Confessions of a self-published author!

-Prashant Pinge self-publishes a book after establishing himself as an author through traditional route. 

Prashant Pinge is an acclaimed author of children’s fiction from Mumbai. He has been writing for over a decade, with five books and two short stories to his credit. His books have been nominated for the Crossword Book Awards, with Raja & the Giant Donut being shortlisted in the Children’s Writing category in 2011. More recently, he selfpublished his book Sceadu.

Here, he shares more about his experience of self-publishing.

Varsha (ABP): Why did you go for self-publishing?

Prashant Pinge

Prashant: I have taken the traditional publishing route for all my previous books. So the decision to self-publish my YA fantasy, Sceadu, was not an easy one. The biggest deterrent was my complete lack of knowledge of the publishing industry.

However, there were a few reasons that attracted me to venture down this road. Firstly, the self-publishing industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the past five years, especially with the availability of several online platforms that have dramatically increased reach.

Secondly, there are a lot of online resources available today that provide information about the self-publishing process. Thirdly, self-publishing would provide me with complete creative control, something that was really tempting given my background as a marketing professional. Lastly, I have always loved to experiment and knew that regardless of the outcome, the experience would be a reward in itself.

Varsha: How has been your experience?

Prashant: The experience has been a very interesting one so far. The preparation phase started almost five months prior to the actual date of release since I had to manage every aspect of this process with very limited resources at my disposal.

It involved a lot of multitasking to ensure that everything came together properly at the time of the launch. Of primary importance was to get the book, including cover design, ready well in time and in all the popular e-book formats. It required spending long hours learning from the numerous resources available online.

Then there was the aspect of pre-launch publicity which was a key factor in creating buzz around the book. The book launch went as planned, but the marketing continued even after that. In general, the actual ‘publishing’ has been a relatively straightforward process. It has been the marketing which has consumed a lot of time, so much so that it hasn’t allowed me to pursue much writing during this period. Also, while sales have been growing steadily, I do feel somewhere that a physical distribution channel, even in this digital age, would have made things easier. All in all though, my journey in self-publishing has been a tremendous learning experience.

While we do see online marketplaces slowly propagating to the smaller cities and towns, I feel that a physical network still offers a significant advantage in this industry.

Varsha: Do you think it would be better if you went through a publisher route? Why/Why not?

Prashant: I think this question is best answered at an individual level. Both routes offer various advantages and disadvantages. In the traditional route, the publisher has a lot of resources in place, especially with regards to editing, distribution and publicity. There is also the aspect of credibility associated with a publisher.

However, this route can often take long, even up to two years at times, and is often not even available to many authors. The greatest advantage of self-publishing is that it offers authors a chance to see their work made available to the world. There are many good authors out there who remain unpublished and selfpublishing is a boon for them.

This also happens to be the biggest disadvantage as anyone who fancies themselves to be an author now has an easy outlet to publish. This has, to a large extent, damaged the credibility of this channel, popular as it may be. Self-publishing, however, is very simple, cheap and quick, and also provides authors with a better earning model than traditional publishing, assuming similar sales of course.

Varsha: How are you marketing your book?

Prashant: The toughest aspect of publishing, be it the traditional route or the selfpublished one, is marketing. It is no secret that the number of books that are published every year is staggering. It therefore becomes essential to ensure that your book stands out amongst the competition.

And this is an extremely difficult task to achieve unless you already have substantial recognition in the market. Even traditional publishers have very low marketing budgets although they can provide an advantage through their established publicity channels. Besides, the market is so dynamic, with so many books released every day that it is very easy to get lost in all the information. In my case, I started early, about five months prior to the launch to ensure that a steady buzz developed until it culminated in a publicity blitz by the time the book was ready for release. I got an attractive cover made, developed an animated trailer video, had my website redesigned, sent out my book for reviews, wrote blogs, contacted the media, participated in book tours, chalked out a social media plan and the list goes on. There are, in fact, a lot of resources available online for book marketing. Everything depends on how much time and money you are willing to spend.

Varsha: Where all is your book available?

