“Achieving such sales would mean the Pune Book Festival has outperformed even the New Delhi World Book Fair and the International Kolkata Book Fair—events globally renowned for their scale and impact” – Pranav Gupta.

Some TNPS regulars will be wondering why I’ve not yet posted on the Pune Book Festival numbers, given how much I try turn the spotlight on India’s wall-to-wall book fairs.

But the latest numbers gave me pause for thought. I assumed it was down to typos – 2.5 million books sold? India is an incredibly exciting and dynamic book market, and book fairs are a big part of the industry’s revenues, but this number would equate to each visitor – one million as reported – buying 2.5 books each and spending $4.7 million.

Indian books are of course crazily inexpensive compared to what we are used to in the mature markets, but even so, these numbers, so early in the season, had me waiting for further coverage, and perhaps a confirmation from the event organisers.

Others Had Their Doubts Too

But observers far better qualified than I also, it transpires, had their doubts.

Pranav Gupta had already picked up on this: “Achieving such sales would mean the Pune Book Festival has outperformed even the New Delhi World Book Fair and the International Kolkata Book Fair—events globally renowned for their scale and impact. Given the logistical challenges and market realities, it is hard to fathom that the Pune event managed to stock 2.5 million books, let alone sell them physically. This raises valid doubts about the methodology used to arrive at these numbers.”

Given the sheer size of India’s population – 1.4 billion – it’s easy to let telephone-number statistics slip by, and million-visitor Indian book fairs are far from rare, but even so we have to allow for over zealous rounding to lakhs and crores, and also ask just how diligently these numbers are being collected.

THE Most Exciting Publishing Prospect on the Planet

None of this detracts from my view that India is THE most exciting publishing prospect on the planet right now, and even with the Bangladesh problem keeping a neighbouring country from participating, both the Kolkata and New Delhi fairs will be sure-fire telephone number events.

But what Gupta offers is not just justifiable questioning of the numbers being touted, but also viable solutions so the Indian publishing industry, and the wider world, can see the true glory of the Indian book market.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.