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Westland publishing closure comes as shock to authors, book lovers
Westland Books publishing house, which was founded in 1962 got acquired by Amazon in 2017. In a recent development, it has been decided to shut down the publishing company, which has left the authors and book lovers feeling disappointed.
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The closure of Westland Books, a prominent English-language trade publisher of fiction and non-fiction books in India, has come as a shock to not only authors but even bibliophiles across the country. Some of the bestselling authors of Westland include names such as Amish Tripathi, Chetan Bhagat, Ashwin Sanghi, Devdutt Pattanaik, Ashok Banker, Rujuta Diwekar, and Preeti Shenoy.
“My first novel was published with Westland in 2008 and I have gone on to publish a dozen books with them over a dozen years,” says author Ashwin Sanghi, adding: “It is sad to see the exit of a publishing institution. The Westland team is one of the finest in the business and there are many emotions and memories of my publishing journey with them that shall always remain with me.”
Author Preeti Shenoy shares, “I’m extremely shocked and saddened. Seven of my books are with Westland, and they are all doing extremely well. I had a wonderful relationship with them. I really wish something could be done since this is such a huge blow to the publishing industry.. Pandemic did play a role to some extent but I never expected this. Westland had some fabulous titles that they have published. It is a decision made by Amazon. How can authors or anyone else fight it?”
“Amazon deciding to shut Westland is a major blow to the reading world, which is already contracting in this world of digital content,” says Kunal Gupta, business consultant and founder of Delhi Book Lovers Club. He adds: Westland always came up with superior titles and best sellers. The readers would miss their quality content. I hope this news doesn’t create a catastrophe in the publishing industry and the existing publishers continue to publish quality books.”
A fan of Amish Tripathi’s works, Amit Rajani, a finance manager with a Mumbai-based company says, “I’m disappointed to hear the news and worried where will I now get to read Amish’s work? Mythology is a favourite genre and Amish’s work is quite captivating . I’ve read pretty much all all of his Shiva trilogy and even Rama series... It’s a bit surprising that they are shutting down the entire publication house because they were publishing good authors.”
And Radhika Suryavanshi, another book lover, who works with a Mumbai-based NGO, adds: “This is very disheartening to hear. Especially for someone who couldn’t keep their mythology titles down without finishing them. I genuinely wonder if this shut down is going to make the availability my favourite genre difficult again!”
Author tweets @HennaRakheja
