Bibliofile

Winning Birdie

Despite all the duds it’s published and the turmoil and change in recent times, Penguin India’s sales are streets ahead of their nearest competitor. It seems the market leader can’t go wrong, no matter what it publishes and how sore authors get with their book promotions. In fact, since they’ve changed their distribution strategy in mid-2009 (appointing five regional distributors who are allowed to sell only in their own zones), their sales have doubled, with turnover around Rs 100 crore. Their closest rivals—HarperCollins, Random House and Rupa—are still somewhere in the Rs 35 crore bracket. And if you’re wondering why, despite all their high visibility, the average turnover is still hovering in the cottage industry bracket, you should note the total number of bookshops in India, including chains and independent bookshops: a mere 2,000. The day we can boast of more litfests than bookshops in the country is not too far!

All-Stars Line-Up

You’d think with a major litfest springing up in every region that the Jaipur litfest would become less of a crush this year. But it’s going to be hard to give it a miss, when you look at the roll-call of authors: Michael Ondaatje, Tom Stoppard, Ben Okri, Deepak Chopra, Annie Proulx, Richard Dawkins, Joseph Lelyveld, Hisham Matar, Hanan al-Shaykh, Reza Aslan, Nicole Krauss, Lionel Shriver, Ariel Dorfman, Tahmina Anam, Mohammed Hanif, Jeanette Winterson, Jonathan Safran Foer, Helen Fielding, David Hare, Linda Grant, Sanjay Subramanyam....

Also Featuring...

And “Oh,” adds the litfest’s co-director William Dalrymple, who loves to rub it in, “Umberto Eco, A.C. Grayling and Steven Pinker!”