“Publishers need to upskill laterally as well as vertically”

With more than three decades of combined hard-core experience in the publishing & printing industry, Orange Publishers help authors with everything they need to become a published author. “Every single thing about a book, starting from the cover design, layout design, book illustrations, world-class printing and binding to the successful launching and distribution of the book are efficiently handled by our experienced team. As a leading book marketing and promotion company, we have all the tools to give sufficient market exposure to the book that will give it a good start. Our dynamic team of marketing & promotion experts implement myriad offline and online promotional tools to help build a loyal readership base for the published title. Our book and eBook marketing services are directed towards helping new published authors find a voice of their own,” says Snehangshu Banerjee of Orange Publishers.

Current state of Indian language publishing in India…

“Indian language publishing is indeed very rich already, but there is no limit to the untapped talent pool of yet-to-emerge bestselling authors. We have a long way to go in exploring this area,” he shares. “There is immense potential in regional language publishing in all genres, be it printed books, eBooks or audiobooks.”

How self-publishing works…

“The urge & flair of creating literary works is in the blood of Bengali people. Bengal is gifted with a huge number of unknown yet extremely talented writers & poets worth publishing; who, otherwise would not have come in the limelight. We publish them. Many of these talented people are neither technically sound nor well-informed about the publishing process, and many of them are located in too remote fringes of the state to be able to find a good publisher for their book,” tells Snehangshu.

“Honest and sincere publishing companies need to work actively and inclusively to develop awareness among the authors-to-be, resulting in more well-informed authors, armed with usable knowledge of the publishing process. We conduct workshops and seminars (online and offline) to develop awareness right from the school level, where we invite and involve young and old alike, to understand how they can get recognised for their innate creativity,” he adds.

Protecting rights…

“At Orange Publishers, the legal aspect of Intellectual Property is our supreme concern and priority. We go out of the way to inform and educate our authors about IPR, copyright and their legal rights on their manuscript. We execute meticulously written Author-Publisher Agreement where the rights of the Author are prioritised. All our titles are Copyright registered with the Government of India. Every single title from Orange Publishers carries an ISBN and Barcode to ensure the books’ acceptability in the international market,” he shares.

On translations…

“As with the wide and deep talent pool of budding authors, there is no dearth of gifted translators in India who are well-versed in several Indian languages (and foreign languages as well), and it is rather apt to say that the time is ripe to actively cross-pitch translated Indian regional language publications. This will only enrich the already-opulent flora of literary treasure of all the regional languages. Absence of a well-translated and edited English text, though considered essential until recently, is becoming increasingly underrated in this context with increasing awareness. More so, we are observing a rising interest of foreign language literary works (Spanish, German, French Latin etc) being translated directly into Indian regional languages– being promoted by the respective Governments while Indian regional literary works are in high demand to be translated to popular foreign languages across the world,” says Snehangshu.

On New Education Policy…

“With a thrust on teaching in mother tongue in early school, the opportunities are huge – as we will have more ready-to-publish authors from a noticeably young age, even from junior school,” he opines.

On online sales and ebooks…

“Online book sales and popularity of eBooks have picked up fast, owing to affordable internet on smartphones, e-Readers and various other factors in the recent past. The primary outcome of this is global exposure for any regional language publisher – which was not possible earlier. Technological advancements have made affordable connectivity possible for a large section of the society, but it is still a miniscule fraction of the 138-crore population of India; this has long way to go, and a vast market remains to be explored, with technology and last-mile connectivity becoming cheaper in the coming days,” he says.

Role of audiobooks in language publishing…

“Audiobooks are the future of publishing. Storytelling is something that every child grows up with, and every grown-up has an innate penchant of “listening” to books. In the Indian context, audiobook creation and distribution has been so far clouded by restrictive players. Indian publishers, especially regional language ones, are not yet allowed to participate on ACX – the largest global platform for audiobook distribution. The Indian market has an open need for a robust platform for transparent, widespread online audiobook distribution in all Indian languages. As of today, this is a fairly untouched market with enormous potential, that hasn’t even started to bloom yet,” he says.

Road ahead…

“The future in this context looks very bright to me. Publishers need to move with the times and upskill laterally as well as vertically, to meet the ever-changing technological paradigm and market expectations as latest developments in the purchasing habits of book lovers has made publishing more challenging and exciting per se. Social media is influencing consumer decision making and hence warrants for more consideration on the part of publishers,” concludes Snehangshu.