Is Delhi becoming a real city that demands a real book fair?

The 15th Delhi Book Fair is first of all a fair – a mela. It is a retail event where all types of publishers from around the country come to sell their books to the diverse population of approximately 15 million in the Delhi National Capital Region. It is a chance for families to have an educational and recreational outing at the centrally located Pragati Maidan fairgrounds.

Nevertheless some professional publishers also try to invest the event with a larger purpose – apart from the book readings and author signings to help sell books – to the exchange of ideas and the networking that is essential to not only expand the trade in books but also to make it more productive and profitable for everyone involved. The issue is whether to continue slow and uncertain growth or to try and purposively (and thus collectively) give a serious push to the book publishing industry.

Of course our various associations will have to do a better job of this whole thing. Otherwise a professional and competent organiser will seize the opportunity to organise a great book fair for what with all its politics and problems is becoming a real city. Real cities or agglomerations such as Delhi want real book fairs with all their complexities.

Ban Unbanned

The Federation of Indian Publishers is organising events everyday at the Delhi Book Fair. The events include book releases, panel discussions, copyright symposium, seminars and programs. On 29 August 2009, the federation organised a panel discussion on ban on Jaswant Singh’s book – Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence.

The event was attended by Jaswant Singh, the author of the much talked about book, Salman Khurshid, Union Minister of State (IC) for Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs; TN Chaturvedi, former Governor of Karnataka; Justice CM Nayar, Judge, retd., Delhi High Court; Ramesh C Govil, President, The Federation of Indian Publishers; DN Malhotra, President Emeritus and Chairman, Freedom to Publish Committee and Tushar Gandhi, Head, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation.

It was a very lively discussion and all the panelists criticised the ban. Chaturvedi said, “No one can create history and make facts. One can collect facts, collate and re-assemble them.” Khurshid said that people are talking of the book being against national interest but what is the national interest, nobody knows. He said, “Maulana Azad banned his autobiography for thirty years because he felt that his book had some very straightforward comments which he probably thought would create uproar or upset his colleagues. Area of intellectual disclosure cannot be banned. This book comes nowhere near the ban zone.” Khurshid opined, “We all are against the ban and all sensible people should be against it. It is not a very exciting thing to worry about. We have faith in honorary Supreme Court and right decision will be taken.”

Jaswant Singh was invited to speak but he said that he had no intention to speak about his book at a panel discussion because it may seem like a self promotion which he felt was not right. But he continued and reflected on some historical events. Singh after the event went to the stand of Rupa & Sons, publisher and distributor of the English version of Singh’s Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence. He diligently signed copies of his title, making sure not to give an autograph to anybody who would come to him without a copy of his book.

Inauguration Delhi Book Fair

The 15th Delhi Book Fair along with the stationary fair was inaugurated on 29 August 2009, by Union minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid, at Pragati Maidan (Halls 8-12). Also present at the inauguration were Jawahar Sircar, Culture Secretary with additional charge of I&B, Dr. Subas Pani, secretary Planning Commission, RC Govil chairman FIP and Rajiv Yadav executive director of ITPO. At the inauguration just below the auditorium in hall 8 of Pragati Maidan was a display of books from the North East on loan from the Sahitya Academy, approximately fifty from each state. The walls were covered by biographies of some of the more celebrated authors of the North East.

At the inauguration the speakers addressed the issue of declining readership and the advent of other forms of media which some people perceive as threatening to books in their present form. They also spoke about the focus of Delhi Book Fair on publishers from the North East. More about the North East will be learnt with the seminar on “Publication scenario of North East states-past and present,” organized by the Tripura Publishers Guild and the FIP on 31 August from 10 am to 1:30 pm. This will be followed by a panel discussion on Copyright Issues organised by Kitab from 2 pm to 4 pm, and a seminar on “How to get maximum from Frankfurt Book Fair” organized jointly by the FIP, CAPEXIL and GBO from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm.

The first day saw a slow start to the fair with most exhibitors still opening up and stacking their shelves till late afternoon. Some of the exhibitors we spoke to at the fair said that the fair was a very prolonged affair and because of the duration there wont be any serious business enquiries in the first one week and all of the pile up will be on the second weekend and the last two days of the fair. From a business point of view quite a few exhibitors were enthusiastic of the business they would get at the fair -- both retail and wholesale. Business networking will mainly happen on the sidelines and not at the fair as there will be a loads of visitors to the fair looking for good books and even better deals.

Building the community

As at most of the IFRA India conferences, the hottest topic is how newspapers need to adapt and change. Years ago, at one of these events N Murali of The Hindu in his speech spoke about the need for daily newspapers to build “communities.” This is not an easy concept for a daily newspaper and it is still not clear how Indian newspapers will do this in a way that strengthens or protects their business.