Prashant: Sceadu is available as an e-book on all the major online bookstores around the world such as Amazon, & Noble, iBooks Store, Kobo, Ciando and Flipkart. It is also available for download in various formats on Gumroad, an exclusive online platform for selling digital content. I am currently exploring the possibility of making it available as a paperback.

Varsha: What about your next book?

Prashant: My next work, a children’s book, is being traditionally published later this year. I am currently working on a romantic comedy, which I also plan to release through a publisher. While my experience with self-publishing has been fantastic, especially as a marketing professional, it is a lengthy process which hasn’t allowed me to devote much time to writing. The other aspect which I especially underestimated was the importance of a physical distribution network, especially in India. For instance, the publisher I usually work with has a network spread across more than 120 cities in India. While we do see online marketplaces slowly propagating to the smaller cities and towns, I feel that a physical network still offers a significant advantage in this industry.

Self-publishing: Blessing for novice authors!

The self-publishing route has helped many novice authors get established in the publishing space. As more and more authors are taking this route, Varsha Verma of ABP finds out how the selfpublishing companies actually work.Self-publishing: Self-publishing had always been there... In 1931, author of The joy of Cooking got 3,000 copies of her cook book published by an author. It became a bestseller after it was acquired by Bobbs- Merill Company. More recently, the popular trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James was also a self-published book initially and so was Amish Tripathi’s The Immortals of Meluha. These are just a few which made history, there are many more.

Once called vanity publishing, self-publishing has come a long way...it is an easier and quicker way for authors to reach out to their readers. Few of the well-known selfpublishing companies helping authors include Notionpress. com, Cinnaon Teal, Pothi. com, BecomeShaspeare.com, AuthorsUpfront, Zorba Books etc.

“Self Publishing is here to stay and is growing in exciting ways, as is clear from the catalogue of the self publishing platform - AuthorsUpFront - I co-founded in 2014. Authors are in a position to take controls back in their hands thanks to technology. Of course editorial inputs cannot be done away with,” says Arpita Das of AuthorsUpFront.

What they offer?

Malini Nair, head of publishing services, BecomeShakespeare.com, shares, “BecomeShakespeare. com, a brand of Wordit CDE Pvt Ltd, currently provides editorial, design, self-publishing, book marketing and distribution services for English fiction and non-fiction. We provide best in class services in each of the above categories and wish to help writers improve their craft.” While, Naveen Valasakumar, CEO, of notion.com shares, "We offer free to use publication tools. The content can be typed in, proof read with our assistance, layout of text/ cover design can be done using our templates.

Automation is the key of Notion Press. We have developed a user interface which automates the processes mentioned above, get peer reviews and plan the book's distribution globally. The three stages of content creating, reviews, printing /publishing are done with our assistance. Through our analytics, we can tell the author where one's book is doing well - e-Pub, PDF or retails online. One of our clients, an IT consultant, and author of a book on "How a CEO needs a CIO', commented that using Notion site was easier and simpler than buying a movie ticket.”

“We offer an end product, which is comparable to any international book. We have primacy to author’s inputs during the publishing process and provide clarity regarding each stage of publishing. Authors can get professional inputs and guidance from experts. What’s more? We offer wide distribution both within India and worldwide with a focus on online. And an author can publish his book within 30 days!” shares Shalini.

Why self publishing?

On asking about why they ventured into self-publishing, Malini shares, “We were looking at the self-publishing space for a while and found large gaps in the services available for authors. This is when we began with creating a self-publishing programme as close as possible to a traditional publishing setup, but designed for authors aspiring to look at publishing as a source of revenue.”

While, Shalini Gupta, founder director Zorba Books shares, “As with any new venture so with Zorba Books the path was neither straight nor easy. We wound our way through a maze of traditional publishing, book exhibitions, library setups and corporate requirements to finally finding our niche with self-publishing. We realised that new talented writers had no option but to go to traditional publishers. However, hundreds of them were not getting published because they could not draw the attention of the traditional publishers or the traditional format did not suit them. Since no publisher took on the author’s work for publishing, the individual would have to file away the manuscript and forget about his/her dream of being published. So we decided to provide an alternative to talented writers in the form of self-publishing and drive the growth of self-publishing in India through Zorba Books. The fact that we did not have a hard core background in publishing made it possible for us to break the conventional mould and bring in fresh thinking in the form of the new option of self-publishing and in the way we operate - honest, open and offering great service. The journey is not over and we continue to expand into new realms and push the selfpublishing boundaries.”

