VK Karthika, ‎publisher, HarperCollins, calls it quits

While India publishing is going through a churn, the news comes as surprise to many. In 2015, when Chiki Sarkar left Penguin Random House to start her own publishing venture, Juggernaut Books, there was a momentum. Karthika’s quitting, however, is sudden and unexpected. Karthika, who spent 10 years in the company, was instrumental in making HarperCollins Publishers, which started its India operations as a joint venture with the India Today group, as one of most visible brands in India.

Over the years, HarperCollins has put together a formidable list of books, not just in popular and literary fiction, but also in usually neglected genres like graphic novel and translation. The company has set up a Hindi publishing division, and under Karthika, it also started an imprint dedicated to sports books.

Karthika started her career with Penguin Books India in 1996 and moved to HarperCollins in 2006 to head the publishing programme in India. She has published some of the biggest names in literary writing in India, including Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga, Manu Joseph, Anita Nair and Rana Dasgupta. She also worked with writers like S Hussain Zaidi and Anuja Chauhan, who were huge commercial successes.

According to industry insiders, however, Karthika’s decision to move on is not so unexpected. The company, owned by New York-based News Corp, is seeing major changes at the top. In August 2015, PM Sukumar, the CEO, left the company, making way for Padmanabhan, who, after spending nearly 20 years at Penguin Books India, took over in October.

HarperCollins India started as a joint venture between Living Media and HarperCollins in 2003. HarperCollins took full control of the venture at the end of 2012.