Simon & Schuster eyes digital space

The booming publishing market in India has lured yet another international publishing firm, Simon & Schuster, which is high on the country's growing digital reading space.

Simon & Schuster, the publishing segment of CBS Corp, Wednesday opened an India-specific unit.

The publishing house wants to cash in on digital transformation, the demand for inexpensive books and the inherent financial advantages like lesser material and allied costs in India, said Carolyn K. Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster.

"In India, the digital book revolution has bypassed e-readers and tablets (reading e-tablets with screens) to reach mobile phones, unlike in the US and UK. Everyone in India has a mobile phone but not all own e-readers or tablets," Reidy said.

Full report here Economic Times

‘E-books are a threat to aspiring writers’

A Booker Prize winning author has claimed that e-books are threatening the future of English literature because aspiring writers will not be paid enough to make a living.

Graham Swift said new writers face earning lower royalties for their work as e-books than for traditional hard- and paperbacks.

If aspiring authors see that they are unable to make a living from their work, it may cause them to give up and leave potentially great stories unwritten, he said.

“I wouldn”t envy a young aspiring writer now,” the Telegraph quoted Mr Swift as telling BBC Radio Four’s World at One programme.

“The e-book does seem at the moment to threaten the livelihood of writers, because the way in which writers are paid for their work in the form of e-books is very much up in the air.

Full report here Hindustan Times

A cover story

With the advent of e-books, book cover designers talk about the winds of change

Admit it, we judge books by their covers. Books are like people. They come dressed in different outfits. Some are sombre old men in black. Some others are inscribed with the topsy turvy letters of youth. Authors of books are celebrated but the designers who make the covers are too often forgotten.

With the advent of e-books, will book covers become a thing of the past and turn cover designers into an endangered species? In the city, the world of book cover designers is buzzing about the winds of change. “I hope I get to do a lot more than just the cover. Maybe multiple covers for each book?” says Kedarnath Gupta, an independent illustrator for Hachette India. Bena Sareen, 42, Creative Designer, Penguin Books, India, adds that she is excited at the possibility of interaction that e-book covers will allow.

Most designers have chosen this field as a vocation. Shuka Jain, Art Director of Harper Collins, who ventured into book designing because it combined her two loves — art and books — too says that she is far from worried about the virtual encroachment. Sareen adds that she was an avid sociologist for many years before a chance meeting with a graphic design professor in the US convinced her that this was a profession she could pursue. Gupta, on the other hand, went from daytime copywriter who doubled as an illustrator at night for six years, to a full-time illustrator recently.

Full report here Indian Express