http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=221480
Winning For A Cause The winner of the IYP award, held in Kolkata, has Dalit issues on his agenda Express News Service Kolkata, February 8: For the 34-year-old S Anand, winner of this year's Indian Young Publisher Award organised by the British Council, the much-coveted award has put him in a dilemma. "I had no idea the winner would have to go to England to participate in the International competition," says the young entrepreneur. Founder of the Navayana publishing house in Pondicherry, it is one of the few publishing houses that bring out books dealing with caste issues. "My friend and I realised that though there are few independent publishing houses that print issue-based books, there were not any that dealt with caste-based issues. To fill up the gap we decided to set up Navayana." Bride Groom India USA UK UAE Canada Australia Pakistan Saudi Arabia Kuwait South Africa 18 - 24 25 - 30 31 - 35 36 - 45 46 - 50 50+ Hindu - Assamese - Bengali - Gujarati - Hindi - Kannada - Malayalam - Marathi - Marwari - Oriya - Punjabi - Sindhi - Tamil - Telugu Muslim Christian Sikh Parsi Jain Buddhist Jewish Other No Religion Spiritual Though he knew nothing about publishing, coming from a journalism background, Anand learnt on the job. And soon Navayana was printing books like Dalits in Dravidian Land, by S Viswanathan and India Stinking by Gita Ramaswamy. "There is no place in the media for Dalits, according to a survey. We understand that publishing houses are driven by market forces and certain things are considered too political to be published. Yet there are issues that need to be brought out." What surprised the duo was the fact that they were not just printing a thousand copies but that six months later it was going for a re-print. This in the non-fiction category where if 700-800 copies were sold it is considered to have done well. Though there is a huge market, yet he feels that due to lack of marketing not too many are aware of these books. "Bookstores are aware of names like Jeffery Archer and really don't know where to place these books." At the International Young Publisher Award, he will be reading an extract from the works of Marathi poet Namdeo Dhasal, which they have published. The winner of the international award apart from winning a cash prize will get a chance to put up a stall, free of cost at the London Book Fair. "The money will be useful as it will be used for more publications," he sums up.
