Sunday, January 19, 2003		Books

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Poetry doesn’t fit publishers’ purse
Suresh Kohli

IN this age of the novel and the novelist, even though one keeps hearing the occasional shriek bemoaning the death of the genre, poetry and poets everywhere have literally been put on the backburner. In India, the sole promoter, the Writers' Workshop, has been like a terminally-ill patient. Almost everything appearing from P. Lal's rusted, obsolete printing mill has been doing greater damage than the situation warranted. The faded colours of sarees ripped apart to adorn the cardboard of the binding now seem to celebrate the death of the muse itself. And the books being churned out make the celebrated WW, the institution that nursed the talent of almost everyone who can be even remotely called a poet, begin to look like an aging whore.

Meanwhile, the mainstream publisher, behaving like an adolescent who narrowly escaped getting caught with a prostitute during a raid, never returned to the scene. Poetry has never raked in big profits, though poets have. Anita Nair has been making waves for a while now as a novelist. But it was left to a new enterprising publisher, Yeti Books from the backwaters of Kerala, to bring out the poet in her. The book is beautifully produced, in fact the production is better than any brought out by a mainstream publisher in a long while. And that did the trick. One almost instantly wanted to hold and fondle the book as if it was a woman. That the poems carry with them a whiff of fresh air, and the imagery is refreshingly new adds to the experience.

There suddenly appeared hope. And I am sure several others like me must have instantly wanted to stroke the embers of a long-buried desire to publish a new volume of poems. Inquiries revealed that the man who has dared to swim against the tide is Thachom Poyil Rajeevan, a no mean poet himself. But more of that later. Sample this first: "Isn't it shameful that a country like India, with one of the world's oldest poetic traditions, hasn't got a single publisher for poetry (at least in English)? It seems like there's an undeclared 'ban' on poetry. These experiences made me think of starting a new publishing house with a view to giving prominence to poetry, translations and new writings." Laudable thought, no doubt.

And he further states: "Initially, Yeti's main focus will be on creative writing, both English and translations from the Indian languages. Anything that's creative and has a bearing on our life is acceptable. We don't have any genre, author or nationality discrimination. But we are determined not to publish purely academic work or pulp." The policy or philosophy makes good sense. You cannot survive by merely publishing poetry in English in India, or by publishing new, experimental poetry or by publishing indiscriminately. That has led to the degeneration of an institution like the Writers' Workshop.

Rajeevan will have to tread judiciously. He plans to publish both prose and poetry in English translation. It makes sense. Viability, and I should know better from my own experience in the matter long ago, alone can make the crocodile swim on sand.

Rajeevan is conscious of the pitfalls. He is also ambitious, and plans to bring out a book a month. He feels: "Publishing poetry may not be as lucrative as publishing fiction or biographies. The situation was not very different in Malayalam till recently. But new poets turned the tide through small publishing. Since 1980, it has been the small publishers who bring out almost all the new poets' first collections in Malayalam. As some of them became economically successful, the big houses have begun to show some interest in poetry. Poetry may not sell in millions, but, properly published—this we can say from our experience—it won't bring you a loss either." And therein lies the essence. The big or mainstream publishers in India are not into it for any kind of public service, or for promoting literature or culture. They are in it to make money. And in that sense they are no different from someone who might be selling mangoes.

It is the bane, and, indeed, the tragedy of publishing in English in India that most publishers are themselves illiterate. Many can't even speak two sentences correctly. And it is not that most titles published convert into instant cash. In fact, most academic or general titles take the imaginary tortoise leap in the bookstores, and would actually take as long to sell as any good creative writing book. This is obvious from the visibility of such titles on footpaths as remainders. This is also obvious from the dwindling print runs. It is understood that the first editions of these books these days rarely go over 500 copies, and even less.

What's probably wrong and, therefore, makes less business sense is that by nature as well as design poetry volumes are slim. And considered slow sellers. But slow sellers compared to what? True, they cannot be as highly priced as any atrociously written, badly produced, unedited doctoral dissertation that constitutes the backlist of any publishing house in India. And for most of them a book has never been a footprint. It is buttered bread. And they like to lace it with thick gravy. So it is important that a new enterprise engaged in publishing and promoting good creative writing must succeed. And one sees in Yeti Books a ray of hope.