Publishing in 2016

Business Standard asked publishers and editors at major Indian houses to do some crystal ball gazing. Here's what they said.

Thomas Abraham, Managing Director, Hachette
My five big predictions: One, the greatest shift will be in the battle lines drawn between online and physical retail. This has begun but has not seen organised resistance from booksellers, which I predict will happen as more stores fall by the wayside. The demand for some sort of regulation by legislation will mount.

Two, digital reading will not live up to the promise expected of India's demographic dividend and smartphone owners.

Three, there will be more newbie discoveries in general and commercial fiction; they'll be shaking the charts beyond the established names.

Four, books (not just biographies and memoirs) from celebrity authors will see a dramatic rise.

But what's most interesting to me is a trend of declining trends. Ten years ago, the "next best thing" was the graphic novel; seven years ago, it was the vampire fad; three years ago, it was supposed to be campus romance; they came and went.

Expect mytho-history sales to drop. Amish Tripathi is the only break-out name, but even his new series has fallen off by over 35 per cent or so. Anand Neelakanthan has seen similar declines in sales.

Political memoirs with the headline-making controversial excerpt was the other big trend, with Sanjaya Baru and Vinod Rai leading the charge. But others haven't made an impact.

Karthika V K, Publisher, HarperCollins
I wish I could see more clearly that great things await us but from where I am (and hope to be), here are some thoughts.

Online players will be more influential, not only in how content is disseminated but in what is considered saleable. I anticipate this with mixed feelings of anxiety and challenge.

Serious non-fiction, well researched and well written, is likely to grow given the visible excitement around the publication of books like The Gita Press and Farthest Field, among others.

The political tell-all memoir is here to stay as a quick selling frontlist genre, though readers may become more selective.

The hope is that bookstores will stay open, and smart retailing plus the many litfests will continue to engage readers.

Rajni George, Senior Editor, Penguin India
Memoirs will be as big as ever, and we may see several different versions converging around one story or person.

I hope the worldwide trend of the rise of the short story - because of increased e-reading and the paucity of readers' attention spans - will be true for the Indian market since short stories are a fertile form. I have a special collection of linked stories coming in, which readers will enjoy for their strong individual storylines. We should see more anthologies (we are publishing a collection of The Caravan's best profiles, for example). Perhaps even the novella, that marvellous genre. Long live short form as long form!

Ambar Sahil Chatterjee, Associate Commissioning Editor, Penguin India

The market for translations is going to grow bigger. Much of the really exciting and cutting-edge Indian writing is emerging from regional literature - more and more readers and publishers are beginning to recognise this. I have some excellent books lined up: Perumal Murugan's Pyre, K R Meera's The Gospel of Yudas and the big classics extravaganza for 2016: a magnificent three-volume edition of all of Premchand's short stories published together for the first time.

Renuka Chatterjee, Consulting Editor, Speaking Tiger
The biggest challenge in 2016 is the same that it was in 2000 - how to sell more than 2,000 copies of a book, unless its a "big name" or an author who has been shortlisted for some major award abroad. The challenges of introducing a new author into the market, who hasn't been published abroad for a "six-figure advance" and may never be, are still the same as they were.

If I had a New Year wish, it would be that the media gives more space to new authors.

On trends, the main change is in the increasing importance of having a presence on social media, and the online selling sites, as more readers are buying online.

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