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Olivannan G, Founder of Emerald Publishers, said demand for literature in Indian languages has increased in recent times in international book fairs like Frankfurt. “People are willing to buy rights for Tamil books and translate to English. Malayalam and Bengali books findbuyers, thanks to availability of rights agents. Sadly, our industry lacks such resources,” he said.

In order to take the books to an international stage, Olivannan is starting an agency that will help publishers take their books to a larger platform. The publishers will have to invest close to ₹40,000 to translate one book. The cost will include finding prospective buyer, participation in international book fair, translation and contract fee.

Published on

November 17, 2016

LitFest showcases Chennai talent

The organisers of the Chennai Literary Festival have many reasons to cheer about on the success of the fifth edition of the festival. The twenty per cent increase in participation at the CLF is something phenomenal at a time when electric gadgets rule the roost.

The festival is an outcome of a strategic partnership between academic institutions and the citizens of the city. This annual festival is organized by a group of like-minded including academicians, social activists, professionals, businessmen, artists and publishers from Chennai and they host this event.

The University of Madras, its English department headed by Prof S Armstrong, play a pivotal role along with its constituent colleges and other academic colleges in the city.

The Chennai Literary Festival endeavours to create a confluence of literature and art forms. It is unique in many aspects as its core objective is to target potential young readers and it aims to inculcate and cultivate reading habits beyond their academics. The activities and events are designed towards achieving this objective and in providing right climate to kindle their interest in literature.

The uniqueness of CLF is the series of workshops conducted in parallel across various colleges on a range of subjects including literary theory, copy editing, film and literature, corporate grooming, journalistic writing, theatre, critical thinking, writing for a given scene, translation studies, storytelling, Dalit literature and poetry reading among others. Participation for students and the public are free. The fifth edition of the festival saw more than 3,000 students attending as many as 21 workshops conducted across 16 colleges in the city over three days. The participant count was 2,500 last year and the year before.

Today, there is an urge among students to acquire new skill sets, and in the quickest possible way. The workshops were designed to cater to their requirements’, says RJ Kumaravel, President of the festival’s organising committee. Prof Mangayarkarasi, a key member and a faculty at Ethiraj College, says the wide variety of topics offered, provides students the opportunity to choose the one that they are interested in. ‘For the students, the workshops, unlike their mundane classes, create more opportunity for interaction and provide a platform to meet and share ideas with students of other city colleges’, Prof Armstrong, head of the department of English, University of Madras. What helps is that the workshops are free and open to all, says Latha Rajan, the past president of the festival committee.

The literary festival is conducted in two stages. First, the literary events like picture story writing, mono acting, story writing, literary Tableau (freeze a scene), Adzap, sing a story, stage a scene, dramatic monologue and so on were conducted at one college (this year at MGR Janaki Arts and Science College) few weeks prior to the festival. Each partner college takes responsibility for an event. They promote the event to other colleges; prepare the logistics for successful completion till judging the winners; the winners are awarded with certificates and cash prizes. Other participants are given certificates. ‘In the current festival in the events which were held on 9th December 2017, around 1500 students have participated. The second stage is a three-day event, that includes inaugural on the first day, workshops on the second day and the valedictory on the last day. This year the festival was held on 08, 09 and 10th January. To promote CLF, activities like Walkathon, Chennai Reads, Oratorical competition in Tamil were conducted’, Rajan adds.

The cross-pollination of ideas by eminent academicians and experts from different walks of life contributed to the success of the Literary Festival. The last day of the festival coincided with the inauguration of another prestigious event, the Chennai Book Fair; a logical continuation.

G Olivannan
Treasurer, Book Sellers and Publishers Association of South India and CEO, Emerald Publishers and Founder President, Chennai Literary Festival

Courtesy: Book Link, February 2018

Publisher G Olivannan speaks on Indian translations abroad

I

n this issue, Book Link catches up with the treasurer of the Book Sellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), G Olivannan, of Emerald Publishers. Founded in 1982 by MD Gopalakrishnan, who was the then Southern Regional Head at Blackie & Sons, Emerald Publishers began with publishing books pertaining to English Literature. Today, some of the big names like AMACOM, Hannacroix Creek and Barron’s have granted republishing license for their titles in India. Its CEO, G Olivannan is a regular visitor to the Frankfurt Book Fair since 2005 and also to the American Book Expo.

How many editions of the Frankfurt Book Fair have you taken part in? How has it changed over the years?

I have been regularly attending since the year 2005, except for two years in between, during which time I served as Rotary District Governor.

The very first time I attended, it was stunning—the magnitude at which the fair was organised and the logistics involved. I realised that it was not just another book fair, but a unique conglomeration of people from every sphere of book industry. It was a new experience. The first fair was more an observation and learning for me.

In my subsequent visits, I understood the nuances of working with people. What I have learnt over the years is that, if we seek out business not many are keen to work with you; on the other hand, if we endeavour to build long-term friendships, it rewards us richly.

In this post-modern era, which Indian language sells best in languages other than English? And which foreign language gets translated into Indian languages more?

The Indian language which sells most are the ones which are introduced and marketed well in the national and international language. Being a national language and spoken by many, Hindi stands first. The other language through available information is Tamil, thanks to the huge Diasporas living in seventy countries around the world. Marathi, Malayalam and Bengali have traditionally strong reader base.

As far as translation from original into many Indian languages, we have a long way to go. The problem is that there are not enough direct translators available from one to another. English acts as a medium to translate from one Indian language to another. For example, if a book in Kannada needs to be translated into Tamil, very limited resources are available for direct translation. Largely, this is dependent on translation into English and then into other languages. At least people in South India should learn another Dravidian language in addition to their mother tongue.

English stands first when it comes to translation from foreign languages. Translations from foreign languages to Indian languages too have to come through English.

Do you really think self-publishing, vanity publishing and crowd funded initiatives will change /alter the traditional publishing ecosystem?

Yes. It will change to a great extent. The role of a publisher will be redefined. Innovation in printing technology makes it easier to publish a work.

Now Publishing can be made a more profitable business if we bring in innovation to our approach. Publishers can increase titles in their annual program and expand to different areas.

Publishers look out for different ways and means to accommodate budding authors. When the risk exposure is shared between the writer and publisher, a kind of joint venture is formed similar to in the real estate sector between land owner and builder. As long as it suits the parties concerned and a clear win-win model, I don’t think there is anything wrong in trying out different models.

When a physical book is digitised how important is it to give value-adds like animation, voice-overs. Do you think they enhance readability or make it easy to recollect?

Personally, I prefer to read printed books. Where it is impossible to reach out to printed ones, I read in my kindle. Be it in book form or digital, I prefer to read without any interruptions in the form of animation or voice-overs. Reading helps us to develop our visual thinking. If I read a passage, ‘in the train, unlike the past where conversation and reading would be predominant, today, everyone is engrossed in their smart phone’, my imagination would stretch out to the experiences I had in the train, and I would visualise. Similarly, another reader would imagine a scene based on his experience. Kindling one’s imagination is possible either by listening or reading. Animation should not be mixed with reading; it should altogether be a separate one.

Are we at a cross-roads? Looking at an alternate business model? What is the global scenario like?

The big worry which was predominant a few years ago was on the emergence of e-books and was perceived as cannibalising printed books. This worry has completely vanished. Interestingly, both have found their own space and coexist comfortably. Global scenario looks bright for publishing, with different models such as self-publishing, co-publishing, joint venture publishing and so on. Social media marketing and online book stores are real boon to reach out to the unreached. I feel bright sunny days are ahead for the publishing community.

Courtesy: Book Link, December 2017