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.
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."
