Most Indian publishers would've balked at the advance Penguin India paid for Vikram Seth's Two Lives: Rs 1 million. But with his band-baaja five-metro tour barely concluding, it is Penguin who is doing the smirking: the first print run of 25,000 copies is already sold out. There goes yet another publishing wisdom: there are no takers—or not enough—for pricey, literary hardbacks.
Bibliofile
The secret, India's most prolific writer confesses, is being locked up in the Chennai central prison for the last four years on charges of internet pornography.
Publishers—and wise authors—have known this for ages, but here is fresh confirmation from a judge of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize: a winning title makes a winning book. Talking of Rupa Bajwa's The Sari Shop, which has just won the CWP in the Eurasia Region for the Best First Book, the chairperson observed: "One of the co-judges remarked that the title was brilliant, if it had been titled 'Ramchand' then perhaps this judge would not have picked up the book with as much curiosity."
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