Challenges...

But self-publishing comes with its own set of challenges. “Unlike the western markets where self-publishing is widely accepted, authors in India are just about getting acquainted to it. Hence, a lot of time and energy gets spent in explaining authors the features and benefits of this model of publishing versus the traditional model of publishing,” shares Malini.

Similar views were shared by Shalini, who says, “Awareness regarding the option of selfpublishing is low amongst prospective authors. They need not be at the mercy of traditional publishers but can fast-forward their writing career through self-publishing. Besides, most authors do not realise the importance of marketing in selling. Every new author needs to market his book aggressively and over a long period for the sales to show any result. Marketing is an intensive, time consuming exercise and needs to be carried out consistently over a period of time.”

Marketing efforts…

And these self-publishing companies are not leaving any stone unturned to make sure that the books are available at major outlets and online bookstores. “At BecomeShakespeare.com, we provide distribution services to leading brick and mortar bookstores, chain stores, airport retailers, etc. apart from online retailers like Flipkart and Amazon. The format is simple: we take the risk and rent space out at these bookstores, while creating a ‘SIS’ (Shop-in-Shop) model, which enables us to distribute this shelf space among our books. Similarly, we also provide all the best practices the traditional publishing firms have, i.e. good editing, proofing, cover designs, pagination, printing in bulk, aggressive pricing, media mentions, book events, book reviews and author interviews, to name a few,” Malini.

Similarly, Naveen mentions that they had tied up with 500 dealers for book distribution. "Cost of publishing a book comes down to one third the cost of self publishing with Notion. A self publisher would at least spend Rs 55,000 excluding the Reprinting cost of book. As an author one will have to invest in his book and we will co-invest with him. This will ensure that he is committed to the project and plays along with us for marketing and publicity related work," shares Naveen.

While, Shalini adds, “Marketing is a maze of activities and baffling for a first time author. We have a three pronged strategy to help the author with marketing. First, we help the author de-clutter the marketing maze and arrive at marketing solutions that are most suited to his/her needs.

While doing so we keep in mind the author’s background, the book genre and the budget, based on which a marketing plan is drawn up. Second, we aid the marketing effort by offering various marketing aids such as developing a website, preparing a book trailer, etc. Last as with all publishing, it is the author’s responsibility to implement the plan, though we are always ready to guide and help.”

“Self-publishing is a nascent industry in India with limited awareness amongst the public. But this is gradually growing and would empower wouldbe authors to get their work published and make their voices heard. As literacy increases and disposable incomes rise, India will follow the same rapid growth trajectory that the Western world has followed,” concludes Shalini.

S. Chand Group: Striving to be in every sphere of education

Himanshu Gupta, joint managing director - S. Chand Group needs no introduction. This dynamic personality of the publishing industry has brought a major turnaround not just at S. Chand but also in the Indian publishing industry. Here, he shares his vision for the company and the major trends in the education industry, in exclusive interview with ABP editors SK Khurana and Varsha Verma. Excerpts. 

Journey so far… 

“I joined the family business way back in the year 2000. My journey so far can be divided into three phases. The first phase was when I was working with my father till 2006, in which there was a lot of learning, training, knowledge gain and I even went into the field. In 2006, my father opted to retire and from 2006 to 2012 was my second phase, in which we streamlined a lot of things and got S. Chand moving on a fast track. The third phase is from 2012 where we tried to grow, not just organically but also inorganically. We are now looking at the education industry in total and not just publishing. 

We have got private equity and also acquiring companies. Every phase has been a very interesting and challenging one, there have been a lot of ups and downs but with a great learning experience which continue even today,” shares Himanshu Gupta of S. Chand Group. 

Elaborating more on his journey, he adds, “Of all these phases, the third phase has been more important to learn and a experiential phase for me and I have met a lot many new people not only of publishing industry but also from the financial sectors.” 

Talking in numbers, Himanshu is quick to point out that S. Chand Group has grown from less than a $10 million company in 2006 to more than $100 million company today. “We have become the largest publishing group in the country,” he shares. 

