The five bottlenecks that ail the Indian publishing industry are piracy and photocopying, lack of strong translation markets
that creates haves and have nots, questionable practices in the school books market, fragmented and multiple industry bodies run by fringe
publishers and rampant plagiarism, says Vivek Govil, chief operating officer of the Pearson Education, one of the largest foreign publishing houses in India.
Pearson Education has five imprints in India- Penguin, DK, Pearson Vue and Edexcel.
Govil, who has been looking at new ways to promote his imprints in India and rope in more Indian writers, feels Indian publishers should not complain that they are being “swamped by foreign publishing houses with deeper pockets and extensive infrastructure that straddle multiple continents. And can mount expensive publicity blitz to promote good writers and attract quality manuscripts with higher advance payments.
“Firstly, we think of ourselves as Indian publishers. We are looking for ways to cater to the Indian market – Indian authors, Indian students and Indian readers. We are employing Indian staff, and Indian vendors to achieve this. I think publishers who are doing this, regardless of their ownership, need not feel threatened by anyone,” Govil told this writer in an interview in New Delhi.
The “
international” publishers make their books available to Indian students at a fraction of the price at which they are available in other countries, for the benefit of the Indian student, Govil said.
The “international” publishers have bigger local publishing programmes than most “local” publishers and do more to promote the cause of Indian authors globally than “local” publishers.
According to Govil, the only people who feel threatened are those who have grown fat on selling titles licensed from foreign publishers, and have not invested in their own publishing programmes.
“There are Indian publishers who are delivering high quality material, and they are usually not the ones who feel threatened,” Govil said.
Pearson Education has been in the country for 11 years, and has grown to be a market leader in many categories with a strong local publishing program.
“Pearson Education focuses on educational books in the K-12, Test Preparation and Higher Education space. We also have a small list of general non-fiction books. Internationally, we have a range of educational services including e-learning, software, assessment and testing. We are looking to establish these services in India,” Govil said.
Govil said some key publishing projects from 2008 are the South Asian Edition of Marketing Management by Philip Kotler (with Professors Koshy and Jha), A History of Ancient and Mediaeval India by Upinder Singh, Macroeconomics by Errol D’sousa and Supply Chain Management by Janat Shah.
Govil says the objective of his publishing house is to adapt international texts to an Indian context to make them suitable for Indian students. “We try to make international books availbale at affordable prices to serve Indian professors, professionals and students. Educational books sell in India at 5-10 per cent of the price in the international markets. We also promote Indian authors in international markets,” Govil said.
A publisher, explains Govil, needs to keep in mind the student at which the book is targeted, and “ensure quality and appropriate pricing”.
“The Indian market offers such a wide range of opportunities and the biggest problem is prioritising them. Growth in publishing, prior to the global financial crisis seemed to be about 12-15 per cent. Now, it appears that the educational market is growing, but other segments have had a set back. The segment that needs the biggest boost is local language publishing,” Govil said.
Pearson, which feels that its share of the $ 2 billion text book market in India is negligible, will go all out to grab a bigger slice of the market, the CEO of Pearson Education said.
--Madhusree Chatterjee and Jay Akbar