India’s Coimbatore Book Fair launches amid more nonsense about how social media and smartphones are killing the reading habit. It really is time publishers took the blinkers off

Posted onJuly 18, 2019Leave a comment

Summer is a quiet time in the Indian book fair scene, with the mega-events that attract millions of visitors tending to cluster around winter-spring, but there are some exceptions, and one is kicking off tomorrow, July 19. Organised by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA) and the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India Read More …

The India book market remains “a giant in slumber” as new taxes hit imports amid rising paper prices

Posted onJuly 8, 2019Leave a comment

In an ill-considered move aimed at protecting the domestic publishing industry, the Indian government has imposed a 5% tax on imported paper books. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the new duties on Friday (domestic print books remain zero-rated) to a dismayed audience of publishers and publishing stakeholders. The tax on uncoated and lightweight paper was Read More …

OverDrive’s Summer Read incentivises kids to read in the summer break, but elsewhere some stubbornly insist if it’s not ink on paper it’s not real reading

Posted onJune 11, 2019June 11, 2019Leave a comment

Teachers invariably view the long summer break from school with mixed feelings. A chance to relax and recharge the batteries on the one hand. On the other, knowing that some of the progress made in the previous academic year will be undone as many children will have fewer opportunities to read. It’s not a problem Read More …

Airtel Africa’s $1 billion London IPO holds promise for Africa’s publishing industry

Posted onJune 6, 2019Leave a comment

When it comes to identifying publishing opportunities in the emerging African markets one can do worse than watch the telcos. Telcos potentially provide the ideal connection between consumers and publishers in countries and regions where traditional ink on paper publishing faces insurmountable challenges, and that the mainstream digital book operators have deemed not worthwhile. Telcos Read More …

StreetLib partners with Storyweaver to globally distribute 5,000 free multilingual stories in UNESCO’s Year of Indigenous Languages

Posted onApril 11, 2019April 26, 2019Leave a comment

Italy-based digital books distributor and publishing facilitator StreetLib has partnered with India’s Storyweaver to deliver 5,000 free multilingual stories to the world’s children, as part of its commitment to UNESCO’s International Year of Indigenous Languages. Full disclosure: The New Publishing Standard (TNPS) is published by StreetLib to further the debate about the global book markets. Read More …

New competition in the India ebook space as telco Bharti Airtel launches ebook store for smartphones

Posted onApril 4, 2019June 26, 2019Leave a comment

This week the Indian telco giant Bharti Airtel finally launched its long-anticipated ebook store Airtel Books. Long anticipated? In fact Bharti Airtel signaled its intentions back in December 2017 when it bought into the digital-focussed Indian publisher Juggernaut Books. Bharti Airtel acquires strategic stake in Juggernaut Books So no surprise that the launch this week Read More …

Breaking News +++ Nigeria now has more internet users than any country in Europe. India has over a half billion people online

Posted onApril 2, 2019April 27, 2019Leave a comment

The March 2019 internet user updates are in for some countries and the numbers bear out TNPS expectations. Nigeria, previously reported as having 98 million online – more than any country in Europe except Russia – has now leapfrogged the Eurasian giant. Against Russia’s 109 million, Nigeria now has 111 million people online, making it Read More …

India’s Kerala Lit Fest numbers confirmed: 260,000 visitors in January

Posted onMarch 26, 2019May 4, 2019Leave a comment

By Indian standards a quarter million visitors to a book festival is actually not that amazing. Some Indian book fairs can attract eight times that figure. But this was only the third incarnation of the Kerala Literature Festival and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the final visitor count, which comes this week via the bi-monthly Indian Read More …

$5m book sales and 5m visitors already, and still India’s book fairs line up. The 37th Agartala Book Fair is underway

Posted onFebruary 16, 2019Leave a comment

East India’s second biggest book fair after Kolkata is underway in Tripura as the India love affair with books continues. As reported here a few days ago, already over 5 million people have visited Indian book fairs this year, spending the USD equivalent of over $5 million, and there’s no sign the appetite for books Read More …

As the London Book Fair looms, invisible millions attend book fairs and festivals around the globe

Posted onFebruary 9, 2019June 24, 2019Leave a comment

If it’s February it must be the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela in Bangladesh, an annual festival of books that runs the entire month of February. Last year the boi mela sold books to the USD equivalent of just shy of $10 million. But hands up anyone who has Bangladesh on their book market bucket list? Read More …

