India is the most exciting publishing prospect on the planet.

The Sharjah International Book Fair is about to wind up, although for many in the west it was done and dusted the moment the Publishers Conference finished, and with it the western publishing calendar pulls up the duvet and snuggles down for winter.

Meanwhile, the real book fair action is just warming up in South Asia, with India, as ever, leading the charge.

For 2026, India’s publishing calendar has a new centrepiece. The National Book Trust, India (NBT) brings the Mumbai Book Festival to the University of Mumbai’s Kalina Campus this November, confirming the city’s emergence as a serious rights, retail and literary marketplace.

Dates and Venue

Official NBT listings schedule the festival for 24 to 29 November 2026 (some announcements cite 24 to 30 November), at the University of Mumbai, Kalina Campus.

Exhibitor booking opened in late August – a clear signal that NBT expects strong trade participation.

A Young Festival with Serious Backing

The festival is among NBT’s newest events, following the Mumbai Book Fair held in October 2025.

Its debut edition, themed “Books for All”, targeted more than 300 exhibitors and over 100,000 visitors, with author corners, children’s programming, film screenings, workshops and an international authors’ meet.

The 2026 edition consolidates that ambition, giving publishers a western-India counterweight to the winter fair season.

The Trust Behind It

NBT, established on 1 August 1957 under the Government of India and now part of the Ministry of Education, has spent nearly seven decades building India’s reading culture.

Its best-known property, the New Delhi World Book Fair, began in March–April 1972 with roughly 200 participants at Pragati Maidan and has grown into one of Asia’s largest fairs.

The Mumbai festival extends that legacy – and, critically for the trade, brings NBT’s convening power to India’s most commercially minded city.

The View From The Beach

For rights directors and sales teams, Mumbai offers three advantages. First, reach: Maharashtra is one of India’s strongest book-buying markets. Second, timing: a late-November slot positions titles ahead of the festive retail season. Third, ecosystem: proximity to Bollywood-adjacent media, literary agents and India’s largest English-language retail footprint creates partnership opportunities beyond the stall.

If the debut’s projections hold, Mumbai Book Festival could potentially sit alongside New Delhi and Kolkata in India’s big-three fair conversation. For now, it is the market’s most interesting bet – young, well-funded and positioned exactly where India’s book business is heading.

I’ve been saying for years that India is the most exciting publishing prospect on the planet. Nothing here changes my mind. Stay tuned to TNPS for coverage of the India book fair season, where telephone number footfall is the rule, not the exception.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.