my father in 1966. After he passed away in 1976, I called my younger brother Subhash to join me. We started Teksons Bookshop in 1972 and worked together till 1983 and then separated amicably, happily and without any resentment. We do buy and sell books from each other. We know each others specialisations and send samples accordingly for selection and purchase. We have thirty stores under Book Cafe retail chain mainly in north India and three in Pondicherry. We are still struggling to keep them aoat. We have a strong belief in whatever we are doing. In business there is no relationship. You have to treat business as business. I have an excellent relationship with all other distributors in the country and we meet regularly in India and at international book fairs. When I started distribution, the distributor was the boss. He could sell any book but now the retailer is the boss and he chooses books with great care. The effect of e-distribution is not much, as the booksellers/retailers want to see, feel and touch the book before ordering. Retail space in India is increasing by leaps and bounds and is really great. It will increase the business tremendously in the next 5 years. I wish this development would have happened 15 years ago when I was young. We have strong monthly mailing along with four representatives covering Delhi and all over India. We have 800 regular accounts and we do not allow credit till the customers credit worthiness is established. However, we have the rst two or three dealings strictly on cash basis. Meditation and a positive attitude is the secret for being relaxed, happy and smiling. I am in this mood 24 h a day. It is a best business and will have tremendous growth in the next 5 years. So go ahead and take advantage of it. Om Aroraa one man Book Distributor, Variety Book Depot, New Delhi. (PT, July 2007)

Pottermania: Logistics in DistributionThomas Abraham We imported 2,60,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. On the rst day we sold 1,70,000 copies throughout India. This was possible as the cult following it had, kept growing over the years to the fever pitch it has reached now. Over four hundred consignments with an approximate weight of 200 tonnes were distributed around 150 locations across India and over 300 destinations distributors/shops simultaneously at all locations between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. Custom clearance and distribution was outsourced to ActivAir, who in turn contracted Safexpress couriers to carry out P-day distribution. P-day security was managed directly by Penguin through Group 4 security agency. If you have not been to India then you would not appreciate the logistical challenges of distributing a bestseller across the huge country.

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Stocks landed in various containers by sea between 5th and 7th July and after the custom clearance was kept at a secluded location in Maharashtra. Twenty-ve security guards deployed to keep a watch backed up by CCTV facility round-theclock ensured no lapses, or break-ins could take place. There was a single entrance and exit point, which had a long walkway before one reached the stock. The walkway had three barrier levels for inspection. In addition to the senior team of the logistics partners, only two people from PenguinUsha Jha, Head of Customer Services & Distribution and myself knew the location. We spread this (dis)information that no visitors were allowed in its Delhi warehouse until the 23rd July (truthfully) to suggest that the storage location was the Penguins Delhi warehouse. By the 11th July the vehicles were on the move to respective destinations in 50 all weather proof ISO certied containerised vehicles. These vehicles were GPS equipped with two drivers and one assistant. As an emergency precaution, the complete lot for a destination would not be in just one vehicle. Various vehicles that set out at different times arrived at their 150 plus locations with 34 days to spare. Security still ActivAirs responsibility. We also moved zonewise contingency stock to Delhi, Chennai, Calcutta and Mumbai. With sufcient time margin (max transit time from stocking location to destination was 50 min) at hand a eet of 250 delivery vehicles were used. The delivery personnel were issued mobile phones for direct communication with the delivery heads of the project. The delivery personnel and the drivers of the delivery vehicles had already familiarised themselves with primary and alternate routes after route mapping and mock exercises. Stocking was planned in such a way that the maximum driving time was under 50 min. Finally, it was possible to carry out the distribution of a bestseller in comparatively very large quantities within tightly maintained schedules. It was a rst for the book trade in India. I started my career with Parle Soft Drink Group (later to become Coca Cola) in advertising but since I had a masters in English, I was given the responsibility of compiling and editing Limca Book of Records. I always had an afnity for books but hadnt seriously considered it a career possibility. I found I thoroughly enjoyed the work. Later I started looking for a job in publishing. I joined OUP in 1994 as an editor but soon moved to the marketing division on the request of the then MD Neil OBrien. In 2000, I moved to DK as Executive Director-Marketing and in the same year moved laterally to Penguin India (with the Penguin Group having bought DK worldwide) as its marketing head. I was appointed CEO when David Davidar moved to Penguin Canada in end of 2003. After seven years in Penguin, it is with immense excitement that I look forward to my new role as Managing Director of Hachette India which will commence in October 2007. Thomas Abraham, CEO, Penguin, on leaving Penguin and joining Hachette India as Managing Director. (PT, August 2007)

