Amazon set to publish Bhagat’s next 6 books
Amazon Publishing, a unit of online retail giant Amazon.com Inc., has won the rights to publish the next six books by author Chetan Bhagat in a deal that is being billed as a coup in the world of Indian writing in English. Financial details of the deal haven’t been disclosed by the publisher and author.
“Usually, Indian authors head West to look for international publishers,” said the 44-year-old Bhagat, the first Indian author to be signed by the global publisher, which was founded in 2009 .” It’s exciting to see the West coming to us.” Bhagat, an investment banker-turned-author, made his debut in 2004 with Five Point Someone, a story of three Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) students, and has since published nine books (seven novels and two non-fiction books) with Rupa Publications so far. Each has been a bestseller. Kapish Mehra, managing director of Rupa Publications, said he did not have a comment to make on the Amazon deal.
“It’s always a positive development for the publishing industry to have long-term book deals and I wish Chetan all the best for this,” said Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and director of the Jaipur Literature Festival.
Under the deal with Amazon, Bhagat, an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, will write three fictional and three non-fictional titles in the next five years. The first novel, currently in its editing stage, is set for publication in October. “It’s different; expect the unexpected,” the author said. The non-fiction titles will feature Bhagat’s essays and columns on issues concerning young rurban Indians, whom he is seen as representing. Each book will be published as a paperback, e-book and audio book.
“It’s challenging to make people read in today’s times, when you can easily get distracted by social media and digital technology,” Bhagat told HT in an interview before addressing a press conference. “These innovative platforms help.” The books will be translated into many Indian languages by the Indian publisher Westland, owned by Amazon. The translations will be released as close to the English launch dates as possible.
Westland will handle the books’ distribution in India, both online and offline. The books will, of course, be available on Amazon, whose global arm will distribute the books to Englishspeaking markets around the world, with special focus on the US and UK. “We want them to reach as many readers as possible across the world and multiple formats allow us to do that,” says Jeffery Belle, vice-president of Amazon Publishing. The company plans to experiment with Bhagat’s non-fictional content as novella-length short reads.