Not a bad way to start the year!
By the time western publishing has fully emerged from its winter cocoon and shaken off its New Year hangover, in time for the London Book Fair that kicks off the western book fair season in March, many millions – literally – of people will have swarmed book fairs across India, spending the rupee equivalent of millions of dollars – again, literally – on books.
The Pudacherry Book Fair had its last day dead on New Year’s Eve, having began December 22. Now that’s my kind of Christmas present!
No numbers announced yet, but we do know the 2022 edition pulled in 500,000 visitors, spending the rupee equivalent of $480,000 on books.
Right now, the 34th Vijayawada Book Festival is underway. It began December 28 and runs eleven days until January 7, with callous disregard for western New Year sensibilities.
Last year the 2022-3 edition also pulled in 500,000 visitors that spent $480,000 on books.
Also happening right now, finishing January 9, is the Assam Guwahati Book Fair, which last year pulled in a record crowd of 600,000 visitors that spent $670,000 on books.
The thing with India is, it’s a big country with over a billion people, which means big book fairs can be happening at the same time. And I do mean big.
Even as Vijayawada and Guwahati count down their final days, the 47th Chennai Book Fair is already underway, running January 3-21 this year. And the three-day 2nd Chennai international Book Fair will be squeezed in on January 16-18.
In 2022 1.5 million people visited the Chennai Book Fair, spending $1.6 million on books.
Last year, 2023, Chennai clocked a new record with footfall of 1.6 million that spent $1.8 million on books.
If you’re new to TNPS and new to the India book market, that might seem like a typo or two, but those are real numbers.
While Chennai is still underway, the Kolkata International Book Fair will start, this year running January 18-31, and the organisers are optimistic the event will set new records this year.
More than Chennai’s 1.6 million people spending $1.8 million on books?
In 2023 Kolkata was the fourth largest book fair in the world, drawing a crowd of 2.6 million that spent the rupee equivalent of $4 million on books.
As Kolkata finishes, the Jaipur Literature Festival gets under way, this year running February 1-5. Being a festival rather than a fair, the onus is on interaction and engagement rather than sales, and Jaipur ’24 has over 2,000 speakers lined up across the always hugely popular and internationally renowned six-day event.
Days later its back to the giant book fairs again, as the New Delhi World Book Fair takes us through February 10-18.
In 2023 the New Delhi World Book Fair saw 1.5 million people spend $1.8 million on books.
Days after New Delhi closes its gates, the 42nd Agartala Book Fair kicks off 21 February through March 5. Small compared with some of those mentioned above, perhaps, but does ‘small’ really describe a fair where last year 300,000 people spent $240,000 on books?
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but just in those examples above we are looking at 7.6 million people attending book fairs in India and spending $9.47 million on books in the first couple of months of 2024.
Not a bad way to start the year!
This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn Pulse newsletter.
