India's growing clout in English language publishing

Just about 7% of India's population can read English according to the 1991 Census (2001 census language data is yet to be released). But even that 7% works out to a substantial 65 million potential English readers. For perspective, compare that to the number of English speakers in USA (about 215 million), number of English speakers in Canada (about 20 million) the entire populations of Britain (about 60 million) and Australia (about 20 million).

India's clout is only likely to grow further in the coming decades in the global market for English language publishing.

David Davidar, former publisher of Penguin India and currently publisher of Penguin Canada, is quoted as saying,

“Canada is a mature market that is growing slowly, whereas India is an emerging market that is the fastest growing English language market in the world today. It is estimated that the Indian market could be bigger than Canada and Australia in the next 10-15 years.”

Richard Marcus writing in the online magazine, Blogcritics wonders why American and even British publishers haven't shown much interest yet in India as sizeable English language market.

What amazes me is how [British and American publishers] seem to have forgotten, or even worse not noticed, the potential audience beyond the confines of our continent and the British Isles. American companies could perhaps be excused on grounds of ignorance, but for the Brits to forget about India and the rest of the Commonwealth nations (the countries that were formerly colonies of England) is just silly. They were the ones who forced the English language down their throats in the first place.

India has probably one of the largest, educated English-speaking populations in the world right now. Its economy is booming, and more and more of her people have the money to spend on books and other forms of leisure. How hard would it be for an imprint to reach an agreement with an Indian press and start delivering titles for publication?

But with the exception of Penguin India, no one seems to be doing very much to take specific advantage of the market. Even Penguin treats India like another foreign country and gives preference to American publications. What this means is that while Penguin can dump as many American-published titles as it wants onto the Indian market, it only exports a few Indian-published titles to the States.

While this does provide a market for whatever is being published in the States, it does nothing to properly develop the Indian market. Penguin needs to remind itself that if it wants the world to know more than the names of one or two authors from India it needs to start treating India with the respect it deserves.

That means that her authors should be given the same treatment as their American counterparts and not be limited in the number of titles they are allowed to export to the American market. The best way to develop a solid audience base is to ensure that the authors of the home country are able to thrive. Keeping their names in the public eye as much as possible is a reminder that Indian writers are just as important as American or British.

If American publishers would open their eyes to the fact that English is spoken in more then a few countries around the world ,they might find their sales figures rising. Sign on a couple of Indian authors and publish them simultaneously in India and the United States. It might take awhile for sales to develop in the United States, but that will be compensated by sales in India.

At the encouragement of a friend of mine in India I sent my manuscript to Penguin India for consideration; I haven't heard anything from them yet, but that doesn't bother me. When they publish the book I expect that it will be available in Canada because that's where I'm from, as well as sold as India, but I doubt it will be for sale in the United States.

It used to be that without the American market your book couldn't really sell enough to make you much money. But times have changed, and America is not the only large English speaking market anymore. American publishers need to remember that - if they want their business to continue to grow. Otherwise they could find themselves being left behind and no longer as important as they think they are.

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