In an effort to widen the reach of its publications and increase book sales, the Sahitya Akademi will go for online sale of books—both physical and electronic—through Amazon.
This will be for the first time in its 65 years of history, that Sahitya Akademi—India’s premier literary institution working with the Ministry of Culture— will be selling books published by it in 24 Indian languages online.
The Akademi, which has registered itself as vendor with Amazon, will begin with selling ten English titles, which will be available online from January 20. For electronic books, the Akademi has already had preliminary talks with Amazon teams from India and Singapore and will enter into partnership with for the production and sale of electronic books. The partnership is likely to happen soon.
“Our aim is to sell physical books via portals and also launch sale of electronic books.This is part of our commitment to carry best of Indian literature in different languages to masses. We will soon start selling printed books through our website and also Amazon for a wider reach and very soon e-books will follow,” Dr K Sreenivasa Rao the Akademi’s secretary told HT.
“On January 20, 2019 we will launch the sale of printed books through Amazon. First up will be 10 English titles. By March 31, 2019, we plan to sell 100 English and 50 Tamil titles. Hindi will follow soon. Our target is to sell at least 750 Akademi publications in different languages. By mid 2020, we plan to launch about 100 electronic books in partnership with the Amazon,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“On January 20, 2019 we will launch the sale of printed books through Amazon. First up will be 10 English titles. By March 31, 2019, we plan to sell 100 English and 50 Tamil titles. Hindi will follow soon. Our target is to sell at least 750 Akademi publications in different languages. By mid 2020, we plan to launch about 100 electronic books in partnership with the Amazon,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Among the titles, which will be available are popular books such as ‘Parva: A Tale of War, Peace, Love, Death, God and Man’ by S.L. Bhyrappa, ‘Bharata: The Natya Sastra’ by Kapila Vatsayan, ‘Myths, Legends and Literary Antiquities’ by Manoj Das, ‘History of Indian English Literature’ by M.K. Naik, ‘A Most Truthful Picture and Other Stories’ by Ashokamitran, ‘Tales of Tomorrow’ by Rana Nayar, and ‘Indian Short Stories – 1990-2000’ by E.V. Ramakrishnan.
The Sahitya Akademi publishes about 500 books annually in 24 languages and covers almost all the genres of literature—poetry, short stories, novels, anthologies, criticism, biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias and histories.
Most of Akademi’s gross annual turnover of upto Rs 3 crore is through direct publishing via book fairs, exhibitions and stalls.