Judge a book by its cover

If you do not like this book, return it and you shall get your money back. That’s the promise publisher Hachette India is making with their latest release, Delhi Durbar, a political thriller by Kishan Partap Singh. While there is no information on just how many people returned the book, the ploy is a first for publishing in India.

If the reader will not come to the book stores or portals, then let us go in search of them, seems to be the credo. Penguin India’s Spring Fever, a nine-day open air festival of books, was held in Delhi’s India Habitat Centre. “The idea was to reach out to the potential customer, which we did with the participatory nature of the event, especially the evening sessions where writers read and discussed with audiences,” says Hemali Sodhi, vice-president, marketing and corporate communications, Penguin India.


A brave new word
Think new books just half a decade ago, and the traditional promotion was a book launch, very occasionally extended to a book tour for authors deemed big enough to warrant it. “A book launch is a waste of money,” confided a disgruntled prominent publisher footing the bill for such an event at a luxury hotel. Out-of-the-box promotion meant a seminar, and innovative meant quiz. Even when Advaita Kala’s bestselling Being Single was released in 2007, it was more word of mouth promotion, points out the author. Book promotions definitely did not mean food festivals, fancy merchandise, cross promotions, tent cards, viral marketing, excursions to… dare one mention it… tier-II towns such as Chandigarh, Jaipur or even Raipur. Add vampire parties and yes, return gifts, and it begins to resemble an after party in a fashion week. In high season now, read most of the year, especially in the new capital for publishing in India, Delhi, there’s hardly an evening without a book launch, and on occasion, even big ticket ones by rival publishers have overlapped.


Full report here Financial Express

Now, buy back for books!

If you do not like this book, return it and you shall get your money back. That’s the promise publisher Hachette India is making with their latest release, Delhi Durbar, a political thriller by Kishan Partap Singh, which is releasing on Wednesday with a launch in the national capital.

This is the first time such a promise is being made by any publisher in India. “In case you want to, you can go back to the retailer and ask for your money back,” says Anurima Roy, Publicity Manager at Hachette India. Just keep the receipt and you can get your money back. The book is modestly priced at Rs 195, and is aimed at the emerging pulp fiction market. “We are building the author as a brand,” says Roy. “We are sure of its success as it is the kind of book that Indians will like. The book will sell if marketed well."

Marketing for publishers looks set to move into a new notch with move by the publisher, which recently declared that in the short span of their existence, they had already become the second largest English publisher in the country after Penguin India.

Delhi Durbar is the second book of a three-part set, called The Raisina Series. Singh had last year released the first book of the series, then called The Road to Raisina, published by HarperCollins India. The rights for which have been bought by Hachette India since then. The third book, The War Ministry is expected by October 2010. The books are set in Lutyens’ Delhi and explore the games India’s political elite play, almost always for personal gain.

Don't like book? Get your money back!

Hachette India is breaking new ground in marketing books in India. It is offering a buy back offer with Krishan Partap Singh's Young Turks and Delhi Durbar!

The books will be released later this month.

These books are the first two of a set of three that, along with The War Ministry (October 2010), form The Raisina Series – three cracking good political novels that unflinchingly examine politics as we Indians play it. Set in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi – India’s crucible of power and political sleaze – and written with a deep understanding of Indian politics, these books provide the politically informed reader an engaging foray into the functioning of the Indian high office and the politics of personal gain.

About Delhi Durbar:
The world’s largest democracy is poised to become a military dictatorship …
Ex-Army Chief and now President of India, General Dayal defies his rubber-stamp status to take on Prime Minister Yadav, head of the ruling Third Front coalition government, as the fate of India teeters in the balance.
Caught in the crossfire between the two warring leaders, will private banker turned wheeler-dealer Jasjit Singh Sidhu allow the enigmatic Azim Khan and the irrepressible Karan Nehru to arouse his dormant conscience, or will he – a child of the Emergency, born into Delhi’s power elite, brought up in a culture of rampant corruption and self-serving greed – remain true to type.

About Young Turks:
Best Friends Azim Khan and Karan Nehru have been together all their life: first in school and now in politics. Slowly but surely, Azim makes western Uttar Pradesh his electoral fiefdom and begins his journey to becoming the leader of Muslim India while Karan establishes himself as the overlord of eastern Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining states. Together, they carve their spaces in India’s politics, never compromising their friendship, until, finally, as Cabinet Ministers in a shaky coalition government under the Prime-Ministership of the wily former Congressman YK Naidu, their widely differing ideologies and temperaments and the sheer scale of unfolding events, all combine to pit them together in a fierce battle for the highest office…
(First published under the title, The Road to Raisina)