Innovations will continue to grow in 2022!

Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat.”—Steve Jobs

The recent uncertain times have showed us how the industry has ever evolved to the challenges and adapted innovations- to maintain sustainability, growth, consumer focus, collaborations, interactions & reach and more. A recent report emphasised the importance of technologies which enhance publishing: content analysis, first party data-maintaining privacy, paywalls, newsletters, ecommerce, podcasting, etc.

According to Hemali Sodhi, Founder, A Suitable Agency, “While 2021 continued to be a challenging period for publishing and retail, there were several new developments – predominant among them being independent and chain book retail embracing new ways to reach customers – through social media, community building via events, offering pre orders and so on. At this point, it seems the pandemic will remain a major challenge for the value chain in 2022, but hopefully the industry will continue to adapt.”

Richa Jha of Pickle Yolk Books, says, “2022 will go down as a seminal year in the publishing of picture book biographies in India. Audio books are here to stay (and thrive) in international children’s publishing. Augmented Reality (AR), the most innovative buzzword for children’s books around 2019, had to take a backseat through the pandemic years, but it seems poised for a strong comeback this year, thanks to several edtech start-ups dipping their toes into this.”
While, Nitasha Devasar of Taylor & Francis shares, “There is no doubt that much has happened across e-learning platforms and content, AI driven adaptive learning, immersive learning, gamification and much more. This will grow and continue to impact how we interact with learning and knowledge at both bespoke individual and scaled institutional levels.”

In an endeavour to reach out, the Kochi Literature Festival will give 5000 Free Book Tokens worth Rs. 300 each, which will be distributed to students of govt and aided schools. They can buy any books from any bookseller at the Bookfest venue. Besides, 50 selected school libraries will be supplied with books worth Rs.3000 each during the festival. Under the Grandhalaya In Sharanalaya, they will be setting up 50 libraries in selected orphanages providing them with books worth Rs.10,000 and shelves.

Happy and Healthy New Year to all and happy reading, stay safe.

Shweta
shweta@allaboutbookpublishing.com