Vision 2020… 

On asking about his vision, Himanshu replies, “We have a vision to take this company to a new level and we call it as Vision 2020, wherein S. Chand Group will become a knowledge power house in next five years and will be the largest non-infrastructure provider of products and services in the education sector. That’s why we have a new logo, which says S. Chand – A Knowledge Corporation. We want to focus ourselves in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the education industry, which means content and service provider. Our vision is to take S. Chand Group to a multi-fold education company where we would be focusing on two main areas – the first one being the core sector (print) and other being digital and allied services.” 

Telling more about the print segment, Himanshu shares that they are on the acquisition spree and would acquire more companies in near future. 

On education industry… 

Himanshu feels that our new government has a focus on education with the requisite budget and willingness to give quality education to students’ community. “The education segment is bound to grow and become a $100 billion industry in India,” he adds. 

“The higher education industry is also moving but not at the pace as of school segment. We also have a bigger book printing set-up as we feel that the school book segment is bound to grow. We may also look at the regional book segment, which has equally immense potential. The population of our country is growing and the industry will grow both in terms of volume and value as well,” he shares. 

“In terms of value, the book industry is pegged at $2.1 billion industry and it is expected that in the next fivesix years, it would become a $4-5 billion industry and we wish to have a 10-15 percent share within the education sector specially in the print segment,” targets Himanshu. 

“We can easily accomplish $400-500 million if we work properly in the print segment as I feel print is increasing in India because of the ease of affordability, infrastructure and other issues at ground level,” he adds optimistically. 

On digital and beyond… 

Digital is making inroads into the education industry and S. Chand Group is also fully gearing up to tap this growing segment. “We have recently acquired a minority share in a Hyderabad based company providing learning management systems, which is then offered in the form of tablets loaded with ready content. With opportunities like these, we plan to invest more money and time,” he adds. 

Not only this, there are other sectors which have immense potentials. “Of these, Test Prep sector, online tutorials, online distance education being the key growth areas, in which we can enter through organic or inorganic ways,” he shares. 

Entry into pre-schools… S. Chand Group has already opened four pre-schools – under the banner of Rise Kids and in the coming financial year, they are planning to have 25 such pre-schools. 

S. Chand today… 

In the print segment, S. Chand Group has produced 50 million books in the FY 2014-15, catering to 20 million students. They have 15,000 titles, 3,000 authors and 2,500 professionals under its wings. “We have consumed 20,000 tonnes of paper for book production this year,” shares Himanshu. “75 percent of our revenues come from school segment and 25 percent from higher education segment. In terms of print and non-print, 95 percent of the revenue comes from print and 5 percent from non-print but this would change to 75:25 in the next five years,” he adds. 

“Our growth in the last three years has been three folds and we hope to have five-fold growth in the next five years, to make S. Chand Group a USD 500 million company. Our vision is not just on papers but executed at ground level. We have the best people in the industry and the best infrastructure. We offer a professional environment to people who have responsibility as well as accountability. We have implemented SAP and planning to go for new distribution and logistics systems. Our printing unit in Sahibabad has a capacity to print 30-40 million books a year,” informs Himanshu optimistically. 

Himanshu also shares that S. Chand Group is now a preferred partner of the CBSE International, which has 50-60 schools under its umbrella. 

Focus on India… 

Being in the publishing business for 75 years now, S. Chand Group still has a potential to grow further. “We are focusing on domestic market rather than looking at opportunities overseas as we feel India has a huge potential. We do some exports but India remains our prime focus,” he says. 

S. Chand primarily caters to the CBSE and ICSE Boards, where the books are mainly in English. But, they also plan to expand in vernacular languages and the state level boards, in which S. Chand is still a small player. 

“We want to be a part of every sphere of education in an asset-like model as we know every child spends 15-20 years of his life in his education life cycle,” concluded Himanshu optimistically. 

“Let’s move from rote learning to concept-based learning”

says Ranjan Kaul, managing director, Oxford University Press India, in conversation with Varsha Verma. 

