'Did not met our expectations': Hindi publishers on sales during New Delhi World Book Fair

Exam season, positioning of stalls and poor network inside halls spoiled the party for Hindi publishers who expected better sales at the just concluded New Delhi World Book Fair here.Held at the redeveloped convention centre at Pragati Maidan, the nine-day NDWBF that ended on Sunday lost on its biggest footfalls -- the students -- due to the ongoing exam season, according to publishers who are riding high on the global recognition for Hindi literature and authors.

Exam season, positioning of stalls and poor network inside halls spoiled the party for Hindi publishers who expected ''better sales'' at the just concluded New Delhi World Book Fair here.

Held at the redeveloped convention centre at Pragati Maidan, the nine-day NDWBF that ended on Sunday lost on its ''biggest footfalls'' -- the students -- due to the ongoing exam season, according to publishers who are riding high on the global recognition for Hindi literature and authors. ''The students, be it from college or school, couldn't make it to the book fair this time because of the exams. So I think the timing of the fair this year was wrong. Like earlier, it should have been held in January.

''The response overall was good, but we were expecting more since this time it was taking place after 2-3 years,'' Ashok Maheshwari, managing director of Rajkamal Prakashan, told PTI.

Be it author Geetanjali Shree winning the International Booker Prize in 2022 for her Hindi novel, ''Ret Samadhi'' -- translated into English as ''Tomb of Sand'' -- or acclaimed Hindi writer Vinod Kumar Shukla bagging the 2023 PEN/Nabokov Award for achievement in international literature, many believed Hindi literature would be in much demand after the coveted recognition received internationally.

The NDWBF, returning to its full physical form after a gap of two years due to COVID-19 pandemic, saw the participation of nearly 1,000 publishers and exhibitors.

Almost 10 lakh people visited the book fair this year, informed organizer National Book Trust (NBT).

To some publishers, the new layout of the renovated Pragati Maidan convention centre, which saw Hindi book stalls literally pushed to a corner -- located at one end of a hall -- added to the confusion of visitors, with many leaving the venue before even reaching their stalls.

''We are at one end of the row of the hall. To that extent it is true that if you are coming from gate number 4, our's is the last stall for the language books. We were at a bit of disadvantage in that regard,'' said Meera Johri from publishing house Rajpal and Sons.

Previously, Hindi book stalls were located at Hall number 12 in Pragati Maidan, which was the first stall that people coming via metro would pass by. This year, instead of multiple halls, the fair mainly took place in two halls only.

The views of Hindi publishers were also echoed by Hindi authors, like Naveen Choudhary, who said the impact and the sales of books didn't match the expectation level of the publishers. Chaudhary, author of bestselling books ''Janta Store'' and ''Dhaai Chal'', said there was a surge in footfalls during weekends but ''thin during weekdays''.

''The interest for Hindi literature after the global recognition is there but I don't see that immediately translating into sales . . . So yes, the impact in terms of sales was less, and in my conversations with publishing houses, they admitted that the response was not what they were expecting,'' said Chaudhary.

Besides less footfalls of students and unfavourable positioning of stalls, ''poor internet connectivity'' inside the halls was also one of the reasons for ''slow sales'' of books, rued Hindi publishers.

According to Aditi Maheshwari, director of Vani Prakashan group, the reader was not able to make any online payment due to the poor internet connectivity inside the halls.

''There were a lot of network-related connectivity issues. At least 10-12 per cent of the online payments were declined, which of course hampered our sales. ''Also, students, which makes for biggest footfalls, as well as libraries, didn't come due to the ongoing exam season,'' said Maheshwari, adding that ''historical biographies and poetry books'' were among the most sold genres at the fair.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)