Intimations of challenges for the book publishing business started 10 days before the national lockdown. A publisher abruptly told an author that her book launch scheduled for that day stood cancelled because the office had decided to institute Covid-19 social distancing norms. Having invited industry notables for a panel discussion, the author pointed out that it would be embarrassing to cancel at a few hours’ notice (a predicament that the entire country was to face not long afterwards).
A bizarre sequence followed. The publishers agreed to allow the book launch to go ahead at the hall they’d booked and even offered
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