The future is bright for educational publishing and print is just a medium; we are developers and content creators or supporters. People will always want to read. Publishers just need to reinvent themselves, says Ranjan Kaul, managing director, Oxford University Press India (OUP), who has over three decades of publishing experience and has held senior editorial and management positions in leading publishing companies in India. More recently, the Federation of Publishers' & Booksellers' Association in India (FPBAI) presented OUP India with the 'Diamond Award' in recognition of its distinguished services to the Indian books and publishing industry.

Journey so far...

A well-known name in publishing, Ranjan is a thought leader in several domains such as business strategy and content development. He is often quoted in media on industry-specific issues. A post-graduate in English Literature from the University of Delhi, he also holds an Engineering degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. “After completing my engineering, I did postgraduate studies in Product Design from IIT, Mumbai. Later, I came back to Delhi and did some theatre for a while, before joining McGraw-Hill as a desk editor in 1979. I also did my MA in Literature from the University of Delhi,” he recollects. Ranjan spent 14 years at McGraw-Hill and worked primarily in the professional, reference and higher education segment. After a short stint at AH Wheeler for their publishing programme, Ranjan moved to Sage Publications for six years and was responsible for starting the new imprint – Response Books. Since April 2001, Ranjan has been with OUP and has been responsible for foraying into higher education publishing. Besides his role as the MD at OUP, he writes and paints in his spare time and is the author of Through The Forest, Darkly, a work of fiction published by Hachette.

Publishing industry...
then and now!

On asking about the journey so far, Ranjan replies, “The publishing industry has made steady progress. There is much more talent and many more professionals in this field now. The selling channels have changed and so has the marketing of books. Digital media has helped a lot in publicity and marketing.”

“There were a limited number of trade publishers when I joined the business. But now, there are many players in this field. Self-published authors have created a pressure on trade publishers and the competition is increasing,” he adds as a matter of fact.

On school publishing...

India has long been an important publishing centre for OUP. From its first locally published book in 1912, it has expanded its output to include a wide range of educational and academic resources - from scholarly works and higher education textbooks to school courses, bilingual dictionaries, and digital resources for teaching-learning.

“OUP is the market leader in ELT in K-8 segment, commanding around 24 percent of the total market share in private schools. We are growing our share in subjects like Maths, Science and Computer Science. In-fact, for CBSE Board, our Maths course is the highest selling. We have a reasonably good share in Humanities and Social Science,” he adds.

Even though OUP primarily focuses on CBSE and ICSE Boards, they also offer textbooks for state boards and some states in the North-East... “In the K-5 segment, state boards often prescribe books even with slight variation from the prescribed syllabus, Many state boards therefore prescribe books from OUP as well,” shares Ranjan.

On higher-education publishing...

Talking about higher education books from OUP, Ranjan informed that they started publishing in this segment in 2003 and are catering mainly to subjects like engineering, management, hospitality & hotel management. “We found there are gaps in these disciplines and so started publishing in that and we are proud to say that we are the market leaders in hospitality and hotel management. Oxford also distributes imported medical titles,” he adds.

On asking about their future plans in this segment, he replies, “We are planning to get into undergraduate commerce and science, where teaching is more in English.”

On dictionary publishing...

“It is a known fact that the sale of dictionaries in English language is slowing down in urban areas but it is also a fact that bilingual dictionaries designed for English learners in the tier 2 and tier 3 towns is growing. Despite a global slowdown in the sales of dictionaries, it is infact growing in India, though at a slower pace,” shares Ranjan.

“This is because the English language learning community is growing. There are around 180 million English language people who can write but not speak properly in English and it is this segment we are targeting. We are also publishing bilingual materials for adults who wish to enhance their English language skills,” he explains.

On digital solutions...

OUP India is also gearing up for the digital change. “We already offer Oxford Educate–teaching aids for teachers for interactive teaching and learning and seeing the response, we are also coming up with an Oxford Educate Premium solution for students. The beauty of this product is that it is device-agnostic, which means that students can use it on any device,” he shares.

On learning process...

As a message to the educators across the nation, Ranjan says, “Let us improve the learning outcomes and the general levels of learning.”

