Ebooks emerge as unlikely saviour for publishing houses amid lockdown

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We always published Ebooks

“We have always been selling Ebooks. In fact, we were one of the firsts in the country to do so,” Kapish Mehra, Managing Director of Rupa Publications maintains. Niti Kumar, Senior Vice-President of marketing, digital and communications at Penguin Random House India echoes a similar thought. “We are publishing agnostics. We have always concentrated on Ebooks. It is not that we ever published them any less.”

Confronted with an unprecedented crisis such as this, however, has compelled them to not just view the potential of digital format but also explore it in a way they had not before.

The book on Coronavirus was released as an Ebook owing to the current crisis. (Source: Amazon.in)

Priced at almost 50-55 per cent lower than their physical counterparts, Ebooks account for lesser revenue and are reliant on digital and technical know-how of readers. Their market is considerably smaller and when looked at from a business point of view, a complete dependence on them does not seem feasible. But the onset of the nationwide lockdown necessitated it.

“We went digital overnight,” Akriti Tyagi, head of marketing at HarperCollins India stresses. The result was not just being able to sustain the ecosystem of publishing but also follow the literary calendar they had decided upon before the restrictions were in place. The three books pushed out by HarpersCollins India in April were their major titles.

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“Market was highly anticipating them. Nasreen’s Shameless is the sequel to one of her best known works, Lajja. Swami’s book is perfect for the time we are in and a literary chronicle of PV Sindhu’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. It did not seem right to delay them” Dixit reasons.

Penguin Random India did the same. “We had decided to publish Pooja Pande’s Momspeak for Mother’s Day and it did not make sense to put that on hold,” Manasi Subramaniam, Executive Editor and Head of Literary Rights at Penguin India, says. Pande’s book is available as an Ebook.

Pooja Pande’s Momspeak was released as an Ebook on Mother’s Day. (Source: Amazon.in)

Responding to the present times through Ebooks

Apart from sticking to schedule, publishing houses are also working around it to respond to the present times. And the digital space has provided them with both an outlet and fluidity to fulfill the demands with immediate action. Praveen Tiwari at Bloomsbury India accedes.

Although he clarifies that they have withheld some books — “There is one on enactment of CAA and another on Shaheen Bagh” — apprehending that bookstores might be a bit wary of titles already pushed out as Ebooks, they are working on preponing a book on stress management which was slated for a later release in July. “ We were supposed to do it later and had several events planned around colleges. But the book might speak to more people during this time.” Stress Diaries by Rachna Khanna Singh will be out as Ebook on May 18.

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The publishing house took a similar decision with another book but for different reasons. ”35 Days by Jitendra Dixit is centered around the 35 days between the declaration of the Maharashtra assembly election results and the formation of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in the state. The book was ready but we could not release it because of the lockdown. Now that we have, it is getting a great response,” he adds. The indefinite postponement of the Indian Premier League (IPL) contributed to publishing Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution by Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde earlier than the decided time. “It was the right time to do it,” Subramaniam states. The strategy worked. Published by Penguin India as an Ebook in April, it won the Wisden Book of the Year.

Shifting demands and growing conversation

Prior to the lockdown, the trends in Ebooks followed a specific pattern. “The demand was mainly for books by legacy authors like Ruskin Bond or Sudha Murty. People generally opted for books they are familiar with,” Kumar shares. There has been a change since late March. “In the initial part of the lockdown, we were seeing a lot of demands for books related to spirituality, wellness and health. Another big trend was for children’s books. With every extension, parents are going online to check for books for children to keep them occupied,” she further adds. “Lately, there has been a discernible increase in demand for books on financial topics, investment, and ways to manage money.”

Released as an Ebook, it won the Wisden Book of the Year.(Source: Amazon.in)

As a direct consequence, there has been a sharp rise in demands and the conversations around them. “Even though Ebook data comes to us in a different way, searches for them and conversations around them have gone up manifold,” Kumar asserts. Other publishers agree. “Ebooks sales have gone up two to three times,” Dixit says. “We are feeling that the overall Ebook market has gone up. In the months of March and April, there has been a 55 per cent jump,” Tiwari adds.

No change in acquisition

The sudden spike in demands of Ebooks and the shifting trends do beg the question if it will lead to a change in acquisition. Subramaniam disagrees. “I personally do not think we have changed our focus. We have not changed our business model. This is not a permanent state of affair. Publishing is a dynamic market and I do not think a change in format will make an impact in trends.” Kumar agrees, reasoning, “There is a significant time gap between acquiring and publishing a book. I don’t think it will impact the way we are commissioning.”

Taking the prevalent uncertainty in account, Sayantan Ghosh, senior editor at Simon and Schuster is in accordance with the rest but adds there will be slight changes. “We are in conversations with authors to write things, like a novella or personal essays, which will be a quick read. These will be time-specific. Whether or not they hold in the future will be a separate question. These will be available only as Ebooks.”

Lessons learned from an uncertain present for an uncertain future

The present pandemic might have surfaced Ebooks as an unexpected champion of trying times but publishers across the board believe they will not replace physical books. Subramaniam states both will exist together along with other versions of books and cites historical evidence to corroborate her point. “Paperback publishing came into existence in 1939-1940s. The reason for it was the Second World War. A paperback could easily fit those in the soldiers’ pockets. By 1949, they outsold hardcovers and many feared that it would ruin publishing. But they have co-existed in such a fundamental way that there seems to be no difference in the formats.”

Her argument also implies that there will be more focus on Ebooks henceforth. “If the lockdown has taught me anything, it is that reading will never go away. The mode might change and as publishers, we must be invested in the change, in Ebooks if need be, so that when the next generation comes, we are ready,” Dixit states. “We ought to pursue and promote physical books and Ebooks with the same aggression,” he adds.

With the prospect of an ease in lockdown, publishers are also hoping that readers who have discovered the convenience of Ebooks will keep coming back. “I was talking to some aged people who had Kindle devices but were reluctant to use them before. They are doing it now,” Tiwari shares. “In the past few weeks, we have generated three to four times of what we used to get from Ebooks. “Going forward it might go back to what it was but I am very hopeful it will at least double up from the amount prior to the lockdown,” Dixit says.

But of course every argument for and against Ebooks, much like other debates unfolding now, rests on conjectures and audacious hope of publishers.