Casting Couch in Publishing?

Powerful (or overworked) editors; starving (or glamorous) authors; a dying (or booming) industry — publishing can look mystifying from the outside. We put your questions to Ravi Singh, Publisher at Penguin Books, India

Two writers: One a brilliant writer, the other crappy, but with a much greater understanding of what today’s audience wants. Who would you publish?
Publish the brilliant writer, because that’s better long-term strategy. Then go find a writer who isn’t stupid enough to believe one must write badly to be popular.

Is there a casting couch in the publishing industry?
No. (Boggles the mind.) There’s little fame and even less money in books, at least in India, so not worth the trouble for anyone.

How many copies sold make a book a bestseller? 
Used to be 5000 copies till about 10 years ago. Now, at least 15,000 in hardcover. Some books have sold a million copies, we hear, but there’s still no reliable data from the retail, so only the author and publisher will know.

What’s the hit rate for a typical publisher?
I’d say 20 percent would be the maximum for any publisher.

Full interview here Forbes India

The honesty of Bhutanese writers

Like the recently held SAARC summit, the Bhutanese environment seems to be having quite an effect on visiting writers attending the ongoing literary festival, Mountain Echoes.

But perhaps because it involves writers, instead of politicians, sexual jokes, night hunting and gossip accompanied some of the topics during the second day of the literary festival being held here in Thimphu.
“I’ve heard most of the Indian writers before, but here they seemed more relaxed and better engaged with the audience,” said publisher and editor-in-chief of Penguin India, Ravi Singh, who has attended several other such literary festivals in India.

“I don’t want to sound condescending, but I’ve been impressed by every single Bhutanese speaker as well,” said the publishing company’s editor. So far, Bhutanese writers such as Kunzang Choden, Dasho Karma Ura, Dasho Kinley Dorji, parliament member Sonam Kinga, opposition leader Tshering Tobgay, and Siok Sian Pek Dorji have spoken at the festival.

Ravi Singh said he had observed that Bhutanese writers were trying to find their way in this new landscape, in reference to the first ever literary festival being held in Bhutan. “There’s no self indulgence,” he said, adding that the Bhutanese speakers have been thinking “outside the sphere” and in a “deep” and “honest” way.

Full report here Kuensel

Mystery of the missing Jasoos

It all began with Holmes of course. Though Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) can claim to have created the first detective in fiction, and Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone (1868) is regarded as the first modern detective novel, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes thrilled readers like no other. Agatha Christie's Poirot and Jane Marple, and PD James' Adam Dalgliesh followed the trail. Many decades later, these and a handful of other foreign classics — continue to fill the crime fiction racks here. No desi wannabe of The Great Detectives Club has ever managed to get a foot in the door.

It's not for want of trying. In the last couple of years, the genre of Indian crime fiction in English has seen many new titles. From Lalli of Kalpana Swaminathan's Page 3 Murders, additional sessions judge Harish Shinde in Aditya Sudharshan's A Nice Quiet Holiday and ACP Nikhil Juneja in Reeti Gadekar's Families at Home, to Shashi Warrier's Anna Khan in Sniper, the Indian jasoos is begging for a break. Ravi Singh, Penguin India editor-in-chief, says, "Compared to the near drought in previous years, there are now more crime and thriller writers, but the number is still small. And very few of them sell good numbers. Kalpana and Mukul Deva have been the notable successes in recent years."

Full report here Times of India

Will books survive Facebook?‎

As young people spend more time on the Internet, are books still a part of their lives? Can traditional publishing survive Facebook and piracy? Ravi Singh, Editor-in-Chief, Penguin India, is optimistic. On World Book Day (April 23), he tells Salil Jose that the publishing industry will only grow in the years to come...Excerpts from an interview:

Are you optimistic about the future of publishing in India?
Definitely. There was a steady growth in the number of books published over the last six to seven years. This trend will continue. The market is growing. So I am optimistic.

Which genre of writing is going to be the most popular in India in the next one year?
I think non-fiction will be more popular than fiction. The books of Ramachandra Guha or Gurcharan Das were in demand over the past few years and this trend will continue.

Recently, Penguin has been publishing the works of controversial personalities like Jarnail Singh and Sister Jesme. Was that a conscious decision?
I don't think they are controversial books. Jarnail Singh's I Accuse was about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He has narrated the victimisation of his community after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Ever since he threw shoes on Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, he assumed the role of a spokesperson for the community. So getting him write about anti-Sikh violence was a conscious decision. Any publisher would do that. The same is the case with Sister Jesme's Amen: An Autobiography of a Nun. She has dealt with evils of the Catholic Church in Kerala.

What was the feedback to these books? Will we see more such books in the future?
These books have been well-received. You can expect more such books in future.

Young Indians spend a lot of time on the Internet and social networking websites. How has the Internet hit their reading/writing habits?
I am not sure about it. There is no data available. I don't think it has a direct impact on the reading or writing habits of people. However, we find the Internet a good platform for promoting our books. For example, we have Facebook pages for many authors. Also we use blogs to promote books.

Full report here Sify News

Literature in High Places

The list of Asian literature festivals is ever-expanding

Bhutan, as you probably know, is the only country in the world to measure the Gross National Happiness of its citizens. For its book lovers, there’s going to be a spike in the graph, come May, when its capital, Thimphu, plays host to the India-Bhutan Foundation’s Mountain Echoes, the country’s first literary festival.
It joins the ever-expanding list of Asian literature festivals — there were jamborees in Hong Kong, Dubai and Karachi in the past month alone — and features some of the usual suspects: Namita Gokhale is programme consultant, Mita Kapur’s Siyahi is an associate, and Pavan Varma, the writer-diplomat who is currently India’s ambassador to Bhutan, is one of the lead movers behind it.

The procession on stage will be led by the Queen Mother, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck and the PM, Lyonpo Jigmi Yoser Thinley. Other names on the roster include Urvashi Butalia, Omair Ahmad, Mitali Saran, Bulbul Sharma, Rajkumar Hirani (mandatory Bollywood presence), Chetan Bhagat (alas, not in the same event as Hirani), Gulzar, Sampurna Chattarji, Mamang Dai, Temsula Ao, Patrick French, Sadanand Dhume, Penguin India’s Ravi Singh, Leila Seth and Sarnath Bannerjee.

Full report here Moneycontrol.com