The NOW… NEXT and BEYOND of the Indian publishing Industry

Books have always remained integral to any culture across the world and having said that the publishing industry holds a stronghold across the world. With the popularity of the internet, physical books are slowly falling into obscurity and there is a tremendous rise in e-books on tablets and other devices. One of the key drivers of change in the publishing industry is the use of technology by using artificial intelligence to write books. 

 

It is well known that the Indian publishing industry is highly competitive and highly fragmented. There are over 9000 publishers and approximately 25,000 retailers. The industry is dominated by educational book publishing and a small share of trade book publishing. There is a small segment devoted to the dissemination of scientific research as well  

 

The key growth drivers of the Indian publishing industry include government initiatives on education, an increase in enrolment rates in institutions and an increase in the overall education expenditure. Not only is the industry a promoter of Indian culture, and values but also it maximises the continued uptake of digital platforms such as e-books in different regional languages to reach the diverse Indian population.  

 

Fiction and non-fiction have been around for years, at end but it was only in 2004 with Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone and One Night at the Call Centre which really highlighted commercial fiction.        

 

 

Some of the top trends in the publishing industry this year include personalisation, artificial intelligence, balancing authority content with approachability, audio content, video content, podcasts, social media, AI-Generated texts, P2P publishing opportunities and NLP tools. 

 

Many small and medium publishers have to constantly grapple with many issues such as high transaction costs, inadequate financial access, low R&D expenditure and also lack of 

market information. 

 

 

There are mainly three different publishing models. These are known as:

 

1)    Traditional publishing: It is less of a partnership between the writer and the publisher and more of a business contract. Here, the author completes a manuscript and writes a proposal which is submitted to a publishing house or a literary agent. 

Traditional book publishers can also be subdivided into large, medium and small. 

 

The editor then reads it to either determine whether It is suitable for the ghat house or to reject it.        If the publishing house decides to publish it, they will revise it and send back manuscripts for revisions. Then the house will set up the amount of money for designing, packaging the book, buying the rights from the writer,  marketing and distributing the book.  

 

There are two distinct parties involved in traditional publishing – the publishing house and the book author. These bookhouses already have an audience base and have a preferred niche to which they publish content.

 

 This type of publishing is recommended for those who are not really after profit-making after the book sales. Some examples of traditional publishing include The Penguin Random House, Macmillan Publishers, the Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers and Simon & Schuster. There are plenty of traditional bookhouses in India as well such as Jaico Publishing House, Rupa Publications, Penguin Books India, Bloomsbury India, Aleph book company, Srishti Publishers, Juggernaut Books Private Limited, Fingerprint books, Leadstart Publishing, Locksley Hall Publishing, Roli Books, Half baked beans, Roli Books, Pan Macmillan India and HarperCollins Publishers India.  

 

 

2)     Self-publishing: With the ordinary process of book creation in India, self-publishing is an increasingly popular offshoot of traditional publishing. Usually, people opt for an established publishing house with a team of professional people who will take care of the publishing of the book, right from the design, sales, and marketing.

Some of the popular self-publishing companies include Evincepub Publishing, Partridge Publication, White Falcon Publishing, The Write Order Publications, Blue Hill Publications, Astitiva Prakashan, Notion Press, Bluerose Publishers, Become Shakespeare and 24 by 7 Publishing. 

 

3)    Partnership publishing: A somewhat new type of publishing, partnership publishing empowers writers to create books the way that they want them to be even if they do not have any business skills or design skills to do so. It is very similar to self-publishing and provides the writer with a solid marketing plan.  It is an innovative model where the client invests money right from the beginning to get the book right from concept to the finished product. Some of the top publishing partnerships and collaborations include Mind Candy and Moshi Monsters, Times Global Partners, Volobox and O’Reilly, Oxford University Press and language school in Brazil, Faber and Faber and TouchPress, BookMachine and Bibkosh Labs.    

 

 

Not only does the Indian publishing industry contribute to India’s economic growth but also creates employment for over 1.2 million people.  It is estimated that the Indian publishing industry has a growth potential of INR 800 billion by 2024. However, the publishing industry is undergoing a tremendous landscape change with print newspapers and magazines witnessing a decline in subscriptions. Print books are however navigating the digital era easily. Although the publishing industry in India is making great strides there are yet many challenges such as copyright and piracy issues. India needs a strong regulatory ecosystem for reducing confusion about copyright infringement boundaries.

 

In fact, pirated books even account for 20-25% of the total market and also impact the industry negatively which also leads to a drop in revenue for publishers and tax collections for the government.  

 

Besides this, there are inefficiencies across its value chain including complex distribution channels, challenges and high costs that are related to the ease of doing business. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the publishing industry has further been disrupted by the imposition of strict lockdowns which led to limited sales, delayed payments for publishers and a steep collapse in the supply chain. There are many new emerging business models such as online retail, bundle packages, subscriptions, open-access resources and even self-publishing channels that provide channels to reach a broader target audience.

 

Besides this, the publishing industry also witnesses a major impact of GST. In the case of the Indian scenario where a zero-tax slab does not even exist the introduction of five percent GST on books would be beneficiary for both the publishing industry as well as the government. 

 

When you compare countries where there are mature markets such as the U.K., Norway and U.S. digital formats are becoming key growth drivers for publishing. While print books are yet dominating the publishing landscape in India with digital formats accounting for a mere 10% of the market, there needs to be an increased penetration of technology into the Indian population.  

The publishing industry has a very important role to play in shaping the future of India. The creation of a knowledge society, the global dissemination of Indian culture and heritage, and key educational targets and initiatives of the government are all some of the factors to take into consideration where the publishing industry and the government can support one another.