Celebrating 10 years of All About Book Publishing!

This year is special for us as we celebrate the 10 years of All About Book Publishing and we thank all of you for giving us your support in terms of news, views, editorial, advertisements, et al. It has been an enriching journey for us and together we hope to reach other milestones.

There are some exciting times ahead for the Indian publishing industry. India is the Guest of Honour country at Abu Dhabi Book Fair to be held from April 24-30, 2019 and the Paris Book Fair 2020, which will be held next year from March 14-18, 2020. The preparations have already begun and the respective countries are looking forward to a cross cultural participation.

The Indian language publishing is also getting its share of recognition. So many translations are happening in not just English but also foreign languages. India’s treasure trove of books is getting the attention it deserves globally.

As per a recent Nielsen presentation, almost 54% of readers purchase English language books in trade books in India while rest are vernacular books, which is a very good sign. The bestselling authors (female) of 2018 included Sudha Murthy, Twinkle Khanna and Savi Sharma while the bestselling authors (male) included Chetan Bhagat, Amish Tripathi and Anant Pai. The Hindi bestselling titles of 2018 included Banaras Talkies by Satya Vyas, Do Log by Gulzar and Na Bairi Na Koi Begana by Surender Mohan Pathak.

The reading habits have to be inculcated at a young age. Many countries have come up with fascinating programmes to encourage reading. Take an example of Scotland, where Scottish Book Trust organizes Book Week Scotland where people of all ages and walks of life come together to enjoy books and reading. They also organize Bookbug, under which this year they are distributing 8,00,000 titles to toddlers across Scotland. In UK, there is National Poetry Day, which is a chance for everyone everywhere to read, share and enjoy poetry. France runs Little Champions of Reading for the promotion of books and reading among children.

These kind of initiatives should also be taken in India to encourage reading habits in children. Let us all come forward and try our best to develop interest in reading.

Shweta Khurana
shweta@allaboutbookpublishing.com