India

8th Delhi Book Fair Seminar on Export of Books in the Recent World Scenario (27 August 2002)

  CAPEXIL's Book Division organised a seminar titled the Problems and Prospects in the Export of Books in the Present Scenario to coincide with the Delhi Book Fair. While welcoming the participants, chairman of CAPEXIL's Books, Publications & Printing Panel, Sukumar Das, underlined the objective of the export of books. In addition to the foreign exchange and help in maintaining the balance of payments, he said that the export of books facilitates the dissemination of information and culture. Through export, we also promote our own authorship, thereby enlarging our print-runs. Though, he said, there has been a considerable surge in our export-turnover during the past decade, there is still a potential, which remains untapped. Indian books, he said, should find a greater leeway in the world market because of their quality of comprehension and affordable prices. Emphasizing the point that a large segment of the market still remains untapped, he said that Indian publishers have so far been able to find markets in only 20 of the 53 countries in Africa. Again, even the existing markets need to be penetrated to have their greater market share, he said. Later, Das explained the trends in various segments of the international market.

School Books
  Speaking on problems and prospects of school books in the international market, R. C. Govil, Chairman of Frank Brothers, explained that school books need proper editing to meet the requirements of various countries. He said that paper quality is difficult to match with what is available in countries like Singapore. But, if that quality of paper were used for all our books, we would not be able to compete in the domestic market. The solution lies in making available separate editions, which is feasible if we foresee the demand first. However, our school books are being used in Indian schools, outside India. Our books have potential in the neighbouring countries though we have to face competition with National Council for Educational Research & Training (NCERT), a government-sponsored, publishing house which attempts to get indigenous books written for Indian schools in those countries. He said that promotion is quite costly and not everybody would be able to afford it.

STM Publications for Export
  While India has scientific manpower comparable in size and capability to anywhere else in the world, V. N. Arjuna, Publishing Director of CBS Publishers & Distributors, wondered what is holding us back from preparing and exporting our STM (Science, Technology and Medical) books the world over. He, therefore, wanted the publishers to change their minds and develop a philosophy to utilise the knowledge and experience of our own people to cater to the needs of both Indians and the international community of scientists, engineers and medical doctors.   In this context, he explained at length the mechanism for product development. He wanted that a good team of world class authors be induced to write and prepare publishing material. We have to ensure that graphics are pleasing, photographs have the proper clarity with high contrast, and pictures and photos are well edited. We lack facilities for education and training of editors of STM books, he said, and suggested that this task be taken up by the federations of publishers. While explaining the ingredients of good books in STM, he suggested good layout and design, minimum standards in printing quality, strength in stitching and binding, and an attractive cover design. He laid emphasis on properly written blurbs, promotion, marketing and distribution.

Present Scenario of Printing
  Most of the printers learn by interacting with their customers, observed Satish Malhotra, Managing Director of Swapan Press, who happens to be the President of Master Printers. He observed a new trend while visiting international fairs of printing machinery where he found that there is a diminishing number of visitors from the developed countries. He saw that because of the competition the printing world is facing from the electronic media, investors, by and large, are now averse to investment in the new technology which is now essential to provide a quality printing. In such a situation, the publishers have now started relying on Indian publishers who are suitably equipped to provide satisfactory printing works. While entrusting this job, publishers in such countries have other factors in view. India has the advantage of its geographical location, catering to the need of the developing countries while itself being the biggest market, and secondly we have the largest English-knowing talented manpower.

Scope of Children's Books
  Speaking on the development and marketing of children's books, Manorama Jafa, from Khas Kitab Ghar, who regularly visits the Children's Book Fair in Bologna, said that while publishers in the West produce these books in hard cover mainly for libraries, children's books in India are primarily designed for individual buyers. Children's books have to be designed and produced for education through pleasure. She found at the Bologna Fair that the books are suitably graded, i.e. different for various age groups, keeping in view their level of understanding and child psychology. They need to be multi-coloured so as to attract the child's attention and keep him interested in the contents of the pages. Children, she said, always need a fresh approach. With distinctive designing of the cover and presentation of the inside view, Indian publishers, she felt, can compete with the British, American and other publishers in other countries. Manorama Jafa also laid stress on special publicity and promotion of children's books. A team of enterprising editors and designers need to study the new trend before undertaking this venture of producing children's books. The manuscripts she wants need to be suitably evaluated by an editor, whose opinion has to be honoured, before they are sent to press. In the end she wanted a catalogue of 100 best books to be prepared for collective promotion. The entries in this catalogue, she said, should be based on the recommendation of an expert committee.

Export Marketing of Indian Books
  M. L. Ahuja, General Manager of Varun Exports, suggested the setting up of a website at the national level which could provide access to the titles of all the publishers in the English language with subject codes so that anybody looking for the books of his interest should have them listed together, irrespective of the publishers. These titles, he said, should be linked by ISBN with the titles in the publishers' own website. He asked the publishers to provide detail of such titles and their contents in their own websites so that any person wishing to know more detail about any title should have it immediately. This approach, Ahuja stated is more appropriate for the marketing of textbooks and should be useful for the merchant exporters, who, in many cases, lose substantial orders just because they do not have the information about the publishers and Books in Print is never up to date.   Laying stress on professionalisation of the Indian book industry, he suggested the preparation of a handbook to explain the terminology involved in books. To cite an instance, he said that a new entrant in the book distribution organization cannot do justice to marketing if he himself does not know what gerontology or mechanics or even hydrology are. For penetration of market he felt that it is essential that we expose the contents of our books to the prospective buyers.

Marketing of Journals
  While speaking on the export of books, Ahuja briefly underlined the role of journals and periodicals. He said that while the indexing and abstracting journals facilitate the promotion of journals in the West, we do not have any such medium for the promotion of Indian journals. As a first step, he suggested that all the journal publishers be brought to a single forum. This would not only breed confidence among our subscribers and readers and redress their grievances but would also evolve ways and means to market Indian journals the world over. He said that to ensure expeditious and uninterrupted supply of periodicals to the subscribers, subscription agencies should carry out a meticulous planning rather than working on a trial and error basis. He also suggested a common website for Indian periodicals displaying the contents of the periodicals and abstracts of the articles, which he said, should be useful to all concerned.
(September 2002, Sukumar Das, ABD correspondent)