“We need to move away from rote learning to a concept-based approach to improve learning outcomes. . Even though formative assessment has been started in schools, but it is still not very successful as teachers do not have adequate tools to assess students properly. In this backdrop, we are coming up with Oxford Achiever – which is a digital solution and it measures the formative assessment skills of a student. We are initially developing it for English and Maths subjects. It has been successfully used in Hong Kong schools and we have developed a customised version for India.

We have already done a pilot test in 10 schools in India and are now planning to launch the English product later this year,” informs Ranjan.

Looking forward...

At OUP India, about 10 percent of our sales revenue comes from dictionary and reference books, 70 percent from school publishing and the balance 20 percent from academic and higher education publishing.

“We are planning to bring out an English-Hindi dictionary app soon and if it is successful, we may come up with apps in other languages as well,” shares Ranjan. “We are also looking at e-books in higher education, which may also have enhancements and interactivities. But OUP will continue to publish new courses in print, apart from offering integrated solutions to schools, encompassing print, digital, assessments, reports, teaching aids and teacher training,” concludes Ranjan optimistically.

S. Chand Group: Striving to be in every sphere of education

Himanshu Gupta, joint managing director - S. Chand Group needs no introduction. This dynamic personality of the publishing industry has brought a major turnaround not just at S. Chand but also in the Indian publishing industry. Here, he shares his vision for the company and the major trends in the education industry, in exclusive interview with ABP editors SK Khurana and Varsha Verma. Excerpts. 

Journey so far…

“I joined the family business way back in the year 2000. My journey so far can be divided into three phases. The first phase was when I was working with my father till 2006, in which there was a lot of learning, training, knowledge gain and I even went into the field. In 2006, my father opted to retire and from 2006 to 2012 was my second phase, in which we streamlined a lot of things and got S. Chand moving on a fast track. The third phase is from 2012 where we tried to grow, not just organically but also inorganically. We are now looking at the education industry in total and not just publishing.

We have got private equity and also acquiring companies. Every phase has been a very interesting and challenging one, there have been a lot of ups and downs but with a great learning experience which continue even today,” shares Himanshu Gupta of S. Chand Group.

Elaborating more on his journey, he adds, “Of all these phases, the third phase has been more important to learn and a experiential phase for me and I have met a lot many new people not only of publishing industry but also from the financial sectors.”

Talking in numbers, Himanshu is quick to point out that S. Chand Group has grown from less than a $10 million company in 2006 to more than $100 million company today. “We have become the largest publishing group in the country,” he shares.

Vision 2020…

On asking about his vision, Himanshu replies, “We have a vision to take this company to a new level and we call it as Vision 2020, wherein S. Chand Group will become a knowledge power house in next five years and will be the largest non-infrastructure provider of products and services in the education sector. That’s why we have a new logo, which says S. Chand – A Knowledge Corporation. We want to focus ourselves in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the education industry, which means content and service provider. Our vision is to take S. Chand Group to a multi-fold education company where we would be focusing on two main areas – the first one being the core sector (print) and other being digital and allied services.”

Telling more about the print segment, Himanshu shares that they are on the acquisition spree and would acquire more companies in near future.

On education industry…

Himanshu feels that our new government has a focus on education with the requisite budget and willingness to give quality education to students’ community. “The education segment is bound to grow and become a $100 billion industry in India,” he adds.

“The higher education industry is also moving but not at the pace as of school segment. We also have a bigger book printing set-up as we feel that the school book segment is bound to grow. We may also look at the regional book segment, which has equally immense potential. The population of our country is growing and the industry will grow both in terms of volume and value as well,” he shares.

“In terms of value, the book industry is pegged at $2.1 billion industry and it is expected that in the next fivesix years, it would become a $4-5 billion industry and we wish to have a 10-15 percent share within the education sector specially in the print segment,” targets Himanshu.

“We can easily accomplish $400-500 million if we work properly in the print segment as I feel print is increasing in India because of the ease of affordability, infrastructure and other issues at ground level,” he adds optimistically.

On digital and beyond…

Digital is making inroads into the education industry and S. Chand Group is also fully gearing up to tap this growing segment. “We have recently acquired a minority share in a Hyderabad based company providing learning management systems, which is then offered in the form of tablets loaded with ready content. With opportunities like these, we plan to invest more money and time,” he adds.

