People turned towards stories that gave them hope / Photograph by Anukriti Chaturvedi
Embedded Files
Aftermath of the pandemic: Publishing changes track to adapt with the times
Aftermath of the pandemic: Publishing changes track to adapt with the times
With printing presses and bookshops shut down, and e-commerce websites delivering only the essentials during the pandemic, book sales dwindled. Here is a look at how the publishing industry adopted new methods of production, distribution, and marketing books.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that books are the doorways to other worlds, providing an escape from reality. The pandemic brought the world to a halt with far-reaching consequences for all industries, including the publishing industry. Nielsen BookData India’s, an organisation providing a range of services to the publishing industry internationally, came out with a report on the state of the industry in 2021. According to the report, two-thirds of the respondents conceded to consuming a greater number of books since the lockdown was initiated in 2020 as they had more free time.
Changing reading habits
There was a noticeable shift in the reading habits of the industry insiders.
“I was certainly reading more fiction than I generally do,” says Sayantan Ghosh, Senior Commissioning Editor at Simon and Schuster India. “People were turning towards stories that gave them hope, not necessarily happy endings, but something to look forward to.”
For Sonali Pawar, Editor at Hay House India, the pandemic brought about a fascination with translated Japanese and Korean works. “They have that knack for emotions, and I resonated with their writings,” she says.
“While working as an editor in Dorling Kindersley (DK) Publishing, I used to get more time to read,” says Aishvarya Misra, Assistant Marketing Manager at Penguin Random House India with prior experience at HarperCollins India as well. “Ever since shifting to digital (marketing), I don’t get the time to read for pleasure due to little work-life balance."
Pause on publishing
With printing presses shut down, there were delays in publishing books that were planned well in advance, disrupting their marketing projects as well. DK Books, which publishes encyclopaedias and travel books, had to halt publishing of the latter due to global lockdowns, which drastically reduced the need for such books.
According to Ghosh, the whole system shut down for the initial two to three months, creating a lull in work.
Changes in genres
The pandemic also brought about quite a few changes in the types of genres being published, based on what readers were consuming more.
“We were focusing on happier books in general. Anything depressing, anything dystopian was no longer working when it may have been a huge hit pre-pandemic,” says Misra.
“Considering how small Simon and Schuster’s list is in India, it was a conscious choice of not publishing any book on Covid in any genre,” says Ghosh. He further elaborated that the one book their UK counterpart published on it was well-researched and written by a scientist to raise awareness.
Self-help books did well, along with the ones on business, finance, memoirs, and history.
“People turned to spirituality books to cope with the current circumstances and keep calm. Vex King’s books did well during this time,” says Pawar. “Books on Covid didn’t perform well as people went through empathy burnout and they didn’t want to know about others since they themselves were going through so much.”
Floodgates of manuscripts
Some editors indicate that there was a considerable increase in manuscript submissions compared to the pre-pandemic era. While many established authors were working on their next bestseller, there were many first-time writers too with more time on their hands. “Not always writing well, but they did write,” says Ghosh.
“What I was definitely not reading were books that focused on Covid. It was still an evolving idea, and it was too soon, as far as I am concerned, to write about,” Ghosh says. “When you are in something, I doubt you can be entirely objective because you are entirely driven by your circumstances, feelings, and emotions,” he says.
According to Ghosh, the shelf life of such books became so limited that he did not want to publish them. “I personally felt it a little foolhardy to publish a book which isn’t going to be readable after two months, after I have read and edited it because by then things might, as they did, change dramatically,” he says. Ghosh felt Covid was a calamity of epic proportions and needed more time before any literature surfaced on it.
"I personally felt it a little foolhardy to publish a book [on Covid-19] which isn’t going to be readable after two months, after I have read and edited it because by then things might, as they did, change dramatically."
Taking a digital approach
During Covid, publishers realised the importance of using social media to reach their audience and recommend books. They started holding more live sessions in collaboration with book bloggers to capitalise on the latter’s following.
Mridu Agarwal, Marketing Designer at Simon and Schuster India explained how, at first, authors were sceptical to do live events on social media as they hardly had any online presence. They took some time to open up to the idea of social media. Agarwal expressed her enthusiasm at being able to connect with international authors and bookstores during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, HarperCollins India revamped their digital marketing strategy. “We were pushing out more content online because we know people were spending more time online, especially on social media,” says Misra. “We focused on email marketing, that is, newsletters, ticking all of the content buckets to give a holistic view of publishing within Harper,” she says. “Where else would you get recommendations now? Bookstores were closed. We brought recommendations to your inbox.”
Krishna Arora, Assistant Marketing Manager at HarperCollins India explained how they created new Intellectual Properties (IPs) in the digital arena to spread awareness about upcoming books and engage with the audience. “We did the ‘Reset’ campaign and ‘Words are Bridges’ in collaboration with Jaipur Literature Festival,” he says.
About creating relatable content that readers came back to, Deepak Singh Rawat, Associate Site Merchandiser and Lead Social Media at Amazon Books says, “We curated an Amazon Weekend Reading List.” As part of their social media strategy to encourage reading, he says, “We collaborated with literary prizes and other authors and bloggers.”
However, trends are again shifting. In this post-pandemic era, publishers suggest that social media fatigue has set in. Also, Priyanjana Wason, Marketing Communications, Rupa and Aleph Publication, said that digital live sessions were not working unless the authors and publishers had a massive online following.
"People came back to bookstores because they were craving the experience of being in a bookstore, selecting the books, talking to someone, and then buying the book."
Post-pandemic sales
Publishing took a hit like any other industry. Comparing pre and post-pandemic sales, Agarwal says, “Hypothetically, if 3000 books were being sold before, only 1500-2000 were being sold now.”
“Before Covid, printed book sales were at 75%, with e-books accounting for 25%. During the pandemic, the share for e-books became 53%, while 47% for printed books that independent bookstores were selling,” says Arora. “We saw a rise in the sale of children’s books but sci-fi took a tumble.”
“Sales have improved for bookstores after the pandemic compared to before it,” says Abhinav Bamhi, bookseller at Faqir Chand Bookstore, New Delhi. “People came back to bookstores because they were craving the experience of being in a bookstore, selecting the books, talking to someone, and then buying the book.”
Faqir-Chand Bookstore in New Delhi, building a legacy since 1951 / Photograph by Anukriti Chaturvedi
According to the Nielsen report, one in two respondents said they were spending more time reading e-books and listening to audiobooks.
“Audiobooks are still in a very nascent stage in India. There is a lack of titles, they are expensive, and people are apprehensive regarding the quality of the recording,” says Ghosh. “One of the rare positives that came out of the pandemic is that people read more and continue to read more.”
Google Sites
Report abuse