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Written by Vimarsh Bajpai   
Saturday, 05 July 2008 12:25
E-book

These are books available in electronic formats (most popular being pdf) and can be downloaded on a computer or mobile device that supports Microsoft Reader, Adobe Acrobat, or Palm format. ‘E-books’ is the latest buzzword in publishing. Made popular by Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, more and more readers overseas are turning to online books as it saves them the trouble of carrying hard-bounds. However, India is yet to see the launch of these products. But this segment holds big promise for entrepreneurs, thanks to the growing reach of the Internet. There are several companies in India who are also in the business of publishing e-books for overseas clients.

New Horizon Media has already created PDF versions of all its printed books, but is yet to bring it to the market. The firm is pinning its hope on the launch of e-book reading devices in India.

Canada-based e-book publishing firm Club Lighthouse Publishing (CLP) started in the last quarter of 2006, with only eight books by way of inventory and had been written by the firm’s founder Terrie L Balmer under the name of T L Davison. Balmer started the business with a seed capital of around $5,000. “That was because I had already constructed the website myself, so that took a great chunk out of my startup cost,” she says. The average amount of books published since that time has been 20 per year. However, this year, Balmer hopes the figure would double. Science fiction, erotica, mystery and romance tend to be the top sellers, she adds.

Balmer believes that while the e-book industry is still considered relatively new, the demand for e-books has been steadily growing particularly amongst the younger generation. “However, I sincerely believe that as environmental consciousness becomes more ingrained in the general population and they realise that we can’t keep decimating the world’s` forests for paper and other products, the general outlook will change,” she adds.

Print-on-demand
Print-on-demand publishers publish only when someone orders a copy. In the US, print-on-demand is a pretty popular concept. In India, many people are now approaching print-on-demand service providers to get their name in print.

On an average, PoD publishers charge anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000 for printing 50 copies of a paperback with around 50 pages. Some PoDs publishers also provide value-added services such as ghost writing, editing, proof-reading, translation etc. Thus the business requires a lot liaisoning with editors, etc. You don’t have to own a printing press to be in the business. CinnamonTeal has tied-up with printing presses in Delhi and Bangalore. They also have a network of some 100 people who do the editing and proof-reading part.

Leonard Fernandes
Co-founder, CinnamonTeal

What were the initial challenges that you faced?

  1. Building a professional organization with qualified staff was the first problem. We found editors from weekly magazines and worked with them so they could adapt to editing books.
  2. Sales were quite difficult. The Tamil book space is highly unorganized. We had to struggle to get qualified sales people. We had to hire them from other places and train them.
  3. The book shops were not growing in number. Sales in the existing shops were also flat. We had to think differently to increase the sales. We started looking at books as FMCG products, and had to build a complete distribution mechanism with stockists, distributors etc, and also build more display space through departmental stores, restaurants, textile shops, kirana shops etc.
  4. Trade discount and credit period were a complete mess. We had to introduce methods by which we could get our monies promptly. This took a lot of effort and we had to forsake some business, as the retailers didn’t like our methods. But as we were producing high-quality, fast-selling titles, we succeeded in establishing ourselves.

What is the business model of printed book publishing?
The retailer/distribution sales channel is given a trade discount on the MRP of the book. In the English book industry, it is in the range of 50-60%. In Tamil, the maximum will be 35%. The authors are paid on a royalty basis. In the English industry, in general, it could go from 5%, 7.5% to 10% or in some cases as much as 12.5%. It varies from company to company and author to author. The royalty percentages on overseas sales or translations may vary. The royalty maybe on the net receivables or the gross MRP. For us, we pay 10% royalty on the gross MRP on every title across all our languages. When translations are involved, we pay 5-7.5% royalty. Then, you have the print, paper, binding (PPB) cost, the cost of producing the copies of a title. Depending upon the print run, quality of the paper used, paperback or hardbound, this cost varies. After that come your overheads and the profit margins.

In our case, we build multiple imprints for each language focusing on a specific subject. In Tamil, we have an imprint for general books covering literature, biographies, self-improvement, business and finance, politics and current affairs. Once the imprint is decided, then the titles that fit into that imprint are worked out, and then we start identifying potential authors who can write on those subjects. Most of our non-fiction books (more than 80%) are commissioned. We work with the authors and give them the outline, including the rough page count and the level of vocabulary.

Once we get the manuscripts, we edit them and incorporate them into our publishing program. The sales team picks up from the production and builds sales volumes by promotion across various outlets. A title that sells more than 3000 copies per year, starts generating decent profits.

 



Comments (3)Add Comment
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written by Owen Floyd, April 22, 2009
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written by pooja bajaj, September 12, 2008
could you please give me more information as to how should i start in this field.
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written by Abhaya Agarwal, July 25, 2008
Hi Vimarsh,

Your article does a good job of talking about various new trends emerging in print media. I am a firm believer myself that soon the face publishing will change as dramatically as it has happened with music. You can read some of my thoughts here:
http://abhaga.blogspot.com/2008/05/pod-is-to-self-publishing-what-free-is.html

I am the co-founder of a print on demand, self publishing company called Pothi.com (http://pothi.com ). We are building tools and marketplace that help solve the problems faced by self publishers currently. Would like to connect with you regarding this. Could you please write back to me?

Thanks,
Abhaya
http://pothi.com
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