Global market – Book publishing in India

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Global market – Book publishing in India

While there are many authors that had written several ebooks and articles about self-publishing or traditional publishing processes in the leading markets like in the US or the UK, there is a very little information found on book publishing in India, in general; either the self-publishing or the traditional way of publishing. Here are some insights for those of you that would like to know more about India and the avenues for new or emerging authors globally.

Self-Publishing: First, let’s talk about self-publishing and the current state of the market. With over 400 million English speaking people in India, there are opportunities for self-published authors to be able to get a space in the Indian self-publishing arena. However, since many people still don’t own a kindle or read books using an app on a gadget or computers, it still has a long time to be as developed a market compared to the US or the UK. Other books written in languages other than English that is self-published are still a hard sell.

Ebook publishing platforms: Amazon KDP, Kobo, Smashwords.

Self-publishing/Print on demand: There are some good publishing houses that do self-publish and print as needed. Amazon’s CreateSpace does the same, but it does not seem to work well in India because of higher printing costs. There are a lot of vanity presses that are not reliable, so refrain from small shops. They don’t follow copyright laws and will not pay to the author. Some good ones have different options for the author to use, either you can just do publishing and print on demand or use the distribution option for which there are upfront costs for the author as they have a minimum number of copies to be printed to be able to distribute.

Hybrid Platforms: Cinnamonteal, pothi.com.

Traditional Publishing: Traditional publishing is very much the way to go in India, even in 2016. A lot of authors submit their copies/queries/book synopsis to the reputed publishing houses in India and once accepted, the publishing companies print and distribute to different locations in India. If the book is written in regional languages, they are distributed across such market and if the books are written in English, they get distributed all over India. While this takes longer time and requires lot of patience, this is the way to go in India. Some publishing companies are able to give a response within 90 days after submission, however, some take up to 180 days.

Traditional publishing houses: Penguinbooks India, Rupa Publications, Random house, HarperCollins publishers.

Whichever of the above three options you choose, the quality of the content, writing style, story are all that matter the most, to be able to sell a lot of copies and win the most readership. Happy Writing!!

Writing is what I do for the love of it. The passion for writing has always been there with me but discovering it happened later. One famous poet rightly said: "A word is mightier than a sword." And I am a firm believer of that saying. Through words, a writer can inspire, motivate, and take the reader to a different world. My first work of fiction #fortunefair is available on Amazon.

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