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Book Publishing: Principles DINA N. MALHOTRA has been into book publishing for more than six decades. In this book, he has explained all the nitty-gritty of the book publishing trade in an easy manner like that of a school textbook.
An author is a creative person whose mind is perennially at work churning one or the other new ideas that he puts on paper after great deliberation. Social and political environments ignite his writing instincts. For example, the Partition holocaust, poverty, unemployment, hunger, economic disparity, communal tensions et al are issues that have been written about by many authors. In fact, the authors’ task is unending. If their books are not published, the authors as such will have no identity. Their manuscripts will remain dubbed confined to their shelves. There are cases where rare manuscripts written by noted scholars like the late Giani Ditt Singh, one of the founders of Singh Sabha movement and editor of first Punjabi newspaper, have been found lying with people who did not know their worth. The publishers in general are infamous for not paying the royalty honestly to authors. Malhotra in this book has dealt with all such grouses explaining the real situations a publisher has to encounter and the various stages the manuscript and the book has to undergo. The journey of the book and the tasks of publishers are not that smooth and easy as we see the books in presentable form lying at the bookseller’s stand. The author has dealt with all the aspects of the book publishing trade in detail. The longest chapter in this concise book, Author and Publisher’s Mutual Relations, is a sort of educative discourse bringing clarity in each other’s role and expectations, fostering scope of accommodative approach. The chapter Copyright—National and International—New Concepts is very informative and useful to both the authors and publishers, while The Designing and Production throws light on technical side of production of books as to how they are shaped and finished in marketable form. The Distribution and Marketing of Books and The Economics of Book Publishing are the most important chapters for those who want to enter this trade. Similarly, the tips given in the chapters Publicity and Promotion and Book Clubs can be useful to the new entrepreneur. On the whole, the book can be of immense use for authors, publishers and especially those who want to venture into the field of writing and publishing.
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The authors generally
are not satisfied with the dealings of publishers. Every author
expects that his manuscript should be dealt with on priority basis.
However, the publisher has his own constraints. He has to examine the
contents of the book and evaluate its saleability and other angles
involving social and legal aspects. Even after the book is accepted
for publication and an agreement is signed with the author, there are
umpteen roadblocks in the long process that entails printing,
acceptance by booksellers, etc. After all every author is not Tagore,
Sarat Chander, Munshi Prem Chand or Khushwant Singh whose books have
wide acceptability. Publishers pursue such established writers to make
money and add to their stature as a publishing house of books of noted
authors. Harry Potter is too big an example to quote in Indian
context.