J LF 2014 will herald the first edition of the Jaipur BookMark plat form for discussing new developments, trends and formats in publishing and their impact on the industry. There will be sessions and conversations, as well as networking opportunities between Indian and international publishing and allied industries. Significant representation from publishers across the twenty-four Indian languages, as well as representatives of the global book trade are expected to take part. As the expanding Indian market stands at a moment of choices and opportunities, Jaipur BookMark seeks to provide a vision of emerging technologies and of collaborative possibilities.
The successful publisherssession at last year’s JLF has been enlarged this year to discuss other business aspects. Festival director Namita Gokhale says that Jaipur BookMark will eventually contain all segments of publishing from sales, distribution and rightsto production. Jaipur BookMark will begin mid-morning on 18 January at Nairan Niwas, with two interactive expert panel discussions scheduled on each of the two afternoons. This will be followed by a networking cocktail reception where participants can find opportunities to circulate and interact, after registration.
Bottlenecks in Indian publishing
India is the driver of the South Asian publishing economy with 65% of its population below 35, and a fast-growing trade and book industry. The book publishing industry isfragmented with multiple challenges including the shortage of funds, lack of vision, discipline, infrastructure, technology and scalability
One of the Jaipur BookMark sessions will discussthe bottlenecksin credit support, distribution infrastructure, production and salesthat are hindering the natural growth of the publishing industry. IPP will join the discourse with its editor Naresh Khanna and managing editor Sandip Sen participating as speakers. IPP has been regularly covering some of these issues including distribution, credit structures, warehousing, logistics, online sales, discount wars and and the entry of online booksellers in the Indian market.
Registration for BookMark includes delegate status for the Jaipur Literature Festival.The registration fee is `3,500 per day or `9,000 for three days for individuals and `3,000 per day per person or `7,500 per person for three days for organizations. One can register online at http://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/ registration/jaipur-bookmark/. The BookMark session is aimed at booksellers, distributors, publishers, commercial printers and pre-media companies and service providers
