‘Pandemic hit us hard’: publisher K P Nair

Veteran publisher KPR Nair, who was recently conferred the Golden Award by the Federation of Publishers and Booksellers’ Association, talks of the challenges of selling books in India

The pandemic impacted the publishing world in a big way. For months on end, bookstores remained closed. For a publisher to be conferred an award for contribution to the industry during such tough times, is laudable by itself.

When KPR Nair received the Golden Award by the Federation of Publishers and Booksellers’ Association in September, he marked 50 years of dedicated service to the industry, overcoming many a trough along the way. A self-effacing man, Nair started his journey alone. In 1987, he founded Konark Publishers and built it, brick by brick, book by book. Excerpts from an interview.

When I entered the industry in the early ‘70s, I did not understand the difference between the publishing industry and the book industry. I went through all the documents to inform myself. Publishing is extremely creative – you create content, work with the author/contributor to make a book. Those days English books were brought from abroad for marketing. I was part of it, and it gave me good grounding.

I worked with Lalwani Publishing House and Thomson Publication Pvt Ltd. My best time in the publishing industry was during my 13 years with Vikas Publishing House. They produced superb books, like the one by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ‘If I Am Assassinated’, ‘ All the Prime Minister’s Men’, ‘ All the Janta Men’, ‘ Jayaprakash Narayan: A Political Biography and Two Faces of Indira Gandhi, The Judgement by Kuldeep Nayar and many others. This was a golden period for the Indian publishing industry. Penguin was trying to make inroads into India then.

The pandemic hit us hard. Many publishing houses were closed down, and a number of them, like Oxford University Press (OUP), had to shut down divisions. Recently Westland and Sage followed suit.

During Covid, we suffered and are still suffering. I am putting in my money owing to my passion for book publishing. Many publishers who entered into it as a business have shut down divisions that were not profitable. The online market emerged in a big way and also affected the retail book industry. We are continuing. People in India like printed books more than Kindle books. We managed the crisis.

Academic books comprise 15% of the industry. The book industry is divided into three segments. The one still surviving is the school books segment, as there is a definite requirement for school books based on syllabi. Publishers like MacMillan, Oxford, and Orient Longman are continuing because schoolgoing readers are a big percentage of the buyers.