Thoughts on book industry in India

Now that I am a stakeholder in the publishing industry in India and over the next few years I hope to become a significant one, I am going to start talking about things I've learnt while I was working on #tnks (wow that was a long sentence).

I plan to post my thoughts in a series of posts. And I am calling this series as Business of Books. So before I start getting into any serious discussion or prose, here are a few things that I would talk about over the next few weeks, months. If there is something specific that you want me to talk about, please do let me know.

No, I am not an expert. I am a mere curious observer standing on the sidelines of this amazing business.

• Print vs Electronic. The non-stop battle between printed and ebooks. Which is better. Why? What is the alternative?
• The monies. What do the publishers make, what do authors make? Who else makes money. Of course a lot of guesstimating will be involved.
• Marketing. Of course. I am after-all a marketeer by training. The jury is still out on my "expert" level though.
• Managing egos. Of other writers, publishers, retailers, distributors. Even readers have egos!
• The mafia. No no, not the Italian Sicilian one. But the mafia in the books industry. Yes, there is. Trust me. I've had an encounter already. Thankfully it was not dirty.
• Support groups. I am lucky to have folks at Wrimo India as a huge support group. Without them, a lot of my work would have suffered. Why is important to have a group? What to do if you don't have one.
• First-time authors. This one is probably where I'd spend a lot of time. After all, I am an outsider and it took considerable time, effort, hustle and luck to get the book done. Publishing for me was surprisingly easy. More on this as we go along.

That's all I can think of for the time being. I am hoping to do one post per week. Let's see if I can stick to the schedule. No promises though. 

Oh, I just need to figure out how would onWriting.in co-exist with this. I don't have answers for the time being. Let's see when they dawn. In the meanwhile, hope you've ordered the book!

Originally published on tnks blog.