Authors and publishers are finding novel ways to reach out to more readers. For instance, the best-selling Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi has been integrated into a pioneering digital reading initiative.
The work’s publisher, Westland, has tied up with mobile consumer app Dailyhunt to enable users to read it in chapters on their devices (across nine Indian languages, including English). The epic work, which has sold around 2.5 million copies, has garnered sales of around Rs 70 crore.
India is nascent when it comes to eBooks and online reading. Overall, around 80,000 titles are published each year (academic and non-academic). While the academic books muster revenues worth Rs 5,000 crore-Rs 6,000 crore, the non-academic ones — including fiction, coffee-table, non-fiction, novels, novellas, etc. — fetch not more than Rs 400 crore-Rs 500 crore, translating to roughly 1-2 per cent of the overall organised publishing market. Boiling it down further, in totality, eBooks (digital reading) in India occupy a measly one per cent of the overall reading space.
Talking to Deccan Herald, Amish, said, “While reading online is still new to many Indian readers, today, owing to the surge in mobile penetration, it is the best option to tap the said space, and reach out to more potential readers and patrons.”
Going digital, Amish said, still addresses many issues. Physical books can be sold and read at specific places only. But a digital book has the ability to reach multitudes. Also, in terms of pricing too, eBooks are far cheaper.
Amish said, “As an author, I believe that one must not preach tradition (physical books), for the sake of it. Technology is always evolving. Even in the 15th century, when Johannes Gutenberg invented printing, people were skeptical. But it was a revolution.”
Referring to the reading habits of Indians, Tripathi said that the country is rich in storytelling, and people always want to listen to stories. “Around 10 years ago, it was believed that a book that sold 5,000-10,000 copies was a bestseller. Today, the same is 40,000-50,000 copies, while there are few authors who sell works in a few million. Another aspect is the dominance of English over the vernacular, which can also be addressed through digitisation.”
Dailyhunt Founder and CEO Virendra Gupta said, “The idea of the chapter-wise buy-and-read strategy is to cater to different types of readers. The Shiva Trilogy’s chapters can be downloaded for Rs 15 each, besides the whole book for Rs 221. We plan to add 6,000 books to our collection, in the coming 60 days, on similar lines.”