Concerns over sales of Tamil books
Posted on: 23/Apr/2013 6:53:06 PM
Writer and publishers of Tamil books have expressed concerns about the difficulty of selling a book. Reports say that it takes more than three and a half year to sell a thousand books.
R. Shanmugam of Tamil Nool Veliyeedu Matrum Nool Virpanai Membattu Kuzhumam says, ‘Publishing a book is easy. It costs just Rs. 30,000 but selling the copies is next to impossible unless they are by a popular author… At least half of the Tamil publishers depend on the State government’s libraries for sale of their books. The libraries have a quota for different kinds of publications and buy up to a thousand copies. Books including novels and popular poetry are sold but people don’t buy books on modern and ancient literature, literary criticism or short story collections.’
‘Social respect for authors too has gone down. There used to be a time when authors like my guru Na. Partharasathy and Ki. Va. Jagannathan used to attract big crowds like political leaders. The only way out, as I see it, is for schools and colleges to have libraries; marks must be given for reading books,’ says writer Tirupur Krishnan.
