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Indian publishers dominate Sharjah book fair

Sharjah - 11-day Sharjah International Book Fair to end today.

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The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) has grown. But the growth is not only on visitors' count. Publishers, literary events and the number of authors attending the fair have also seen an increase.

A Record breaker As many as 1,000 copies of the book of a debutant author is brought in for the fair and get sold out in the first three days. The publisher goes back to the home country, prints that many copies and opens a special pavilion for that book at the fair. UAE-based author Shemi's autobiographical novel 'Nadavazhiyile Nerukal' is likely to break many records at the Sharjah International Book Fair. Nadavazhiyile Nerukal received a surprising welcome for a book with over 600 pages. It's likely to be the book with most number of copies sold on a single day. As per initial estimates, Shemi is the writer who signed most number of books at the Sharjah fair. The book tells the touching tale of hardships faced by a girl who grew up on the streets, but pursued her studies. Shemi, a nurse by profession, has offered the royalty of the book to the children on streets. DC Books, publisher of Nadavazhiyile Nerukal has opened a special pavilion for the book, seeing the overwhelming demand. Last time a special pavilion opened for a single author was for former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam's books. -anuwarrier@khaleejtimes.com

However, the growth is more among the Indian community in the UAE and abroad participating in the fair according to several visitors and participants. Among publishers from 64 countries, India is at the helm with 112 publishers. In terms of footfall, book sales, events, authors' attendance and titles at the fair, the Indian community has become a decisive factor.
"While prominent book fairs across the world are facing difficulties, the Sharjah International Book Fair has been registering tremendous growth in the past seven years. Increasing participation of Indian publishers and writers is a major factor that contributes to this growth," said Mohan Kumar, External Affairs Coordinator of the book fair. Kumar thinks the growth began after the organisers visited the New Delhi Book Fair and invited Indian publishers and authors to Sharjah.
"From about three to five Indian publishers before 2008, now there are 112 publishers. And majority of them are from the South Indian state of Kerala. All major Malayalam publishing houses have their stalls at the Sharjah book fair," says Ravi DC, CEO of DC Books in Kerala, who is also coordinating the participation of Indian publishers and authors at the fair. "We started with a single stall in 2008. And now DC Books has more than 40 stalls at the fair. Sales also have increased manifold," says Ravi.

Lack of Pakistani presence Despite being the second largest community in the UAE, the presence of Pakistan at the Sharjah book fair is nominal. Kumar says the main reason behind that is the dearth of support for Pakistani publishers from the government and lack of coordination among publishers. "Compared to India, the publishing industry in Pakistan is still at the growth stage and publishers don't receive government support for such participations. We are keen to have more publishers and authors from Pakistan at the Sharjah book fair in the coming years, hope to satisfy the readers from Pakistan too, says Kumar.-anuwarrier@khaleejtimes.com

Along with book titles, literary events also have an Indian domination. This year's fair witnessed more than 60 book releases, and most of them were Indian books, says Kumar. "There were books written by UAE-resident Indian writers and we are still receiving requests from publishers and writers for book releases."
From the visitors' side, Indians see the fair as a one-stop annual event to buy their favourite books. Afsal says he is a regular visitor. "This has become an annual festival for me. I meet a lot of friends, my favourite writers, attend literary events and buy books. Here, I feel like I am at some literary event back home."
A first-time participant at the fair as a publisher, Mathew Antony of the Kerala Shasthra Sahithya Parishad is excited about the event. "Ours is a popular science movement in Kerala and we publish science books in Malayalam. We never expected we would have this many customers here in Sharjah as science books are not so easy to sell. We were skeptical to bring a lot of books. But now we are confident as almost all the books are sold out."
Indian English writers also get a good reception at the fair. "Be it Chetan Bhagat, Amish or Shashi Tharoor in previous editions of the fair or Subroto Bagchi or Durjoy Dutta in this edition ... the halls are always full," adds Mohan.
anuwarrier@khaleejtimes.com

Teenage authors
The Sharjah International Book Fair also witnessed release of books published by three UAE-based students.
Rida Jaleel, a Grade 12 student, brought out her first fiction 'What Lies Beyond' at the fair while Fidha Labeeb, a Grade 8 student had a collection of her 24 poems released at a function. Titled Floresencia, the book is the first from Fidha. The third student author Maria Vincent,  another 12^th grade student named his book 'My Words and Thoughts.'