Bazaar Economics
For all those writers who shied away from Rupa’s Big Bazaar image, the publishing house has come up with a solution that just might work: a new imprint! Rain Tree is a hardback, highbrow version of Rupa and meant to woo a more polished list of authors. But will writers presumably queuing up to enter the hallowed portals of its sister company, Aleph, be content with a ‘B’ list version of Aleph? If this sounds confusing, it is. Agents and authors are being asked to submit manuscripts to both Aleph and Rupa—if it is rejected by Aleph, it can always be kicked next door into Rain Tree. The imprint is being launched this week with Pavan Varma’s When Loss Is Gain. Despite how it sounds, it’s not on economics for depressed times but the diplomat writer’s debut novel about love and loss. It will be followed a week later with Palash Mehrotra’s much-delayed non-fiction debut, The Butterfly Generation, under the same imprint.
Dressing Down
On the other hand, Penguin is bending over the other way to shed its excess gravitas. The logo of the wingless bird is such a put-off for consumers of the new mass-sellers, that it has cleverly been dropped for its latest commercial hit, Can Love Happen Twice by Ravinder Singh (poached from bestseller sweatshop Srishti). The cover, in fact, is a glossy clone of the “time pass” paperbacks you see in railway stations.
Pulling The Public
Despite the multitude of litfests that have sprung up, the Jaipur litfest has not lost its shine. Even those afraid of crowds are still planning to go, if only for the pleasure of dropping names that you bumped into in the melee.
