Organised by Institute of Book Publishing, the 25th Condensed Course for Publishing Professionals was successfully held from November 19-28, 2012. This time, there were 17 participants from Uganda, Pakistan and various parts of the country.

Niyogi Books has launched a panorama coffee-table book ‘Inspired by the Himalayas,’ which is a collection of picturesque and breathtaking views of the majestic Himalayas shot by one of India’s best known landscape photographer Ashok Dilwali, who was inspired by the Russian artist, Nicholas Roerich vivid paintings of Himalayas. The book was released by Dr. Karan Singh, member of Parliament while Alka Pande, a renowned art critic and curator, graced the event as a guest of honour.

Small Demons, the innovative start-up that connects all the details of all the books we read into a connected web of information, has added a fifth of the big six book publishers with the addition of Penguin to its catalogue. Having already inked deals with Simon & Schuster, Random House, HarperCollins and Hachette, Small Demons now has content deals with five of the big six publishing houses. Many books within the Penguin collection, including bestselling genre fiction and the world's leading classics brand Penguin Classics, will begin to appear on the site over the course of 2013, allowing readers to explore their favorite books and draw surprising connections between seemingly disparate literary worlds: from Jack Kerouac's jazz legends to Jim Butcher's Chicago wizards, from Jane Austen's genteel England to Charlaine Harris's tumultuous Bon Temps, Louisiana.

The data that Small Demons provides publishers grants greater flexibility in merchandising and promoting books while stimulating the literary industry as a whole. With this comprehensive data indexing provided by Small Demons, publishers now have more tools than ever at their disposal to reach consumers.

Small Demons has so far cataloged a total of 10,000 books and is adding thousands more monthly.

To explore Small Demons visit www.smalldemons.com

Keith Allen-Jones, sales director of Helen Exley visited Mehta Publishing House, on business tour to India to explore the possibility of selling their gift books in India. Sunil Mehta of Mehta Publishing House had visited their stall at Frankfurt Book Fair this year and had primary discussions about bringing these gift books in Marathi. As around 72 million people speak Marathi, they wish to consider the publication of these gift books in Marathi language.

He also visited some of the regular book shops in Pune to get an idea about outlets for these books. The retail price and route to market are the two key considerations in making this a successful publishing venture.

Helen Exley Giftbooks from London (www.helenexley.com) produces giftbooks. These books are about family relationships, friendship, love and wisdom. There are different series according to the themes, occasions, relations with different and attractive sizes, shapes and bindings. These books are sold in more than 30 languages. They have sold over 1,50,000 copies of their average titles, over a million copies of four titles and over half a million copies of fifty titles.