Happier times ahead!

Indian publishing industry has long been an unorganised industry but with major mergers and acquisitions happening in the industry and with FDI (foreign direct investments), the industry is gradually moving towards being more organised. Lack of statistical data has been a major deterrent to the industry. Anticipating the need for authentic data, “Nielsen India Book Market Report 2015: Understanding the India Book Market” was conducted in association with API (Association of Publishers in India) and the FIP (Federation of Indian Publishers) to evaluate the opportunities and challenges facing the industry, as well as where its future lies.

The report has made many pleasing revelations – India’s book market, currently worth Rs 261 billion (sixth largest in the world and the second largest of the English language), is expected to touch Rs 739 billion by 2020. That means in just 5 years, the industry would be three times of what it is today, thereby growing at a rate of 19.3 percent per annum. And it’s not just academic books that are growing, the sale of trade books is also growing, with English being the most read language (55 percent), followed by Hindi (35 percent) and rest 10 percent being other languages. Thus, there’s scope for not just the big players, but regional language publishers also have their share, catering to niche audience.

Digital content and e-books have further supported the industry. Printed and e-books account for 15 percent of the overall ecommerce business, which in itself is huge. Even though physical bookshops are facing challenges from online channels, but what matters is that the books are being sold and read.

The enormity of the industry can be well seen in the literary events and book fairs happening around the country. Some events are becoming more elaborate and some even specific to a particular genre or target audience. The energy at such events is euphoric…bringing like-minded people together. The New Delhi World Book Fair will once again open its doors to book lovers across the nation to participate in this celebration of books. Let’s bask in the glory of books for more time to come and wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Happy publishing!

Sonal Khurana
sonal@smediagroup.in