Published by Niyogi Books, New Delhi, two travel books The Alluring North and The Vibrant West received the prestigious National Tourism Award for ‘Excellence’ from the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee at a glittering function in New Delhi. Here the authors of the books – Hugh and Colleen Gantzer reveal more in conversation with Varsha Verma. Who were the strange Gods who taught, and danced with, the Dahs in the high mountains of Ladakh? Why were the caves of Ajanta first carved? What is the true meaning of a strange painting in a church in Chennai? Where did the warrior Nagas come from? These are just a few questions which are answered in travel books which have been conferred with the National Tourism Award for ‘Excellence’. It is the first time in the history of the awards that such an honour has been conferred jointly on a couple for two books written and illustrated by them.

Authored by the Gantzer couple, Hugh and Colleen and published by Niyogi Books, the titles The Alluring North and The Vibrant West are part of a four-volume series. “The other two books in the series, The Historic South and The Colourful East, could not be submitted for the award because they were released after the stipulated dates,” told Hugh as a matter of fact. All four books have, however, been packaged together in an attractive slip-cover giving readers access to 96 intriguing Indian destinations. “Our experience with Niyogi Books has been very good as they have the best production values,” he added.

Written in an informal, provocative style, the four Intriguing India books target the new information-hungry, questing, social-media generation. They will captivate both the mature, informed, travellers who look for more insightful encounters, as well as who ask why things are as intriguing as they are. “There has been a change in the expectations of the tourists. First, they wanted to go and see a monument, then slowly they evolved and now they want to even do much more than visiting the monument – they wish to meet people and know more about the culture and the history of the place. That is why books like The Life of Pi have been so popular,” told Hugh.

“Myths and legends are prevalent everywhere and at their core, lies the truth. We have tried to peel the layers from them and have tried to bring the legend connect and possible explanation, through our books,” he added.

“A retired naval officer, Hugh always liked to travel. It was at his last posting in Kerala that we decided to explore the state as we might never come back to this place. Believe it or not, we travelled from Kerala to Kanyakumari on a two-wheeler alongwith our son. We made our notes, wherever we went and wrote about Kerala for Illustrated Weekly. That was the beginning, we had become travel writers,” told Colleen.

Hugh & Colleen have written several travel articles for various newspapers and magazines including Femina, Weekly, Mirror, Readers’ Digest, Business Standard, to name a few. They also wrote the script for TV series ‘Looking Beyond.’ They also authored several books including thrillers and a book on spices as well. More recently, they are working on a book on the Ashoka Hotel. “We signed the contract just two days back and it seems to be a thrilling project,” concluded Hugh.

Books are a great medium to capture history…more so if they are beautifully illustrated. Ahmedabad-based Mapin Publishing has over 300 such titles to their credit. Mapin Publishing is reputed for illustrated books on India’s art and culture. Their publishing programme covers a broad spectrum: fine art, architecture, archaeology, crafts, design, exhibition catalogues, museum collections, performing arts, photography and more. Bipin Shah, the man behind this unique publishing house, is a name to reckon within the industry. Here’s more about this publisher of beautiful and informative array of books.

The illustrated books…

“In the late ‘70s, when I was working at Feffer & Simons in New York (now merged with Baker & Taylor International), my role as sales manager for West and South Asia took me to those regions regularly. In each trip of about six-weeks, I would cover nearly 17 cities. The 12- to 14-hour workdays on the road presented itself as a unique opportunity to survey the market for illustrated books. I saw how Israel, with a population of less than two million at the time, was producing a range of beautiful books about the country. It was easy to find these books in international markets and, therefore, information about Israel was always available to the Western readers. But during my visits to India, to my dismay, I discovered that there were hardly any quality books to be found, let alone visual or illustrated books, in the stores here,” told Bipin.

“Marg in Bombay was a lone figure, having established a niche in this area as a quarterly magazine, with the support of the Tata Group. Well-produced books on India were simply not published and people had no way of knowing much about its rich and diverse culture. Academics came to research India’s visual arts and art history, with the help of university grants, but the outcome was often academic books,” he informed.

By contrast, the illustrated book segment was flourishing internationally. “After nearly ten years of publishing industry experience in New York, I became starry eyed, wanting to create an equivalent of Harry Abrams and Thames & Hudson in India. When I moved back to India in 1983, I co-founded Mapin Publishing – as a company that focused on documenting and producing beautiful books on arts, crafts and design in India,” added Bipin.

Mapin – yesterday and today!

Mapin Publishing started with documenting craft traditions of India, through its Living Tradition of India series. “Once we had about five titles at hand, we looked at international distribution and soon had arrangements in different parts of the world. We ventured into museum publishing through museum and exhibition catalogues, by building a rapport with museums in different parts of the world. We then began to offer co-editions to international publishers like Thames & Hudson, Abbeville and Abrams, and later, also co-editions to Europeans language publishers (French, German and Spanish),” told Bipin Shah.

