The Indian textbook market scene — 2016-2021

Studies relating to the publishing industry, conducted at the end of 2015, have established this fact that there were about 21,000 book retailers and about 9,000 publishers in our country, out of which, 8,107 published books for schools, colleges and higher educational institutions. Educational books formed about 70% of the book market in our country, with the school and college books market valued at Rs 18,600-crore and Rs 5,600-crore respectively in 2013-14. As per the study, the K-12 books market was likely to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.6%, from Rs 27,170-crore in 2014-15 to Rs.54,190 crore by 2019-20, reasons being steady growth of literacy rate and diminishing drop-out rate in rural areas.

But this otherwise exciting story of textbook publishing in our country has now taken a grim turn with sales of many well-known publishers dropping as much as 50% compared to the last two fiscal years (2018-19).

The potential and the problem

The Indian publishing industry has tremendous potential but also faces some perennial problems like disorganised and cumbersome distribution networks, long credit cycles and on the top of it, piracy. These are and should be taken as major roadblocks for publishers. Once we are through with the on-going pandemic, we will catch up with overall growth of the market, which is encouraging for the existing as well as new players.

In the bookselling and publishing business, there are lots of challenges, which include the fragmented nature of publishing and bookselling, an unorganised distribution system, long credit cycles and fractured cash flows and these are the factors of increase in actual cost of any particular publication. Plus, the widespread piracy has put a major dent in the publishers’ earnings, so much so that even NCERT books have not escaped this menace. Recently, the Delhi Police busted such a widespread piracy racket who have published school textbooks published by NCERT and were selling the books printed on cheap paper at less than 50% cost of the NCERT published books.

Keeping the cost factor in mind, besides slow in-flow of cash due to the long credit system many of the publishers, I believe, more than 70%, out of about 9,000 publishers all over India, have digitised their content to produce eBook versions. The users of smartphones and eReaders have the advantage of accessing the digital content of the textbooks. A very small segment of consumers has shown a liking to digital textbooks, and there is a definite trend into changing preferences for eBooks and handheld devices for the digitised content.

About 55% of trade in the books industry is of English books, whereas books in Hindi touch close to 35% of other Indian language sales.

The changing scenario

A few years back, it felt amazing to be able to walk into a bookstore, hold on to a book, read through a few pages in a comfortable coffee counter area, and then only take home that exciting read. But now visiting a book store has become a niche experience, as more people are buying books online.

The fact is, in the last three years, almost 55% of the business of the bookstores has diminished and many of the popular bookstores have closed their establishments or have cut down on staff and closed the coffee counters as very few book buyers visit bookstores. All through the country, many airport bookstores have closed the units or are selling newspapers, newsmagazines or periodicals only.

However, consumer data surveyed by various agencies have shown a trend that on an average people read books 2.1 times a week while nearly two thirds read books occasionally. Interestingly, 56% of the readers bought at least one eBook a year and nearly half of these bought at least 3-4 books a year, indicating a growing demand for digital books in the last five years.

The opportunities

Over the last few academic years, experts of book marketing have felt that the educational book market in India has a huge potential and is poised for growth, offering many investment opportunities. The key indicators fuelling this growth include improvements in the literacy rate, gross enrolment ratio in rural areas and a reduction in drop-out rate, plus initiatives like Right to Education, increased government funding and encouraging awareness of the value of books and reading through book fairs, etc. It is believed that the Indian book market is likely to grow at 19.6% from Rs 22.7 billion in late 2015 to Rs 41.9 billion by 2020 to 2021.

Yet another factor which has created enhanced demand for textbooks and other aid books is the entry of the private sector in establishing schools and universities. I believe these institutions are providing quality education, and the infrastructure has undoubtedly helped raise the general level and variety of educational opportunities, which has helped many students tap rapidly emerging and evolving domestic as well as global career opportunities.

The government’s trend towards private participation in education is changing. There is a greater acceptance of the private sector in almost all areas that were once restricted to government enterprises, such as power, telecoms, airlines, etc. Even in the education sector, a start has been made by seeking the help of the private sector in introducing computer-aided learning in government and aided schools, outsourcing teacher training to the private sector – which has helped online teaching all around the nation in all schools in the last two years, during the lockdown period. However, all these steps have helped a lot to boost the lost business of almost all the publishers who were involved in the textbook and aid book publishing for the schools, colleges and university level students.

During the years 2020 and 2021, there is a strong built-up by environment experts, activists, and strategists besides various governments all over the globe, especially for saving trees to reduce the use of paper which has enhanced the demand for eBooks by all the segments, may it be students from school or college level or even from advanced study groups. Publishers being subjected to infringement of copyright cases by content providers is restraining the growth of the eBook market. In June 2020, four major book publishers filed suits against the Internet Archive, because of copyright violations relating to their open library project. Publishers who filed the suit are Penguin, Random House, Harper Collins, Wiley and Hachette.

Earlier eBooks were popular with light fiction readers for entertainment but during Covid lockdown, physical books were sidelined initially due to closed bookstores as well as shipping delays from online retailers. The sale of eBooks surged as readers turned to more convenient and immediate delivery.

The importance of books

Come what may, books are an important medium for the development and promotion of human values and will remain a catalyst for the nation. Books communicate knowledge, impart education and values. As we know, our country is the top seventh publishing hub of the world. The publishing industry of India is ranked seventh in the world with an estimated market of Rs 10,900-crore. Moreover, with the coming of the digital age, the working and operational system has and is changing with steady and rapid pace.

The textbook market in our country is dominated by government agencies. Prior to the setting up of the NCERT in 1961, the textbook market in our country was dominated by a handful of foreign publishers. Currently, the government controls NCERT, state textbook boards, NBT, and Publication Division, all combined making the government the largest textbook publisher in the country.

The present government has allowed 100% FDI to publishing houses across the country to make India a publication hub by utilising the vast English-speaking technical manpower to publish overseas school/college textbooks, because of the cost-factor which is beneficial and competitive of the overseas publishing industry.

One economical and beneficial factor that happened during 2018-end to 2021 is that most of the student community from school to college levels in urban as well as rural areas became computer, or let us say, digitally aware and literate due to online teaching.

Overall, the publishing industry in India is not a depressing state of affairs, at all, rather, we see that it is marching forward to become one of the world’s hubs of publishing, both in physical as well as digital publishing — digital because we have prowess of information technology and computer experience and English language skills.