India’s Kolkata International Book Fair sees 700,000 spend $1.1 million in first five days, despite free ebooks available

Posted onFebruary 6, 2019Leave a comment

“Book fair rakes in Rs 8 crore with 7 lakh footfall ” is the headline in the Times of India this week, reporting on the first five days of the Kolkata International Book Fair. The Indian notation equates to 700,000 visitors at the event up until Monday, spending over 80 million rupees ($1.1 million) on Read More …

At Zee Jaipur Lit Fest French Ambassador awards Romain Rolland Prize for translation from French to Indian local languages

Posted onJanuary 27, 2019June 17, 2019Leave a comment

In our Anglophone-centric publishing world it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of the Global New Renaissance unfolding, and to build a faux impression that the world of translations is all about translating English to other languages and other languages to English. But important as English is on the global publishing stage, it Read More …

India’s New Delhi World Book Fair disappointed with only 900,000 visitors

Posted onJanuary 18, 2019June 17, 2019Leave a comment

It was never going to be a record-breaking year for the 27th New Delhi World Book Fair. Like the imminent Cairo International Book Fair this year, the New Delhi venue is undergoing substantive renovation. But while In Egypt they simply moved the event to another venue, in India they chose to hold the fair around Read More …

India’s Chennai Book Fair a “huge success”, with over 800,000 visitors at halfway mark and another 1 million expected before close

Posted onJanuary 15, 2019July 13, 2019Leave a comment

The Chennai Book Fair set a new record of 1.2 million visitors last year and now looks set to just miss its ambitious 2 million target for 2019. India’s Chennai Book Fair sets the pace for 2019, extends duration and aims for 2 million visitors in January On Monday alone, reports New Indian Express, 60,000 Read More …

Start The Day Global – 5 Not to be Missed Publishing Stories from Around the World

Posted onJanuary 4, 2019Leave a comment

Unusually we Start the Day Global today in Michigan, USA, where this delightful story caught my eye over at Publishers Weekly. Girls of the Crescent: Teen Sisters Promote Stories of Muslim Girls When sisters Mena and Zena Nasiri, both avid teen readers, noticed a dearth of YA books featuring Muslim females like themselves, they took Read More …

India’s “perfect”, “phenomenal”, “best ever”, “significant”, “watershed” year in publishing

Posted onJanuary 2, 2019Leave a comment

Regulars here at TNPS perhaps won’t be so surprised by the headline. I’ve long said India is publishing’s brightest prospect. And 2018 seems to have been the tipping point at which India shifted from being just another nascent market to a publishing priority. First some headline grabbing quotes from Indian publishers courtesy of The New Read More …

Iran debuts, but Pakistan won’t be at the 43rd Kolkata IBF. Can 2018’s 2.2 million visitors and $3.17 million in book sales be beaten?

Posted onJanuary 1, 2019Leave a comment

Between 6-8 million people are expected to attend book fairs and festivals in India this January-February as the Indian book fair season steps up a gear. Today TNPS takes a look at how the new year is shaping up for India’s booklovers amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan and Sharjah’s presence at New Delhi.. Read More …

As India’s Niyogi Books prepares to launch its first Hindi titles next month, the company sees digital as an ally, not a threat

Posted onDecember 29, 2018December 29, 2018Leave a comment

For a paper-importing country like India, rising paper prices pose a more serious challenge in coming years than online price discounting and the rise of ebooks. As Indian publishers strive to find and retain readers in a price-sensitive market so these challenges mount. Some, it seems, prefer the ostrich approach to dealing with arising problems: Read More …

India’s oldest pavement bookseller turns his final page, but the Chennai street bookstore goes on

Posted onDecember 28, 2018July 13, 2019Leave a comment

If you’re a booklover and you’ve ever been to India’s Chennai then chances are you’ve seen, and perhaps chatted to, RK Alwar, the white-bearded old man to be seen sat in front of the street bookstore known affectionately as Alwar Kadai (Alwar’s shop). Sadly the old man himself passed away this week, aged 95, after Read More …

“The craze for books is increasing every year.” India’s 32nd annual Hyderabad Book Fair attracts 35,000 on first day. One million expected

Posted onDecember 20, 2018July 13, 2019Leave a comment

By a quirk of fate this is the second annual Hyderabad Book Fair this year, after the 31st Hyderabad Book Fair, scheduled for December 2017, has to be postponed until January of this year. The 32nd incarnation, which opened December 15, gets the event back to its regular end of year schedule. Hyderabad Book Fair Read More …