Dear Friend,
The production of books is intellectually stimulating – selecting scripts, working with authors and translators, the editing process, the design elements going into the production and culminating in the ultimate pleasure of holding a printed book in your hands with the ineffable smell of fresh cut paper, ink, and adhesive.
So, our first titles are out. The reception has been good. Early readers have commented on the excellent production values. Our decision to benchmark the design (cover design, typeface, and page-setting) and quality of content (copy-editing, and proofing) to global standards seems to have paid out.
So now to the task of promoting the books and making them available in the market. Compared to the production of books, selling them is another kettle of fish altogether. There are primarily two channels – online and through book shops. Though online sales are important, making our books available in the displays of book shops is vital. As things stand, we have access to a network of shops in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana but now that we have begun publishing in English under the name SouthSide Books, we need to make our presence felt – at least in the major metros.
The first foray we have made is to explore the possibility in Bangalore. Vasudhendra, a friend and renowned Kannada writer and publisher, has provided introductions to a few book shops and distributors. One thing is for sure. The book trade is very down-to-earth and commercial, though the people you deal with are nice for the most part.
We’d rather sell books for cash and are willing to offer a heavy discount – two reasons being handling credit sales and trade returns will add heavily to our administrative costs in addition to tying up our liquidity. On the other hand, the bookshops and distributors we meet are totally averse to cash purchases even though they stand to make more on the sale. From their point of view, they are being squeezed by the online sellers, and in addition, the numbers of book-readers are coming down as people are moving to e-content. They have a litany of their own woes to recite – shops are shutting down; costs are rising and their margins are squeezed and it is all they can do to keep afloat.
They like our books though, and all of them are willing to take copies and make an effort to push them into the market. For us the dilemma is - do we make an effort to tie up with a national distributor in exchange for a hefty chunk of our margin; or do we bite the bullet and do the distribution ourselves, with all the additional complication it entails?
Hoping to hit a mutually favourable and friendly option soon.
The debate is on as are the negotiations.
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