As English-language authors look to expand their range—and inevitably find that good translation is expensive—working in other English-language markets is an important tactic.
India, of course, is one of the world’s largest English-language markets, although English is only one of more than 120 major languages spoken in this country of 1.3 billion people. English and Hindi are the primary languages used for official purposes, however, and English is widespread, as it is in so many areas that were once part of the British Empire.
A quick look at Amazon India’s books section reveals primarily English-language books (on an English-language site). In fall 2016, Amazon bought the Indian publishing company Westland (one of the top-five English-language trade publishers in the country), and Nielsen says 56 percent of respondents in India prefer reading in English. (That said, in September 2017, Oxford University Press in India began publishing Bengali- and Hindi-language projects—after more than 100 years of producing only English in India.)
While attending last week’s Publishers Association Congress in New Delhi, we were interested in Nielsen’s report on India. Andre Breedt, the London-based managing director of Nielsen’s research unit, offered a few high points in his talk.
- By 2030, India’s population is expected to stand at 1.46 billion, while China’s will be at 1.39 billion. It’s a young country, with the projected median age in 2030 being 32.
- India is the second largest English-language print book publisher in the world.
- The country has 9,037 publishers, publishing is done in about 16 languages, and there are close to 22,000 physical retailers.
- In trade publishing, adult fiction accounts for about 7.2 billion rupees ($111 million), with adult nonfiction at about 10.8 billion rupees ($166 million).
Nielsen’s data suggests that Hindi-language publications account for about 35 percent of the output of the 930 plus trade publishers in India. In English-language fiction, Indian authors, such as Chetan Bhaget and Amish Tripathi, are dominant. And while there’s huge interest in Indian-mythology-based literature, the adult fiction market is trending toward some readily familiar genres, such as contemporary fiction, crime, and thrillers. In nonfiction, self-help is big. The children’s sector is dominated by non-Indian authors JK Rowling and Jeff Kinney, and there’s a good trade in YA.
The big issue, a point of much discussion in Delhi last week, is pricing. The market in India doesn’t support book prices comparable to those in the US or EU, and the average book price has slightly declined in recent years to around $4.75 (about 308 rupees) for a print title. Nevertheless, reading is big in India in comparison to other entertainment, with print coming in at three times the size of the film industry in terms of income (despite Bollywood) and six times bigger than the country’s music industry.
Bottom line: This may be a good time to explore online sales in India through Amazon.in, especially given the continuing increase in smartphone usage in India: “The smartphone industry in India is a growing market, with around 36 percent of all Indian mobile users expected to own a smartphone by 2018”; “this increase in smartphone penetration in India is mirrored by the fact that India’s share of the global smartphone market is forecast to more than triple between 2013 and 2017 to reach over 10 percent.” We think this means that ebooks may begin to gain traction in the Indian market. In ebooks, of course, lower pricing is easier to handle. It’s a tough market, no question, but one worth watching in terms of getting the most out of your English-language content.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
