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“Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!” Does this dialogue ring a bell? Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, a fictional character in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, who is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts said so.
This magic seems to have worked with the publishing house of this famous series, Bloomsbury Publishing, which has turned 10 in India this year. And the proof of this is in these numbers -For 2021-22, year-on-year (y-o-y) growth for Bloomsbury India was 48 per cent, consumer business (fiction plus non-fiction books) grew by 36 per cent, while the non-consumer division (academic) grew by 142 per cent.
Here to stay
Though the format of reading may have undergone a change with e-books, Kindle, etc. coming into play, hardcovers and paperback have their own audience even today. Vafa Payman, Bloomsbury Asia Managing Director, said, “Reading is here to stay”.
Like other industries, even publishing took a hit during the pandemic, but this was the period when digital reading caught more traction and big publishing houses were quick to encash on it. But, now with the opening of business, bookshops are also seeing footfalls.
On whether the heavy discounts which e-retailers like Amazon offer impact their revenues, Payman and Rajiv Beri, Managing Director, Bloomsbury India, both told businessline, “These aspects are factored in when working on the price.”
Asked what genre gets more takers, Payman said, the traction was across categories. There are specific markets where reading is more dominant – parts of Europe and India, of course.
When coming out with titles, Bloomsbury is generally seen as a more conservative publisher, vis-a-vis its other competitors – whether it is picking authors or marketing and branding. Beri countered this and said, “We are cautious, not conservative.”
Both Payman and Beri agree that there is an element of risk when picking titles and promoting new authors.
Wide variety
Bloomsbury India was formally launched in 2012 and since then has published over 1600 India-origin titles. Despite the low keyed last three-four years for all businesses, it has shown signs of growing trade and academic publishing programs.
Apart from seeing phenomenal sales of established bestselling authors such as J K Rowling, William Dalrymple, Shiv Khera, Daniel Goleman, and Madeline Miller, Bloomsbury India has also published a wide variety of successful titles including the recent bestselling books of J Sai Deepak. Bloomsbury India now publishes over 200 titles new titles annually.
During the 10th anniversary celebrations in September, Beri said, “When we started in 2012, we were a band of six entrepreneurs. There was multi-tasking, firefighting, overcoming odds, and now we are a team of 50, have a smart new office with sufficient expansion possibilities, and have talented and committed staff passionate about making us among the top respected, valued, high growth companies in our sector.”
Bloomsbury India’s list includes authors such as the Nobel winners, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Wole Soyinka; Booker winners, Michael Ondaatje and George Saunders; and other award-winning and bestselling authors.
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