The Enterprising Writer

Pankaj Kurulkar represents a somewhat unlikely combination of a serious author and an ambitious entrepreneur. A trained hardware engineer, a veteran Marathi author and playwright, Kurulkar, has been writing novels and short stories for more than 20 years now. Some of which have even won (Marathi) literary awards like the Maharashtra Shasan Puraskar. His latest venture initiated in August 2008, is Granthayan, the books-on-wheels project. A unique book distribution network that constitutes a number of mobile book vans in order to provide readers even in the smaller districts of Maharashtra with adequate books. In an e-mailed interview with BW Online's Alokita Datta, Kurulkar talks about the problems in the publishing industry, plight of the regional writers and the need to make publishing a level playing field for writers, language notwithstanding.

What is the idea behind launching Granthayan?
Out of 35 districts in Maharashtra, there are no bookshops for Marathi books in 22 districts. This is a pathetic situation in the so-called developed state of Maharashtra. In Marathi, 1,000 copies of serious books are not sold for years together. The royalty a serious writer like me gets from writing is thus not more than a few thousand per year. A writer has to depend on something else for his earnings. Most of his time is spent on earning for himself and his family. One cannot devote serious time to writing. This is true for most of the Indian regional language authors and needs to be changed.

We certainly have quality writers in various languages but they cannot dream of winning any major world famous literary award like the Booker, Pulitzer or the Nobel Prize because their writings are not translated into English and no proper marketing is done for them. There is a need to take care of our languages and culture. We are not against English, but we should not forget our roots. This is the main cause for starting Granthayan. We need to change the entire Indian publishing industry and book distribution model.

How does the system of delivering books function from both your end and the customer's?
We sell books in three ways. We sell them online, in a typically Amazon.com way. One can pay us through credit card and ask for free delivery anywhere in Maharashtra. In addition to English we sell books in Marathi as well. These are the two advantages over Amazon.com. In three years, we plan to sell books in 22 Indian regional languages along with English and Hindi. The model will remain the same. We will continue to provide free delivery of books. This huge cost is and will be absorbed by us.

We also sell books through our call centre. A toll free number is provided to the end reader in Maharashtra. Any reader can call us on this toll free number and order the books in Marathi and English. Again we deliver the books at the customer's doorstep without any delivery charges. Thirdly, there are the mobile bookshops. We have purchased Tata trucks and converted them into bookshops. Each bookshop can have 20,000 books for display and storage. These mobile bookshops comprise books in Marathi and English on various subjects.
 

Is there a schedule wherein the mobile book shops are stationed at certain points to allure interested customers?
There is no fixed scheduled for the mobile bookshop to be stationed at a particular place. It all depends on business. If we get a good response at particular spot, we don't mind staying there for a longer time. Normally we are there at any particular spot at least for a couple of days.

Could you elaborate your employment structure and the initial investment in the project?
Right now there are 60 people working in Granthayan. We have made an initial investment of approximate Rs 3 crores. We are expecting annual returns in tune of 20-25 per cent including publishing and distribution together. We are open for partnerships but then one need to illustrate it in detail. We are ready to dilute our stake upto 20 per cent for rapid expansion

As a well established author did your experience with the processes of book publications, marketing and retail have a bearing on the design of this project?
Yes, I have been writing for the last 24 years in Marathi and since the last couple of years in English as well. My experience writing in Marathi remains poor and heart breaking. It was this experience that fuelled my desire to change the parameters of the publishing industry.

Was there any particular reason for choosing to start writing in English, post your extensive contribution to Marathi literature?
There are valid reasons for shifting from Marathi to English. For a few thousand awards there is a great politics in terms of religion, caste and also the place where you belong. As a society we don't believe in giving importance to merit (of literature) but are worse than politicians, always giving importance to factors other than the quality of writing. So, I consciously decided not to write from India but only from abroad.

While targeting a wider audience that covers smaller towns and cities along with the metropolitans, does the books-on-wheels initiative also avail a more varied selection of books?
Yes, we have more than 4,000 titles in Marathi and English. Normally we keep 70 per cent of the books in Marathi and 30 per cent in English. These titles range from fiction and classics to varied subject on self-help like health, cookery, sports, psychology, etc.

We are not just Marathi professionals but we would like to start this project very soon in other states and other regional languages along with English and Hindi.

Do you feel that that the promotion and distribution of books in India is lopsided, especially with regard to non English literature?
Yes, certainly. In fact English books are also available in Maharashtra only in certain districts like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Nashik, and Aurangabad. They are not accessible in small towns and districts. The English reading population and literacy rate is going up in every part of the country and we are not providing them the necessary knowledge and information through books.

Does your network of publishers primarily include regional publishing houses?
It includes regional publishing houses along with English books distributors and publishers.

How has the response to the project been so far?
Granthayan was inaugurated by Maharashtra's Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on 27 August 2008. Since then, the response has been fabulous, particularly in small towns across Maharashtra where bookshops are not there. It is also doing well in big cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, and Kolhapur.

Could you tell us a little bit about your forthcoming projects, both as an entrepreneur and novelist?
We have started our own publishing house in Marathi as well. Twenty authors in Marathi are already with Granthayan in its first month itself. We are going to start publishing their work from January 2009. Very soon we will start in English too. We are paying 30 per cent royalty to our authors, (an amount nobody pays in India), twice in a year. We are also entering into a legal agreement, which is happening for first time in Marathi and may be even in Indian regional languages. So far, most of the deals have been oral or at the most on a piece of paper, which doesn't carry any meaning in court. Authors are generally never paid on time and never showed the true sales by the publishers. We are fully automated. All our bookshops are connected to our central server and daily sales are known to us author wise, publisher wise and title wise. We thus have a very open and transparent system. I belong to the IT culture which is very much a part of this open culture.

I am currently writing a novel in English, which is supposed to get published from the US. I could not pay attention to my writing since January 2008 because of Granthayan.

alokita.datta@gmail.com