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Be Indian, read Indian. There are a host of Indian authors who have written reams on everything from tackling your bossy mother-in-law to mining diamonds from Golconda. But these authors are far from reaching the commercial success their foreign counterparts enjoy.
While technological and distribution challenges persist in the book industry, regional taste and India’s diversity compound the problem for authors.
Coinciding with the Independence Day, Desi Ink, an initiative by Reliance TimeOut, aims to bridge the reader-author gap. Ensuring that inspiring work meets commercial success, Desi Ink is celebrating Indian authors for a generation obsessed with Harry Potter and Dan Brown.
It aims to popularise a huge range of Indian authors in English and regional languages. These include authors such as Amish Tripathi ( The Immortals of Meluha ), and Rashmi Bansal ( I Have a Dream ).
Bureaucrat-turned-author Gissel Mehta, says, “It is time we celebrated Indian works. We definitely need spotlight on ourselves.”
Dipak Marwah, Vice-President and Business Head, Reliance Timeout said, “August adds to the atmosphere. There is patriotism in the air. For us, it was an opportunity to celebrate Indian writing and also Indian authors”.
While admitting that such a campaign would definitely boost sales, Marwah points out that it was also a means to engage with younger audiences.
“There are many Indian authors whose name is not top-of the mind. A lot of these never get their dues despite some amazing works in their portfolio,” he added.
TimeOut has been running this kind of an initiative since last two years. Marwah adds that seeing the response, the company decided to coin a name for the same.
“We have over 20,000 titles in categories like health, practical management, children books, self-help, fiction among others,” he said adding that the titles are available in various Indian languages. The price of the books start Rs 70 onwards.
Asked if the Kindles and IPads were spelling doom for the book retailing industry, Marwah said that the way people were consuming books was different, “but the industry is growing despite challenges.”
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