Mumbai-based Shree Mahavir Book House which has a strong distribution network in metropolitan cities has recently ventured into the children’s book publishing segment. Speaking to Indian Printer & Publisher, Vipul Gala, partner, Shree Mahavir Book House says, “As a company involved in the distribution of books we noticed a drop in gross revenue due to an increase in online purchases. With our vast experience in the distribution of books, switching to publishing and using our existing distribution network seemed to be the right move for growing our business. From my point of view the internet affects the retail market of records in terms of cost. I do realize the future will include the downloading of a particular record in a formatted file of some sort. It’s an inevitable trend in the book retail market. Even so, the demand for printed books will remain.”
In the past two years Mahavir has published approximately 52 books of which there are 35 titles comprising elementary and pre-school books in English as well as vernacular languages and the remaining works are autobiographies, management and self-help titles. Over the years, Mahavir has recorded a 30% increase in revenue on a yearly basis.
“In the near future we expect a good growth for publishers. In order to have an edge, we have come up with various revisions of books according to the feedback received by retailers. Our distribution network allows us to have a strong presence among retailers and they facilitate the promotional activities of our books,” says Gala. “Entertaining children with the printed page seems to grow more difficult with each passing year. Children’s appetite for cell phones and digital entertainment tools exceeds that for books.”
In the state of Maharashtra, vernacular languages, including Hindi and Marathi are compulsory subjects in elementary school. Thus, Shree Mahavir started printing books in vernacular languages for the primary division. Apart from this, it also translate the scripts published in English into Marathi by taking the rights from the publisher. The script conversion process easily takes a couple of months. The print quantity in two color prints is roughly 1,000 copies, four color print reaches a figure of 3,000 copies and if a book has the potential of becoming a best-seller, around 10,000 copies are printed through print service providers based in Mumbai who distribute it to other cities. With regard to picture books, it is hard to develop content as it demands conciseness, simplicity and a visual appeal and also involves a tough competition in the market.
Gala has confirmed the company’s participation at the New Delhi World Book Fair to be held next year in the month of February. “Academic as well as competitive exam books are witnessing a healthy rate of growth. So far, we haven’t ventured into this segment as it involves lot of competition and promotional activities. We plan to come out with activity books for children and start services in copublishing,” Gala concludes.
