Penguin India to Publish in Languages Other Than English

Amardeep Singh: "Via Literary Saloon: Penguin India is going to start publishing books in Indian languages. The representative for Penguin quoted in the article says the Indian book market has the potential to grow dramatically. "

Penguin Focuses on Indian Market: "Penguin is stepping up its attack on the growing Indian market with a local language program, the first non-English publishing from the 70-year-old house.

Penguin India will publish four Hindi titles in April, including Hamara Hissa, an anthology of contemporary Hindi stories edited by Arun Prakash, and Shakuntala: The Play of Memory (Shakuntala: Smriti Jaal) by Namita Gokhale.

It will begin publishing in Marathi and Malayalam later this year, and is planning 25 titles in each of the three languages this year with similar output for the next two to three years. It plans to move into more Indian languages from 2006, and claims it is the first U.K. publisher to publish in regional Indian languages.

Penguin India president Thomas Abraham is predicting a "phenomenal growth curve" for Indian publishing. He estimates the Indian book market at $823m (£438m) with imports of around $36m (£19m), but Abraham believes the market has massive further potential.

The books will be a mixture of titles written originally in regional languages, regional language translations of some of Penguin India's English list's bestselling fiction and non-fiction titles, and translations of books from Penguin Group companies worldwide. Also, books from the publishers it represents in India such as Faber, Bloomsbury, Time Warner Books Group UK and BBC Worldwide, will be considered.

Forthcoming highlights for the new publishing program will be translations of Arundhati Roy's An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire and Shobhaa Dé's Spouse: The Truth About Marriage.

The books will cost between $3.30 (£1.75) and $4.15 (£2.20). Abraham said.

Abraham believes Penguin India has an advantage in that there is no single Indian publisher with its national presence. Current head count in India is 72 and there are no plans to take on more staff until the new initiative has "a proven track record."

The initiative comes a month after Makinson revealed an approximately $69 million (£37m) drop in profits for Penguin Group worldwide and job losses and restructuring at Dorling Kindersley. He replaced Anthony Forbes Watson as Penguin chief executive in February."