Amazon Publishing acquires Chetan Bhagat's next six books

Amazon Publishing has announced a global deal for the next six books by best-selling author Chetan Bhagat, whose previous books were published by Rupa publications.

The deal includes three fiction and three nonfiction titles. Amazon Publishing will publish these books globally in print, eBook and audio formats, with the first title out in October 2018. The title or any other details about the first book are yet to be disclosed.

According to Amazon, all the books are planned to also be available in multiple Indian language translation versions. Westland, an Amazon company, will distribute the print editions in India.

"Amazon Publishing is excited to work with Chetan and publish his books to a wider audience including readers both in India and abroad," said Jeff Belle, Vice President, Amazon Publishing.

"Millions of readers have enjoyed Chetan's work for over a decade. His books deftly weave together the everyday life of youngsters with the prevalent social milieu of our time," he added.

Bhagat expressed his delight over the deal for his upcoming books.

"Amazon's online advantage and their commitment to reach every corner of India ties in well with my goals of inspiring every Indian read books. Further, Amazon's global reach, especially with Kindle eBooks, will give me readers worldwide. Ever since my books were made available on Kindle, I get emails from readers in places like Africa and Europe, something that did not happen earlier.

"My new fiction novel is scheduled for release during the festive season in October 2018. While I will reveal details later, I am very excited about it. It will be my first book in both eBook and print formats with Amazon Publishing and it will be something different from what I have done before," he said.

Amazon acquired Westland Publications Pvt Ltd, a leading trade books publisher, in January 2017. Westland is the official distributor of Amazon Publishing titles in India and works with India's top book distributors, book retail chains, independent book retailers and online marketplaces.

Bhagat arrived in the Indian literary space with a bang and has so far published nine blockbuster books. These include seven novels -- "Five Point Someone" (2004), "One Night @ the Call Center" (2005), "The 3 Mistakes of My Life" (2008), "2 States" (2009), "Revolution 2020" (2011), "Half Girlfriend" (2014) and "One Indian Girl" (2016) and two non-fiction titles -- "What Young India Wants" (2012) and "Making India Awesome"(2015).

--IANS

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