“By now we have produced more than 300 titles, which cover the gamut of visual arts of India – art, architecture, culture, design, photography, performance arts – combined with our specialization in museum publishing. Not only do we commission our own titles, we co-publish, package, and provide customized publishing services,” he added.

The journey…

“In the beginning, we were at a loss for sourcing manuscripts. We began to travel extensively to source. Scholars, artists, performers, collectors, museums, galleries, crafts fairs, were all our resources – either as potential authors or as sources of information. Unpublished writers and those writing in the Indian languages also came under our purview,” told Bipin.

“There were no pre-trained professionals that we could hire for the kind of quality that we were aiming for. We identified translators and editors who could work with Indian-language scholars. We attracted young designers from the National Institute of Design to design our books. A considerable amount of time was spent in developing manuscripts and making them publishable,” he added.

But today, things have changed. “It is not too difficult to find authors now, than when we began. Potential authors now see a plethora of books in the market and feel encouraged to write and submit manuscripts to us,” told Bipin.

The museum connection…

Because their focus was on visual arts of India, museums were a natural extension for them to look at, especially those with collections on Indian art. “That's how we started talking to museums in India and simultaneously we started talking to museums internationally. International museums were much more receptive, particularly Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. We have worked with about 25 museums internationally – from Japan and Singapore to US, UK and Europe, and done about 30 plus books with them. The word-of-mouth among authors, curators and museum publishing departments was a strong affirmation of what we have been doing,” told Bipin.

The statistics…

Mapin publishes about 12-15 titles a year and it takes about 12 months for one book, on an average. On asking about the average print run, Bipin replied, “Initially it was 2,500-3,000 copies but in recent years, it has dropped to 1,500-2,000 copies.” The average price range is Rs 2,500-3,000. They also produce some lower-priced books at Rs 1,500.

And the readers include not just professionals, but also designers, libraries, academics, scholars, researchers, students, art connoisseurs, etc.

Distribution arrangement…

“We distribute ourselves in India and work directly with wholesalers and retailers, including online bookstores. For international markets we work with agents. Our indigenous sales contribute 65 percent of our total turnover while 35 percent comes from foreign markets,” he shared.

The challenges…

“The response to illustrated books was great in the beginning. In recent years, the high cover price, content on the internet freely available, and emerging competition, have majorly affected sales,” informed Bipin. “Besides, distribution of books in India, and now particularly distribution of niche books like illustrated books, is the real challenge,” he told.

Thus, publishers are trying their best to keep up with the changing technologies and ebooks have become an area to look at. “We are exploring possibilities by looking at repurposing our existing content. But, illustrated books require more time and attention even while producing them on digital formats,” concluded Bipin.

–Varsha Verma

says David Davidar, the publisher of Aleph Book Company in conversation with Varsha Verma. Aleph might be the new kid on the block but David is definitely not new to the industry and has been instrumental in changing the face of the publishing industry. Here’s more from this veteran in publishing. An year old Indian publishing firm, Aleph Book Company is focussing on publishing books of enduring literary quality. Their hallmark of the fiction and non-fiction works is originality, style, substance, readability, and that ineffable quality that separates the merely competent from the good and the great. Established in 2012, the company has brought several noteworthy literary works.

“We’ve had a fantastic year. We published a dozen books, signed up approximately 60 authors, and were delighted by the way our books were received by readers and reviewers. Some of them are already reprinted. Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s Clay and Dust was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, Jerry Pinto’s Em and the Big Hoom was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and Nilanjana Roy’s The Wildings was shortlisted for the Tata Literature First Book Award. All three novels made several best of the year lists. Moreover, Aleph was the only publisher (along with our business partners Rupa Publications India) to be chosen by Mint as one of the 20 change-makers in India in 2012. All in all, we’re happy with the way we’ve started out,” tells David Davidar, the man behind Aleph Book Company.

The focus...

“Our focus is literary fiction and quality non-fiction in the following areas – history, biography, memoir, travel, natural history, business, economics, science, religion, philosophy, and so on. The books that we are looking to publish will need to be beautifully written, authoritative, original, and thought-provoking,” he informs.

The authors...

Their authors list comprises debut writers as well as top-flight authors with plenty of books behind them. “Some of the authors we have signed up, include Amitava Kumar, Barkha Dutt, General VK Singh, Indrajit Hazra, Ira Trivedi, Khushwant Singh, Malavika Singh, Mark Tully, Naresh Fernandes, Pavan K Varma, Pranay Gupte, Rajmohan Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Valmik Thapar, and Wendy Doniger,” tells David.

