Chennai-based technology start-up, SansRack Publishing Solutions, launched what it claims is India’s first on-demand book distribution platform at the New Delhi World Book Fair 2016 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. With the launch of its platform with rights or public domain access for on-demand production of over one million titles, SansRack aims to bring all its titles to Indian readers via its online sales partners – Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm.
In addition, SansRack is seeking to help publishers to re-incarnate their entire catalog as digital and on-demand print books. According to Naveen Valsakumar, co-founder of Notionpress and director of SansRack Publishing Solutions, the platform will enable publishers of all sizes to bring their entire catalog to life. “We were fascinated by the problems in the publishing industry and the scope of how much we can do to solve these through technology. Whether it is the printing side of publishing or the actual publishing part, there are a lot of inefficiencies – be it payment-related, the distribution system, or keeping track of sales in the system because of which a lot of money is lost,” says Valsakumar.
The new distribution platform will allow publishers to monetize their backlist or out-of-print titles at zero cost by making these titles available to readers – even if the demand is for a single copy. “A good book is an asset not only to the publisher but to the society at large. Practically it is not viable for a publisher to keep all its books alive because it involves cost. But we want all these great books to be available to readers whenever they want to read them. This is how we came up with the idea of the new platform,” says Valsakumar. SansRack has been running in beta phase, working over the past 18 months with publishers like Taylor and Francis, Hachette, Packt Publishing, Oxford University Press and others to make their titles available to Indian readers at affordable prices.
We are committed to make every book ever published available to Indian readers at an affordable cost,” says Valsakumar. With this lofty goal, SansRack intends to expand its catalogue to 5 million titles and add more sales channels by the end of this year. Sansrack will also help Indian authors in exploring the international market. The technology can help international authors in marketing and selling their books in India without extra cost. Readers won’t have long waits for their book shipments.
“Working on a print-on-demand basis requires a lot of efficiency and it took us over 18 months to acquire a sizeable number of titles and test the robustness of our technology in the market. We are proud to say that we are one of the few companies in the world that can provide ‘Live Sales Tracking’ to publishers with useful information like sales details, book earnings and the geography of the buyers of each title. This kind of live information gives data insights to publishers that can help in planning their marketing activities. We have also created deep integration with our sales channels to make titles available on eCommerce sites with the click of a button,” adds Sreekumar Narayanan, one of the co-founders of SansRack. “Working with both domestic and international publishers, SansRack aims to eliminate the word ‘out-ofprint’ from the publishing world and to also make international books that are usually imported to be produced locally and sold at affordable prices to Indian readers.”
“We are committed to make every book ever published available to Indian readers at an affordable cost,” says Valsakumar