Follow Your Heart and Always Listen to LearnMs. Hema Ramaiah As a child I was interested in books and knew that I would work in the world of books. I did English Literature in college and started working with Danai Book

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Shop, Chennai as a part-timer. After nishing my studies in 1978, I joined Danai full time and helped them in setting up a chain of hotel bookshops in Chennai during 19781985. We were able to establish ve bookshops in ve hotels. At that time there were no bookstores in India like the one I had in mind. So there was no model to follow. No funding was available because retail did not have industry status. Also there was a lack of human resources with knowledge in this domain. However, this did not dampen my spirits and I went ahead and started the rst store in 1987 and now we have 10 stores all over India. As a retail-distributor we have much more access to information on new books. This helps us anticipate the market and set trends. As a retailer we were not getting the full advantage of range & discounts from publishers. So we went for backward integration and joined hands with Mr Gautam Padmanabhan, who is the CEO of East West Books and Westland Books, which is a 100% subsidiary of Landmark. This way we were able to strengthen not only our retail but also our competitors by introducing and supplying them the books that sell all over India. It was a perfect arrangement as it helped grow the market. This helped us in our nancial growth as well. We were also able to connect the distributors with the actual readers which was not there earlier. We actually read the key titles and not only the blurbs. Our whole buying team reads and decides what to promote. This way we are able to promote the concept of reading and buying good and great books, through which our market grows. My husband Jai Subramaniam, is a chartered accountant and nancial wizard. We have worked together for 18 years. He looks after the money which I need for growth. Now Landmark group is an established hyper market retail chain and recently we have opened a 32,000 sq ft store at Lucknow and have allotted 10,000 sq ft to books, which is around 40%, music 2530% and the rest is given to other categories. However, it is a changing scenario from time to time. Most of our core team has been with us for a long time and have trained and learned on the job. It is the best way to learn. We expanded our stores so that we could boost the condence of our staff by promoting them. Many well known names in retail started with us and we feel content that our team is growing with us. Mr Noel Tata is the chairman of the group. I am the CEO and Tatas have a representative who is the COO and we run the company together. We are working as a team for the expansion which is apparent and are going from strength to strength. We have started with the reprint programme and published the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and many other international bestsellers. We have plans for entering into publishing and have appointed Ms Nilanjana Roy as the editor of the Group. She writes regularly for Business Standard. Many new titles are in the pipeline. Supply creates its own demand and recession is a right time to start as it cannot get any worse is a philosophy in which we believe in and time has proved us right. Though in the beginning it takes more time to establish or make it nancially viable. But in the long run we grow with the growing reading habits of the people. They are loyal to us and we are loyal to them.

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In 1991, the government of India imposed a margin of 200% on imports. Importers started cutting their imports, whereas we expanded our inventory which has paid well. We got British-European International Standards Certication from UK. It has set down our internal controls and standardised procedures across the country. My success mantra for young entrepreneurs isfollow your heart, take calculated risks where needed and always listen to learn. We believe in quality rather than quantity so would like to be Indias no. 1 retaildistributor, publisher and on-line bookseller. Ms Hemu Ramaiah, CEO, Landmark Group. (PT, September 2007) Issues of Publishing Today can be surfed at our website http://www.ibpindia.org

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