Not only this, there are other sectors which have immense potentials. “Of these, Test Prep sector, online tutorials, online distance education being the key growth areas, in which we can enter through organic or inorganic ways,” he shares.

Entry into pre-schools… S. Chand Group has already opened four pre-schools – under the banner of Rise Kids and in the coming financial year, they are planning to have 25 such pre-schools.

S. Chand today…

In the print segment, S. Chand Group has produced 50 million books in the FY 2014-15, catering to 20 million students. They have 15,000 titles, 3,000 authors and 2,500 professionals under its wings. “We have consumed 20,000 tonnes of paper for book production this year,” shares Himanshu. “75 percent of our revenues come from school segment and 25 percent from higher education segment. In terms of print and non-print, 95 percent of the revenue comes from print and 5 percent from non-print but this would change to 75:25 in the next five years,” he adds.

“Our growth in the last three years has been three folds and we hope to have five-fold growth in the next five years, to make S. Chand Group a USD 500 million company. Our vision is not just on papers but executed at ground level. We have the best people in the industry and the best infrastructure. We offer a professional environment to people who have responsibility as well as accountability. We have implemented SAP and planning to go for new distribution and logistics systems. Our printing unit in Sahibabad has a capacity to print 30-40 million books a year,” informs Himanshu optimistically.

Himanshu also shares that S. Chand Group is now a preferred partner of the CBSE International, which has 50-60 schools under its umbrella.

Focus on India…

Being in the publishing business for 75 years now, S. Chand Group still has a potential to grow further. “We are focusing on domestic market rather than looking at opportunities overseas as we feel India has a huge potential. We do some exports but India remains our prime focus,” he says.

S. Chand primarily caters to the CBSE and ICSE Boards, where the books are mainly in English. But, they also plan to expand in vernacular languages and the state level boards, in which S. Chand is still a small player.

“We want to be a part of every sphere of education in an asset-like model as we know every child spends 15-20 years of his life in his education life cycle,” concluded Himanshu optimistically. 

Dorling Kindersley turns 40, Indian wing focuses on India!

For forty years, readers all over the world have relied on DK to inform, entertain, and enrich their lives. This year DK India will mark this historic birthday by launching a series of titles especially for the Indian reader. To begin with, they are targeting children and will later move on to titles for adult as well, tells Aparna Sharma, MD, DK India in conversation with Varsha Verma.DK books are already well established in the market, recognised for their high quality content and design, and it seems like the right time to build on this success of DK’s international titles to produce books with India as focus, says Aparna Sharma, MD, DK India.

About DK… 

Founded in 1974 by Christopher Dorling and Peter Kindersley as a packaging company for other publishers, DK launched its first titles in 1982 when it secured a deal to edit, design and produce a first-aid manual for voluntary aid societies in the UK. It has since grown into an internationally respected publisher of high quality, illustrated products and online resources across all areas of adult and children’s non-fiction – from natural history to travel, food and drink to family reference and even licensing books for Marvel, Lucas Film and Disney.

DK in India…then and now

In 1998, DK began operations in Delhi with a team of just 10 people. Led by Aparna Sharma, it now employs close to 300 people in its Noida office. “In the year 2000, it was taken over by Penguin but it works as an independent business while the sales and marketing is being handled by the Penguin Group. But now, since we are focusing on the Indian market, we have employed our own sales and marketing team as well,” shares Aparna.

“We are now growing and understanding India and are coming up with specific titles for India, which are either made specifically for India or are adapted for it,” she adds. After publishing their first local title last year Young Chefs with Vikas Khanna, in 2014, DK India has released a range of titles like Children’s Eyewitness Guide to Gandhi, 100 Indians Who Made History and

Find-It Delhi, a mini travel guide/activity book for children. “All these books are written in a light manner, with lot of trivia to engage children. Our book on Gandhi is very different in the sense that we have sourced some new information and pictures, which have either never been published or are not so common,” tells Aparna.

India-focused business plans…

DK India plans to publish six to eight titles for the local market each year, with special focus on the children’s segment to start with, expanding into new and emerging areas like lifestyle. “We are focused on children in a measured way. When we say children, we mean the age group of eight plus as this is a big area and children in this age group need to learn a lot. We will also come up with workbooks, reads, etc, as it will be an ages and stages programme, for which we are also partnering with licensors in UK and US. And we will always keep the curriculum in mind and use the right choice of words and number of words as per the age group,” explains Aparna.

