NBPC team sets up book vision - pitches for an all-India stall at Frankfurt Book Fair

One of the things that emerged was having a common stall at the Frankfurt Book Fair which could be branded and designed as per international standards. The stall would showcase the strengths of India as a book production hub.

The participants included Pramod Khera, Amila Singhvi, Vasant Goel, Rajesh Jayaraman, K Selvakumar, Sashi Ranjan and Kapil Raina.

The meeting was held in Mumbai on 19 December at the Four Seasons.

Finalising the White Paper– and creating a road map for the setting up of the Book City which was presented at the first NBPC was part of the agenda.

“It’s now time to capitalise on the unified voice of over 300 Indian book printers that was heard at the 1st NBPC held in Thiruvanananthpuram from 17-19 November 2011,” said P Sajith of Welbound Worldwide.

Speaking about other key points on the agenda, Pramod Khera of Repro India said: “The core committee will discuss the functioning of NBPC – as a special interest group that will support and seek support from events and organisations that will work towards growth in book print exports from India.”

Sajith added: “The objective will be to identify the advisory and support group for NBPC – from a pool of publishers, government officials, technology and consumable suppliers.”

PrintWeek India and Welbound are a part of the core committee, which will “set targets – both qualitative and quantitative – for the committee to achieve by 2017.”

A first step
In the first meet of the core committee, that will head NBPC, the discussions were about the overall agenda for NBPC with a special focus on the Book City project. The consensus was that if Indian printers develop economies of scale, India can succeed. But we're "running out of time".

In the coming weeks, there will be deliberations on the Book City project. Some of the India versus China myths were deliberated and members analysed perceptions like India being costly, availability of FSC paper and government support.

The members also took a decision of collectively promoting India at forthcoming book fairs like the BEA and the Frankfurt Book Fair.

What is print scale?
Ramu Ramanathan presented a paper titled the gaponomics of bookonomics: slipping behind Shanghai. He looked at the issue of scale and how we should define this in the print context? What kind of average return on equity? Plus the growth rates to be achieved. He reminded what Thomas Abraham of Hatchette India said during the book conference: "Indian super book print firms who are cheered, jeered and feared on home turf are light-weights on the global front."

So what then is the new avtaar of a book printing firms? A mix of state, blue-chip and family ownership.

According to Deepak Kapoor, CEO of Manupatra, "there are four reasons why M&As have not happened here. First, the insecurity of publishers post acquisition. Next, the size is small for a foreign publisher to invest time and money and third is accounting is not up to the mark. Finally, most are family-owned and, therefore, some members are not keen for M&A."

In this context, it is not surprising then what Vikas Gupta, managing director, Wiley India says of their alliance with Ratna Sagar. He says it is of a 1:1 expertise and is the future of publishing.

"From a strategic perspective, it is a niche content to create a solution-based approach," says Gupta.

There are other recent trends, as pointed out by Jaya Bhattacharji Rose in her column in Business Week: "Macmillan India bought 80 per cent stake in Frank Brothers in June 2008. LexisNexis Butterworths India acquired legal publisher Wadhwa Nagpur through its Indian arm in May 2010.

ACK Media, which owns the Amar Chitra Katha brand, bought India Book House (IBH) to emerge as one of the largest integrated publishing and distribution firms in India. In November, BPI, a children's book publisher, has become a part of the S Chand Group by combining their interests in school textbooks and children's literature.

Some of the more notable international A&M have been in 2002 when John Murray (known for having publishing Lord Byron) was acquired by Hodder Headline, which itself was acquired by French conglomerate Lagardère Group in 2004."

The norm in Indian publishing (so far) has been to enter in strategic alliances or co-publishing arrangements such as the one John Wiley & Sons have with Ratna Sagar, Zubaan-Penguin, Ravi Dayal-Penguin, Black Kite (Permanent Black) -Hachette; HarperCollins-Mapin (specifically for the children's list, but it has been discontinued); Westland-Blaft and Taylor and Francis with Anamaya for STM journals.

The road ahead
P Sajith made a presentation "NBPC - the road ahead". This covered the perceptions of the publishing world about Indian printing. There were discussions on the world market for book printing and the key markets where India can be successful.

Sajith pointed out the key misconceptions about Indian print firms. these are:

Indian printers do not have a reliable order-to-delivery schedule

Indian printers are not price competitive

• - There are no scientific cost models and hence stable cost rationales
• - The Indian print industry is not environmentally conscious or pro green
• - The quality control procedures are not up to the mark
• - Indian book print firms do not do prior homework and research
• - India as a country is not perceived as a print destination
• - High risk of infrastructural failures
• - Inadequate and often conflicting communication about exports systems, paper-work and laws

For a copy of Sajith's presentation, please Email: nbpcindia@gmail.com.

The next meet will be held on 16 January 2012 in Delhi.