There is no dearth of quality writing by authors in Goa, the
process of printing and publishing books is also made into a smooth sailing
with Goan publishing houses. Publishers have been very encouraging to the
writers and this has created a base of books ranging from different themes
based on Goa. However, with the increase in GST on printed products, publishers
will have to selective with their works. Several publishers are reeling under
the pressure of saving the reading habit in Goa.
Sapna Sardessai runs a publishing and
advertising business called Printer’s Devil in Porvorim since 2003. She has
brought to light several books especially encouraging women writers. During
Covid, she feels that there was a significant drop in retail sales but online
sales were as usual. During lockdown were readers opting for e-books? “That is
a choice. Personally, I need to feel a book and read it,” says Sapna. “The new
18 percent increase in GST is very unfair. As a publisher, I am neither able to
claim input/reversal nor offset expenses through book sales. We are left with
no choice but to increase the marked rate on the books which again curtails our
sales. Besides, the Royalty paid to the Authors incurs a 12 percent GST! This
blanket increase hasn’t helped post Covid business at all,” adds Sapna.
She agrees that Goan writers are coming
forth to publish their books after Covid. “Writers don’t consider sales or
royalties when they write books as much as publishers do, when they publish
books,” she adds. The most recent books by Printer’s Devil are ‘Tales in the
Pandemic’ by Rehana Timble and ‘Leading the Pack’ by Dr Zubin D’Souza. The next
books will be ‘Fathers are Forever’, ‘From Antarctica to Zimbabwe’ and ‘Dharma
of a Leader’.
President of Dalgado Konknni Akademi, Vincy Quadros, is proud of
the numerous schemes available by the academy to encourage young writers to
publish books in Konkani. However, he is disheartened to know that GST has
increased from 12 percent to 18 percent within such a short time. “This is a
huge loss for Dalgado Konknni Akademi (DKA) as we are not covered under this
GST. Instead of charging extra cost on the book, on the contrary, we offer a 40
percent discount for readers. Instead of buying the book at the bookstall, if
the reader walks into our office in Panjim, they are given the discount,” says
Vincy.
In this year, Dalgado Konknni Akademi has published ‘Hanv
Ghovachi Bail’ by Anthony Menezes, ‘Pan-Gholl’ by Guadalupe Dias was also
financed by DKA. The next book will be ‘When Goa Celebrates’ by Fr Apollonario
Cardozo. A prolific writer himself, Vincy, release his book on poetry,
‘Ponnsulam’ and ‘Kallokh’ a tiatr. His other books which are ready to be
released are ‘Mennvati’ a book on poetry and ‘Ramponn’, a book on essays.
Margao based Leonard Fernandes of CinnamonTeal Publishers has
been in the publishing business since 2007 and has noticed different trends
that affects the industry. He is also quick to adapt to the needs of the
authors by being one of the first publishing houses to provide self publishing
and now, the option of print-on-demand. Besides the increase in GST, Leonard
feels there are many factors that are affecting the printing and publishing
world, “Besides GST, there is a shortage of printing paper. Paper has to be
imported from China as Indian manufacturers don’t have enough paper. The cost
of paper has increased by 40-50 percent. Readers may or may not have power to
absorb the costs. But publishers are not ready to increase cost of books by too
much,” says Leonard.
With just three percent of e-books sale in India, he explains
that the readers faced screen fatigue by reading on their devices. “The privacy
laws on e-books are ineffective in India. E-book consumption percentages have
remained almost constant. there was some increase during the pandemic as people
stayed indoors and did not venture out to buy book, but e-books consumption
rates are now only slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels,” says Leonard, who
can print-on-demand a book, within a week, if it’s file is ready.
Rama Harmalkar from Bicholim has been in the printing industry
for 27 years and is now a part of Qurate, one of India’s leading platforms for
self publishing. They recently released Kishore Shah’s ‘Together Agile’. “A
book is not free of tax, there is 18 percent for labour and 12 percent for
paper. The book cost will also increase to recover from the raw material. With
the increase in the book price, the writers will have less sale of the book.
The advantage of having books on different versions like e-books have a wider
reach. People can buy the book and with the print-on-demand option, the book
will be printed and shipped to the client within 2-3 days. The book can b
shipped to any part of the world,” says Rama.
A journalist and the founder of the publishing house based in
Goa, Goa 1556, Frederick Noronha, explains the challenges to the world of books
is not coming just from Covid, but from a series of diverse difficulties the
sector has been facing. “Demonetisation, GST, now a phenomental 18 percent on
printing, a needless struggle to get ISBN numbers and the overall inflation are
some of these. There’s poor library support in Goa. The few government policies
have also not been keeping up with inflation and staying stagnant over the last
decade or more. During the pandemic, more than the sale of books, we have been
struggling with getting out the books. In the past few months, there has been a
slight upswing. But this comes after the damage has been done. Till a few years
back, the Indian book market was looking very upbeat. Now, sad to say, a lot of
things are coming unstuck,” says Frederick.
Elaborating on the effect the increase of GST on the industry,
he says, “GST at 12 percent on printing was bad enough. Now, at 18 percent,
it’s really outrageous, and has been pushing up costs significantly. This has
led to overall inflation on book pricing. We are unable to keep our books at reasonable,
even low prices, as we long tried to do. More than the cost aspect, it’s the
principle involved. Should information and knowledge be taxed (so heavily that
too) via printing? In addition to this, there has also been hikes and spurts in
paper prices. This too adds to the cost of printing.”
On the upside, writers are still optimistic about bringing out
their books, “There seems to be a spurt of books waiting to be published,
possibly also because writers used the Covid period to complete their work. But,
if Goa wants to do justice to producing books important to it, it needs to do
much more. The State, readers, libraries, booklovers, academicians, besides the
publishers and authors, will all need to work to sort out this challenge. On
the positive side, the pent-up Covid creative energies also seems to be showing
up in the form of some good books emerging. The Pustakachem Fest organized by
artist Clarice Vaz and author-designer Bina Nayak, at the Saligao Institute was
surprisingly successful, of course they put in a lot of hard work. Cyberspace,
including WhatsApp groups, is helping significantly to promote awareness about
books in Goa, and about Goa. Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding could offer
options. Some out of print books are getting permission to be re-released as
free e-books,” he adds.
The
most recent books, published by Goa 1556 include ‘Goa’s Inquisition — Facts,
fiction, factoids’ by Alan Machado (Prabhu), ‘Trailblazers’ by Dr Fatima da
Silva Gracias, ‘Once Upon a Time in Goa’ by Joaquim Correia and ‘Symphony of
Passion’ by journalist Melvyn Misquita. “A short while ago, we assisted in
three Konkani books, poet Ramesh Ghadi’s earthy voices from rustic Goa, and two
of Sunetra Jog’s translation of Sudha Murty’s books into Konkani. Some e-books were
also created or converted in this period,” says Frederick. “Our plans are
another Konkani work, and two books dealing with Indo-Portuguese themes and the
crucial transitions in the 20th century. There’s one book of academic writing
which attempts to make complex ideas accessible to the common reader,” he
concludes.
