‘STMs would become 100% online’

OPINES VIKAS GUPTA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, WILEY INDIA, IN CONVERSATION WITH VARSHA VERMA AND SHWETA KHURANA OF ABP. 

Vikas Gupta, managing director, Wiley India

All STM global players acquire authors and books in India, which are developed locally but published as a global edition. Printing may or may not happen in India. But the acquisition of books and authors is a robust business in itself in the areas of S&T (Science and Technology) and Social Sciences. But, medical publishing from India is not global. India publishes books on Health Sciences for third world countries like Africa, parts of Middle East, South East Asia, etc, where there are similar standards and acceptance.

Even a British textbook in Health Sciences does not sell in America, but it has big market in Commonwealth countries. American books in medicine are globally accepted,” tells Vikas Gupta, managing director, Wiley India, the Indian subsidiary of John Wiley & Sons Inc, a leading global publisher.

Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons Inc has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfil their aspirations. Wiley India offers a gamut of books and digital products ranging from IT and business books to local reprints of bestselling higher education textbooks at Indian prices. Talking about STMS publishing, Vikas informed that journal publishing in India is a growing field. “Most of these researches are in collaboration with foreign authors. The total articles published from India are dramatically increasing but they are not cited much. So, they do not have a big impact factor. China has a better impact, volume and value,” he adds.

Print vs online sales…

“Majority of research books in universities are going online. But a core textbook is predominantly printed one,” tells Vikas.

Challenges faced…

“One of the biggest challenges is the quality of writing as lot of people do new research but their papers get rejected in international journals because they are not properly written. So, publishers like Wiley are conducting seminars on how to write good research papers. Then, the authors need to be aware of the copyright issue and plagiarism. Another challenge is to find new topics. Besides, since there is no local recognition in India for research, so most of the researchers go abroad, which is not good for India. Another challenge is that many Indian publishers have good books but the quality standards are not up to the mark,” he shares.

Another important point he shares is that many Indian libraries do not understand the difference between remainder and new books. They buy books which are of no use to the researchers. “For libraries, volume is more important than value and price is a big issue for them. Certain publishers even repackage the old books to show that they have come up with new editions for the books,” he shares. ISBN authorities need to be fully functional.

“Besides, government is not giving enough funds for libraries. So, they have low budgets, which need to be checked,” he adds. “Looking at research as a commodity is a challenge for publishers and saddens thousands of societies we represent as publishers. Globally, research and academia work together but in India they are separate verticals and there is no co-relation between them,” he adds further.

What makes a good library?

“A good library is one which is a hybrid of print and digital. They should have a good indexing system so that there is a single place access for all information. Discoverability is very important and they should have the latest books and other resources,” shares Vikas.

Wiley’s STMS business…

Wiley's Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly (STMS) business serves the world's research and scholarly communities, and is the largest publisher for professional and scholarly societies. Wiley's programs encompass journals, books, major reference works, databases, and laboratory manuals, offered in print and electronically. “Through Wiley Online Library, we provide online access to a broad range of STMS content: over four million articles from 1,500 journals, 9,000+ books, and many reference works and databases. Access to abstracts and searching is free, full content is accessible through licensing agreements, and large portions of the content are provided free or at nominal cost to nations in the developing world through partnerships with organisations such as HINARI, AGO Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Peace. “And this is our USP. The majority of Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry are Wiley authors,” he says. “Wiley’s Indian business is Rs 100 crore in prints and Rs 150 crore online. We publish about 3,000 books globally, of which 300 titles are published from India,” shares Vikas.

Future ahead…

“India is a market where print will remain but STMS publishing would become 100 percent digital. Focus would shift from books to subject databases. It will become a service-centric business. Open access publishing will co-exist with traditional publishing.

Publishers will offer newer services to researchers and scholars to help them write better and get them published. Plagiarism would be tackled where article published would have links to data used for the same. Discoverability of content would increase. But, there would be a new set of competitors, who will not be publishers,” concludes Vikas.

Is it a travel book or a comic?

It is both – a comic travel book. Ladakh: A Photo Travelogue is a fresh attempt at travel books. Here, Varsha Verma finds out what goes in making of this book, in conversation with the author Sohini Sen.Unlike any other book so far published on Ladakh — and quite possibly unlike any other travel book published till date Ladakh: A Photo Travelogue — is a travel story told through high-resolution colour photographs laid out in a comic-strip format. Two lady travellers arrive in Leh one local summer morning. In the course of their journey through Ladakh, they get to know about the war between ‘Nanak Lama’ and a demon and watch masked lamas offer a comic interlude amid serious rituals at the Phyang Monastery festival. On their way to Nubra Valley via Khardung Pass (altitude: 18,380 ft), the travellers meet animals with an identity crisis, and a donkey who will never lend its owner an ear again.

In the valley, a 32-metre tall statue of Maitreya Buddha shares the limelight with double-humped camels. The ladies are bowled over by their names. Readers can enjoy the journey to Pangong Lake (altitude: 13,900 ft) and back, which has quite a few highpoints — Shey Palace, Thiksey and Hemis monasteries, the Chang Pass, and the curious case of the frozen marmot. Also, one can find the Tso Moriri lake (altitude: 15,075 ft), which is visited by very few tourists. The book is written by Sohini Sen, who has enjoyed two successful careers as an assistant editor with The Telegraph newspaper and a senior manager with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. Now a full-time travel writer and photographer, instead of chasing deadlines, she is chased by camera-shy yaks and was once ceremoniously kissed by a dolphin. She has been a freelance travel columnist with the Financial Chronicle newspaper, New Delhi. Her other books are The Talking Table and Other Stories, a book of short stories for children, and Yatra Pathe Rabi—a collection of photographs taken by her; matched with Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s autograph-poems.

Ladakh: A Photo Travelogue has over 400 crisp photos, and the easy, humorous writing style. So, how did this new concept of travelogue came up? “Will, I have been very fond of comic strip Asterix from my young age. And I believe that people do not read much as they have short attention spans. So, I was looking for a medium which can hold their attention and what better than a graphic novel. So, this book will appeal to casual tourists, serious travellers, and even those keen on armchair travelling,” tells Sohini.

“Since it is a travel book, pictures form an integral part of the book. But, a picture is incomplete without words and so it is a mix of both, making it a harmonious whole,” she shares. Sohini spent 20 days in Ladakh and took thousands of pictures on her travel. “I was charmed with the beauty of Ladakh and when I came back and saw the pictures, I thought of putting it together in the form of a book. So, for six months, I worked on the text, design and layout of the book. When I submitted my book to Niyogi Books, it was finalised in just 10 days of submission,” she shares.

As an advice to young aspiring travel writers, Sohini shares, “Be prepared for lots of hardships as travelling is not easy. Mingle with a lot of locals and blend with the atmosphere to bring the true spirit of place. Be ready to live with basic facilities.” And Sohini, being an avid traveller, is now working on a photo travelogue on Bhutan. “I may look at a series of similar travelogues,” she concludes.