'India most dynamic market'
Harper Collins is sharpening its focus in India. “This is one of our most dynamic markets in the world,” says David Swarbrick, Group Sales & Marketing Director, Harper Collins UK, who was in India recently for a board meeting of the company.
The three-million-copies-a-year market, which has doubled in size over the last year, is expected to grow at 30-40 per cent per annum. The company is now focussing, among other things, on creating a consumer brand in India. “We have taken several high quality Indian authors (writing in English) to the world.
He admits that there is some truth in the charge that a majority of Indo-Anglican authors peddle “Indian exotica” to western audiences, “but that is changing”. Result: an increased focus on authors who deal with everyday Indian themes. “Some books travel well, others don’t, but our goal now is to make local publishing global,” he says. India, he adds, is a “creative superpower”.
To tap this market better, Harper Collins is unleashing all its imprints—like Collins Business, Perennial, Fourth Estate—here. He’s particularly excited by a couple of books that will be released shortly—Arvind Adiga’s White Tiger and Tarun Tejpal’s The Story of My Assassins. These, says Karthika K.V., Publisher of Harper Collins India, will finally put to rest the theory that only Indian exotica sells.