“From time to time, we will take feedback from our distributors and customers and then build on the programme,” she shares. “We will later diversify into adult titles like lifestyle, general interest, cookery, gardening, sports, health, travel, natural history, birds of India, etc,” reveals Aparna.

DK India will also continue to play a key role in the company’s expanded global range of digital products that repurpose print content into new and emerging web-based, tablet-based, and mobile-based platforms.

“Other plans include the launch of an online knowledge website for children, scheduled for later this year. The website will support learning in home and school by covering every key subject area from Science to History. The roll-out will involve engaging with schools and students through quizes using DK content,” shares Aparna.

Custom publishing…

And DK India has other plans too…they are also eyeing different avenues and focusing on the bespoke publishing or the custom publishing for distribution or own use. “Almost 95 percent of own content is DK-owned, hence we have a vast depository of content, which we can use and give away for segments like tourism, medicine, wine-tasting, cheese-tasting, etc.” embarks Aparna.

On talent…

“There is lot of talent available in India but exposure is not much. They do not know how to stretch their boundaries of creativity while focusing on the information. Sometimes, the exposure to subject is not there. We keep training our team at DK Academy as an ongoing process. Our colleagues from UK are also engaged in this extensively,” tells Aparna.

Celebrating 40th anniversary…

DK India has always been committed to its green initiatives such as judicious re-use of paper, by encouraging practices such as double-sided printing and using recycled notebooks. “As part of the 40th anniversary celebrations to communities across the globe, DK India has planned to inculcate a tradition of caring for and enriching the quality of lives of the communities where their staff stay and work in. DK will work with local charities to help raise funds, spread awareness and allow staff to volunteer their time,” tells Aparna.

Future plans…

“For the next three years, we will put in our energies and see the impact in the local publishing segment. We have come up with a special pricing for the Indian market, which is 20-30% cheaper and most of the books would be priced between Rs 200-500, which is quite competitive and affordable. These books are produced without compromising on quality in content, paper, printing or the ethical values. We work with empanelled printers who use renewable sources,” tells Aparna.

“There is a lot of clutter in the children publishing segment but DK wants to stay distinct and be valued for its quality product,” concludes Aparna.

“Great books are always rewritten”

“Great books are always rewritten” 

A message to all Asian authors from Nury Vittachi, in conversation with Varsha Verma. 

Nury Vittachi is a journalist and author based in Hong Kong. His columns are published daily, weekly in a variety of newspapers in Asia as well as on his website. He is best known for the comedy-crime novel series The Feng Shui Detective, published in many languages around the world, but he has also written non-fiction works and novels for children. He is also known for his role in founding the Asia Literary Review, the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the Man Asian Literary Prize, and was the chairman of the judges of the inaugural Australia-Asia Literary Award in 2008, where he shares more about his love for books and the pleasure of being a judge for literary prizes. 

Being a judge to many literary awards for more than a decade, what are the basic attributes he keeps in mind? “It is tough being a judge as every book is unique. Every organisation has their longlist and they have some key elements on which a book has to be judged, but I personally, do not go by those elements alone but love the enchantment and the magic in a book which makes you forget the world,” he replied. “We are soon launching a World’s Readers Awards in November in Hong Kong to honour the best book written in the world, which is dominated by Asia,” he informed. “Asians are becoming more and more assertive. There are so many literary awards where Asian authors cannot participate. It is ironical that the maximum numbers of internationally successful books are from West while the bulk of audience is in the East. The Asian book industry is growing. Hence, it is important to have an award where Asian writers can compete,” he told. 

On asking about the standards of Asian authors, Nury replied, “Asian authors complain too much about the lack of good editors, agents and distributors. What is important is to write a fantastic book and all things will appear on their own. Asian writers are not very ambitious and they are not very keen on taking creative risk. In the west, authors take at least a year or two to complete one book and do 4-5 revisions before submitting it to the publisher. Great books are always rewritten.” 

As a message to Asian authors, he concluded, “The world is ready for you to write great books.”