Hind Pocket Books, established in 1958, published a set of ten paperbacks in Hindi for the first time in 1959. Today Hind Pocket Books is the umbrella company for several publishing imprints in English, Urdu, Punjabi, and Malayalam across the genres – fiction, health, literature, self-improvement, business and management, Indology, art and culture.
Launched in 1999, the group’s Full Circle Publishing entity brings out books and audios on inspirational subjects, spirituality, religion, philosophy and natural health. It is known for producing high quality books by internationally renowned authors like Dominique Lapierre, Muriel Barbery, Thich Nhat Hanh, Kenize Mourad and Guy Sorman. Its current publication programme is focussed on historical and literary fiction, French translations, mindbody-spirit titles, art books and books for children. Launched in March 2014, Full Circle’s children’s book imprint Tota Books concentrates on original and thought-provoking reading material for children aged four and above.
Priyanka Malhotra, director of Full Circle says, “We are a renowned publisher having good relations with all national distributors and bookstores. Our authors’ books have good reach with their potential readers and are regularly publicized through social media, newspapers and magazines through book reviews and interviews. Some of our authors go on extensive publicity tours and are featured in leading literary festivals such as the annual Jaipur Literature Festival and Bookaroo. We also have two monthly newsletters through which we share book excerpts. They are also prominently displayed and promoted through leading bookstores, including the Full Circle Bookstore.”
Speaking about the percentage of books sold through eRetailers and traditional distributors, Malhotra elucidates, “We do a get a fair number of online orders from eRetailers, and there has been an increase in the demand for our books from online portals, however sales through traditional bookstores remain strong and steady. Rather than online sales replacing traditional bookstore sales we have seen a growth in readership, so we are recording more book sales through new as well as traditional channels.”
Commenting on Full Circle’s plans for the future, Malhotra says, “At the moment, we are focussing our efforts on Tota Books, our children’s imprint by featuring fresh and happy writing to encourage little ones on their journey as they discover the world of books we love. Now over two years and 15 books old, we are excited each day to reach out to our evergrowing audience of young readers. Following the success of our first few releases, The Making of Dog by Priya Sawhney and Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth by Sanjay Patel and Emily Haynes – we have gone from strength to strength in the four to eight-year-old age group. We have now published 15 books under this imprint, of which many are now in their second edition. In 2015 we published 16 books. As of now we haven’t published eBooks, but plans are on the way. ”