Of course the implication was that there should be more interaction with customers and readers but whether it meant helping to organise sports and cultural events or taking part in local education or developing readers as reporters beyond the letters columns was not exactly clear. There was a subtext that the Internet and the cellphone would play a role, and these were part of “cross-media” and “convergence” as concepts and technologies. However it is still not clear whether or how publishers can monetise new media. And ultimately the idea of building communities is also not clear. This seems to now mean for the most part, social networks on the web. Even blogging, which seems to have caught on in India, seems to be growing without much link to the local publishing industry except that it borrows and leans on published content.

Our organisation of course is smaller than the smallest newspaper in the country but since it tries to cater to the printing, publishing and packaging verticals, it is ideally poised to try and create a community. It does this by holding seminars and conferences such as the recent Monsoon Summit for process standardisation and ISO 12647. And it can also do this with its websites; weekly email newsletters, and a new set of three blogs – the Print Asia blog, the Print Experts Asia Pacific blog and the Content and Media Asia Pacific blog. Have a look – comment – and let us know if you would like to join the blog team. See links and web addresses on contents page 5.

Delhi Book Fair
Beyond this we will be taking part at the Delhi Book Fair together with Quark in an effort to meet the more than 200 book publishers there. Apart from demonstrating software, Itu Chaudhuri will speak at our stand in Hall12A on Typography and Book Design on 1 September at 4pm. On 3 September NS Manku will speak about Excellence in Book Binding at 4pm. Other activities at the stand include valuable prizes for the Best Book and Cover Designs. Come by to Stands 15 and 16 in Hall 12A for a chat, and to submit your entries for best designs. We will also write and produce together with Quark on the stand for the most part, two A4 show bulletins called Content & Media. These will be dated and distributed on 31 August and 3 September.

IFRA Expo Chennai
Further, at the IFRA Expo and Publish Asia conference in Chennai in late September we will together with IFRA India publish the IFRA Gazette on 24 and 25 September. This will also be an A4 publication containing all the show news and some feature articles and interviews generated at the show. We also hope to develop the Content & Media blog at the IFRA Expo.

IPP XII The Wake Up Print Conference
Our main effort at building the community over the last 8 years has come from IppStar our industry-supported organisation for standards, seminars, and conferences. This year IppStar will hold its 12th Conference on 19 December in Mumbai. IPP XII will be a one-day event on Marketing Strategies for direct mail, transpromo and digital print. New print marketing strategies for the new consumer are required. The Indian printers too must re-invent themselves and they must become part of the print buyer’s marketing strategies aimed at the new consumer. This event is planned as a “thought leaders” or a “wake up” print conference. This is our way to take part in the building of our community.

From Austrailia -- a Print 21 online article about the Melbourne Writer's Festival

I am pasting an article from the Print 21Online newsletter (print21@bluelinemedia.com.au) published by my friend Patrick Howard. It is interesting not only because of the phenomenon of printers realising that their best friends could be their own national writers and publishers, but also because of the larger issues of territory based publishing rights for English language books. Printers in many countries want to export printed books and to some extent to limit the import of printed books. Publishers on the other hand often feel ill-served by their local printers and in some cases find them uncompetitive as well.

Printers set to lobby Melbourne Writer’s Festival
Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Members of the printing industry are being urged to rally along with authors and book publishers at a forum opposing the Productivity Commission’s recommendations on parallel imports of books at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival this weekend.

Part of the week-long festival will feature an open forum discussion featuring opponents of the recommendations including publishers, leading authors and printing industry representatives along with representatives of major booksellers and the Productivity Commission. The forum will be held at 7pm on Saturday 22 August in ACMI 2, Federation Square, Melbourne.

Printing Industries CEO, Philip Andersen, is urging those in the printing industry to attend and raise their concerns. “Together with our coalition partners of the Saving Aussie Books campaign, we are encouraging members to attend the forum and, where possible, to provide some practical support through signing and handing our petitions,” he said.

“We are also looking for assistance with the preparation of signage that attendees can use to show their support for our campaign.”

Discussions are currently taking place with book printer, McPherson's and local government members from Maryborough, where book printing is a major source of employment for residents, to see if either parties can attend the forum.

Andersen added that organisations and individuals outside of Victoria can also help by signing petitions which can be downloaded here and by participating in the Choice online poll on the parallel importation of books which has been re-opened following a temporary absence.

New beginnings and sorting out

This a fresh initiation of our blogging efforts. The idea is to create a discussion of the content and publishing issues peculiar to Asia and maybe even more provincially to India and South Asia. There are two sides to playing with geography and nationalities especially with cultural issues. On the one hand everyone wants to know about the other (including other regions and cultures) and on the nothing is really very interesting unless it is grounded in detail or particularity.

Ideally we would like to create a texture or backroom for ideas, content, and publishing. The publishing could pertain to books, magazines, newspapers, eBooks, podcasts etc. There will some things of technical interest but hopefully also a good discussion of ideas and content shaping media as well how technology mediates media. This will be a team blog and we will invite people who we think are expert and articulate. If you would like to join the team of bloggers please contact editor@ippgroup.in. You can suggest names of experts that we could invite. Alternately you can join the conversation with your comments.