The Indian publishing industry is thriving with a wave of new publishers, international contracts, and authors but the average Indian reader and first-time author knows very little about the intricacies of the publishing process. In an attempt to bridge this gap between readers, writers, editors and publishers, Bound announces the release of a path-breaking project, Bound’s Ultimate Publishing Toolkit consisting of ‘The Book People’ podcast and ‘Demystifying Indian Publishing: Bound’s Industry Insights and Predictions 2021’ report on 18 March 2021.
Both the initiatives will serve as an incredible resource for learning how books are made, the people who work behind the scenes, existing and rapidly changing industry trends in the Indian publishing industry.
‘The Book People’ is a 13-episode podcast exploring Indian publishing through the eyes of the people who work in it. Each episode will include series-host Aishwarya Javalgekar in a conversation with an industry expert about their role, experience and opinions about the industry and its future. Prominent guests include Ishani Butalia (Zubaan Books), Sayantan Ghosh (S&S India), Harshad Marathe (Designer), to name a few.
Packed with industry insights and fun book conversations, each episode in the series will be released every Thursday, starting 18 March 2021.
‘Demystifying Indian Publishing: Bound’s Industry Insights And Predictions 2021’ is a comprehensive research report based on the team’s experience and inputs from leading professionals such as publishers, editors, authors, and bookstore owners. It aims to highlight industry trends of the last decade, the significant changes during the pandemic and predictions for the future. The research was led and authored by Megha Jha, with Tara Khandelwal and Aishwarya Javalgekar as co-authors.
Announcing the two new initiatives, Tara Khandelwal, founder of the Mumbai-based literary company said, ‘I started Bound because I noticed a lack of infrastructure for creative people to learn and form communities in India. Creative and artistic fields like writing, podcasting, etc. have always struggled to be taken seriously, but with a growing audience waiting to consume content across platforms, writers and storytellers of all kinds are more important than ever before. Our interactions with writers during our retreat, classes and services revealed the sheer lack of information available about books and publishing in India.’
‘In the last 6 months, we have combined our experience and extensive primary and secondary research to create two comprehensive projects that make publishing transparent and accessible to everyone: content creators, curators and consumers. With ‘Demystifying Indian Publishing: Bound’s Industry Insights and Predictions 2021’, a guidebook to publishing: including a step-by-step breakdown of the publishing process, we analyze the latest industry trends and developments and offer predictions about the future. With ‘The Book People’, they can get to know the people working behind the scenes, and understand their roles and opinions about the industry. We hope that together these projects will demystify publishing for writers, readers, aspiring professionals, and people and organizations working in and around publishing’, she added.
Aishwarya Javalgekar, the podcast-host, commented, ‘As a writer, reader and an editor, I found the publishing and literary world to be an echo-chamber, with conversations that were inaccessible to me due to lack of context or data. There was no information available on how to get published or work in the industry. ‘The Book People’ is my attempt to show that behind all the processes and data and lack of information are real people with a love for stories and books. Just like the audience, I want to understand what they do and how they feel about books and publishing.’
Lead report researcher Megha Jha reflected, ‘By the age of eight, I knew that I wanted to be a writer. Yet, beyond pouring my heart out on a piece of paper, I didn’t know what else it took to become one. After years of personal research and experiences, I came to the conclusion that it takes plenty of things. What do editors look for in a manuscript? How do I reach out to publishers? Which publishing houses are operating in India? What do people want to read? And the list goes on. ‘Demystifying Indian Publishing: Bound’s Industry Insights And Predictions 2021′ is a research report where I have collated this data with the hope that a fellow writer will be able to gain from it.’
ABOUT BOUND
Bound is a company that creates stories and helps individuals and brands tell their stories. We host India’s most popular literary podcast and offer end-to-end exclusive writing services like personalised mentorships and writing retreats. We have worked with authors like Anmol Malik, Lavanya Lakshminarayan and Goutam Das. We are a small team of young and passionate changemakers. If there’s a gap in the creative industries, a problem that needs to be solved, or a book that needs to be read, we are always ready for the challenge!
ABOUT THE TEAM
Tara Khandelwal is an editor and the founder of Bound. With over 9 years of experience in publishing, she has worked at companies such as BloombergQuint, HarperCollins, Penguin India and SheThePeople.TV. She has graduated with a degree in Economic History from Barnard College, Columbia University, an MSc in Management from Imperial College and is an alumna of the Columbia University Publishing Course.
Aishwarya Javalgekar is the Head of Content at Bound. She has a Masters in English (Public Texts) and a Certificate in Book Publishing. She is a writer and editor with internships at Simon and Schuster Canada and Zubaan Books, India under her belt. She loves reading genre-bending stories and running her feminist zine, ang(st).
Megha Jha is a writer, researcher and the Head of Brand Strategy and Communication at Bound. She has a Bachelors in Journalism and Mass Communication from Amity University, Mumbai. She has pursued internships at Penguin Random House India, Juggernaut Books, DSSC Idea Labs and Verve Magazine in the past.