Independent Publishers and the Interactions of Regional Language Publishers

 Independent Publishers and the Interactions of Regional Language Publishers

‘It is a truism that small independent publishers bring sparkle and fresh quality to Indian publishing. I would  argue that because these companies are run by publishing professionals, as opposed to being family run, they offer very high quality editorial and production skills, publishing most of the best books in India. These small companies focus mostly on social science and literary studies...
What independent companies focus on is the creation of knowledge, that is, something that adds to the world’s understanding of ideas, of life, of how and why people live their lives, in brief, the great humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, philosophy. This kind of publishing feeds into perennial thought.

So what do independents not publish? They avoid the stereotypical and are not impressed by the need to entertain and get more sales. When are sales enough to impress a multinational? Andre Schiffrin in his books: The Business of Books and Words and Money says that a small quality imprint brought by a conglomerate can never succeed even when it increases sales. Because the target is always pushed further. Unrealistic expenses like huge fancy corporate offices and salaries have to be covered…

The kind of publishing that Indian independent publishers do is to show what is happening in society, whether in fiction or in non-fiction. They, thus, take risks in publishing a first time author who has something important to say, again, whether in fiction or non-fiction. This is because they want to publish exciting, quality books.’

An Extract from Independent Publishers and the Interactions of Regional Language Publishers by Mandira Sen