Judge a book by its chapter... and more
Pay-by-chapter
downloads, animated characters, moving pictures, effects of thunder and
lightning, publishers seem to be giving ebooks a whole new story in the hope of
capturing the mobile generation.
Publishing
house Westland just announced their tie-up with Bangalore based mobile
publishing platform Dailyhunt to make available author Amish Tripathi's
best-seller Shiva Trilogy in chapter format. It allows readers to buy and read
one chapter at a time of any book at a cost of around 15, instead of paying for
the book at full price. "We are in the process of launching more than 100
other titles in several Indian languages in the same format," says
Virendra Gupta, CEO & founder, Daily hunt.
Tripathi
says while the number of bookstores is diminishing, the number of smartphone
users is on the rise. "Payby-chapter was first tested by a Chinese
publishing firm that sold millions of books. India too is a price-sensitive
market, so letting readers "try out" a book instead of paying for the
whole book, will make it more `accessible'," says Tripathi.
With
research firm Nielsen's 2015 India Book Market Report stating that despite
India being among the largest English language book markets in the world, books
still comprise less than 1% of total retail market in India, but account for
15% of the e-commerce. Staffers at several publishing houses in India say the
seemingly rising numbers of ebook readers is on their radar and discussions are
now being held on how to "enhance" ebooks in terms of content and
marketing. While Harper Collins worldwide has launched an "unbound"
app, which adds interactive features to ebooks, in India it is bringing out
ebook compilations of one chapter each of all its releases of the month.
"We are hoping that people will read the chapters and be drawn to buying
the book," says Amrita Talwar, Harper Collins.
Publishing
house Rupa too is trying the pay-by-chapter format for its ebooks format.
"The ebook market is picking up slowly and the younger generation is
reading on their ereaders, iPads and cellphones. Publishing houses have to
learn to adapt," says Ritu Vajpeyi-Mohan, editorial manager, Rupa
Publications. Children's book publisher Tulika has a series of enhanced ebooks
slated for release next year. "We have ebooks planned with characters
being animated, words coming to life, changing backgrounds, and audio
read-along features," says Radhika Menon, founder, Tulika.
Leonard
Fernandes, owner of Goabased CinnamonTeal Publishing, says with ebooks, sales
success is hard to judge. "I feel the market figures may have been
overestimated. And while as publishers we are trying to enhance the reading
experience of an ebook, there is no evidence yet to show that this is what
readers want," says Fernandes.
Publishers and authors seem more optimistic. Westland head Gautam Padmanabhan says ebooks are the future, because there are not enough bookstores to keep up with the demand. "Bookstores are shutting down. Ebooks and mobile downloads are the only way to reach out to a wider audience," says Padmanabhan.
Publishers and authors seem more optimistic. Westland head Gautam Padmanabhan says ebooks are the future, because there are not enough bookstores to keep up with the demand. "Bookstores are shutting down. Ebooks and mobile downloads are the only way to reach out to a wider audience," says Padmanabhan.
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Khaitan & Co
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