Marketing & distribution...

Rupa is their exclusive distributors for printed books and they leave no stone unturned for marketing of their books. “We try to be innovative and focused in our marketing across all the channels available to us, which means we promote our books through a mix of online publicity, retail marketing, author tours, media interviews, and social media publicity,” he says.

“As far as ebooks are concerned, they will be available with a wide variety of online retailers around the world (rights permitting) from the first week of February onwards,” adds David.

Man who adorns many hats...

David is also a well-known author and as former head of Penguin, he boasts of turning around its publishing programme from six titles to 150 titles a year. So, what does David thinks about his different roles? “Because I’m a publisher who writes, I understand all the things that could go wrong with your book once it’s published. So I’ve learned to temper my expectations. Overall, though, I’m happy with the way my novels have been received,” he says.

As former head of Penguin India, David describes his success as a gradual process. “I was only able to do it successfully because of the talented colleagues who worked alongside me, and the brilliant authors who entrusted their work to us,” he shares humbly.

On publishing industry...

“It’s getting very easy to publish, not only in India but everywhere in the world because of the online and self-publishing options available to aspiring authors. Unfortunately, this means that the work on offer is of variable quality,” he says.

But, he thinks the future is very bright for the Indian publishing industry. “We have problems, of course, such as undercapitalised retail, delayed payments, shrinking media space devoted to books and so on, but we’re the only significant English language market in the world that is showing sustained growth. We couldn’t have started Aleph anywhere else,” he adds.

The targets...

“Aleph intends to be a premier publisher of literary fiction and quality non-fiction from (or about) the Indian subcontinent, the sort of publisher Gallimard is in France or Faber is in the UK or Text is in Australia. We hope to have carved out a niche for ourselves by the end of 2014, if not sooner. We will keep our list to select and exclusive, so that we’re able to maintain a high standard of quality, and also give all our books the kind of editorial and marketing attention they require,” concludes the charismatic David.

There has been a long standing demand for a machine which can print MRP/ revised MRP on books & stationery items, without the need of putting a sticker. To meet this need, Mark 2 Mark Printing Technologies has launched a MRP printing machine for the benefit of the publishers. Books introduce us to the world of infinite knowledge and make us learn to have faith.  We experience different thoughts and develop our balanced process of civilized thinking when we read books. As soon as we select a book for purchase, the very next thought that crosses our mind is the price of the book.  Of late, we have seen that most of the times the price of a book is patched with a sticker.  The sticker gives us an idea that either the book is old enough to have a new price patched on it or the vendor has upped the price of the book.  Thus, it gives the impression to the customer that either he is buying an older book at new price or he is paying extra money for the book.  The sticker, instead of printed price, has adverse impact about the book and hurts the faith of the customer – silently.

But, it is not the fault of the vendor as the price of books and stationery items keep revising due to increasing input cost etc.  Thus, they are bound to paste the sticker for revised price and the easiest solution is to paste a sticker of the new price.

This problem was discussed with publishers and Mark 2 Mark has now come up with a solution in the manner of MRP/Revised MRP printing machine, especially designed to print on books/notebooks etc. The machine gives clear, consistent and quality printing which is cost-effective and gels with the already printed matter on the page where the revised price is to be printed.  The machine has the capacity to cater to the printing of large volumes of MRP/Revised MRP printing as a single machine can print 1,000 - 1,200 prints per hour.  Any unskilled labour can operate the machine. What’s more? The cost of per print is as nominal as 2-3 paise.

The company is already serving some very well-known names in this industry like Anand Books Pvt Ltd - Delhi, Arrowhead Publications - Hyderabad, Aadarsh Pvt Ltd - Bhopal, Viva Publications - Noida,   Orient Black Swan Pvt Ltd - Hyderabad/Kolkata/Guwahati, Universal Law Publishing House - Delhi, Evergreen Publications - Ghaziabad, Jay Cee Publications - Delhi, Hans Publications - Delhi, Heavens Publications - Delhi, Helpline Publication - Delhi, Encyclopedia Britannica - Noida, Corodova Publications - Noida, Jeevan Book House - Delhi  to name a few.  They all have appreciated our efforts to work out on the problem by introducing a very cost effective, time saving solution.  The machine is equipped with a specially installed LASER LIGHT to avoid wastage of time in adjusting the exact place of printing the revised price at the same place. The old price is blocked and the new price is printed simultaneously and aesthetically.  Language, style and currency signs are no problem at all.

We wish to go hand in hand with all the publishers in their efforts of dissemination of knowledge but gaining confidence of the customers with pride. We welcome you to come and see the live demo of the machine at New Delhi World Book Fair 2013 in Hall No. 18/S-52 and Hall No. 1/S-37. 

For more information, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call at 9811127408.