I have been reading this interview of Urvashi Butalia by Peter Griffin for Forbes India.
That Butalia and Zubaan stuck to its knitting through the ups and downs of the publishing industry is remarkable indeed. I was one of the casualties of small publishers folding up when the publisher of a scientific journal where I worked (Chemical Age) stopped its operations. The reason was that big publishers were strangling the small ones and we didn't get the requisite number of ads or subscriptions to be profitable. We struggled hard but couldn't make ends meet.
Among the significant things she mentions in the interview are: Digital Rights Management (DRM) will be a big thing in future, but how to manage it will be a challenge. As she says, anyone can hack into a DRM and have the book for free. If DRM becomes big in India - with required safeguards, of course - it would be a good thing for authors and Aleph is already releasing digital versions (e-books) of its titles with the paper ones.
Also, like the music industry, she would like to have smaller stories put up online for sale at Rs 5 and Rs 10. Yippee! That means my short stories will have a market. Want try it out with a collection of my stories? Joking!
She is of the opinion that literary festivals are a good way of bringing authors and readers together. In addition, she would like to see more language books displayed in such festivals. I agree.
John is @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. He blogs here. His Youtube Channel Page. His novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.
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