We’ve just got back from the World Book Fair in Delhi. This time around we were more perceptive to the environment and learnt a few things during the 9 days we spent there. But more on that later. However, if there was one aspect of the fair that could not…
Category: Publishing
eBooks: Digital Immigrants vs Digital Natives and the Impermanence Debate
by K. Venkatesh How much have you shifted online? Do you pay your bills online? Has it got to do anything with eBooks? Probably yes and probably no. In 2001, Marc Prensky proposed the terms “digital natives” and “digital immigrants.” Those born after the introduction of digital technology are digital…
A Bonanza of Goan Books
By Augusto Pinto Goa has had a love-hate affair with books. It has suffered the trauma of book burning during the Inquisition. But it is also the first place in India to print the modern book way back in the 16th Century. Nowadays though things are looking up for book…
No easy answers
The dangers of losing out to e-book piracy is a real one. It can mean hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars in lost sales and little to show for the author’s efforts. In situations where the authors themselves have seen rampant piracy affect their books, a debate on whether or not…
Canoodling the Customer
In a rather interesting blog, Jürgen Snoeren, Manager Operations and Digital with Amsterdam-based publisher MeulenhoffBoekerij, exhorts small publishers to establish relationships with their customers rather than with retailers. Obvious as it may seem, it is a step not too many publishers think about. In this blog, Snoeren asks publishers to…
Does Size Matter?
In a world where attention spans seem to be on the wane, the wisdom of publishing thick volumes has often been questioned. Do people have the time to devote to these large tomes? Do these books, that typically run into 500 pages or more, fit in with the average reader’s…
Boom in Indian Publishing?
While attending the Goa Art and Literature Festival, I found myself, quite unexpectedly, invited to a panel discussion on the future of publishing. The panel’s brief was to examine if the publishing boom, that is currently being experienced, can be sustained. Others on the panel included Chiki Sarkar, publisher of…
Gift a classic this Christmas
This Christmas gift your someone special a special something. We have developed Classics that you can personalize with a note and have delivered before Christmas. These paperbacks come in unique, specially designed covers. The note you choose to insert will be printed after the title page. Besides the…
The Right, Rights and Copyrights in Tamil Publishing
By Kannan Sundaram A couple of months back, I was asked to speak as a panelist in the Publishing Next conference, hosted by CinnamonTeal in Goa. The panel that I was a part of was focused on discussing Copyright Issues in Publishing, in the light of the proposed amendments to…
On giving flight…
A platform that offers an opportunity to hear the best and brightest minds speak is one we’d never pass on. So when just that happened, thanks to the Tehelka sponsored ThinkFest, we made sure we attended the entire programme, all three days of it. While the venue and some comments…