India is a hugely exciting market most western publishers seem not to enthuse over. Their loss. With 1.4 billion people, 833 million of whom are online, the low unit prices are easily made up for by potential volume.
It may be the Christmas/New Year holiday in the western book markets, but elsewhere in the world its business as usual.
Right now the Assam Book Fair is underway in India.
Organized jointly by the Publication Board, Assam and All Assam Publishers and Book Sellers Association, the book fair has participation from publishers of Kolkata, New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Bangladesh, and runs December 29 through January 9.
It’s only the second edition of the Assam Book Fair, with the first under Covid restrictions, so a chance this time around to see how much further it can go. the first event sold Rs 5 crore (50 million) worth of books – about $600,000 – and this incarnation should see that easily beaten.
What we don’t know is the volume of books sold, which in mind the low cover prices must be substantial.
The Assam Book Fair kicks off the 2023 Indian book fair season, but there are myriad other fairs and festivals lined up, and the footfall expectations are eyewatering, with many events typically drawing 1-2 million visitors, some more.
India is a hugely exciting market most western publishers seem not to enthuse over. Their loss. With 1.4 billion people, 833 million of whom are online, the low unit prices are easily made up for by potential volume.
