New Delhi: 'Crossing Currents', a two-day conference, looked at how literary content was being produced, packaged, sold and consumed differently in the world of increasing digitisation as interest in the new media publishing is growing in India.
The conference, part of an annual 'Globalocal' initiative, was organised by the German Book Office in the capital and the Frankfurt Book Fair in the run up to the fair in 2012, the German Book Office said in a statement Friday. Addressing the conference which ended Friday, Jurgen Boos, president of the Frankfurt Book Fair, said: "India currently finds itself in a unique position as it shifts into the spotlight of the media world. It is one of the largest English-speaking markets in the world."
He said "print runs of books are increasing, even as interest is growing in digital publishing". "The simultaneity of the non-simultaneous is nowhere more evident than here in India - and this is true of both the current state of publishing and looking forward. The Frankfurt Book Fair has already shown that we are currently experiencing an unprecedented shift in the book industry. "On the one hand, the value chain is breaking apart at various points. At the same time, the industry is reinventing itself,as are its authors, editors, translators, publishers and those who produce books"" he said.
He said the literary fraternity was packing up its proverbial belongings and setting forth into a new era of publishing. "They are leaving behind familiar terrain and venturing into new territorie"," he said. Delivering the keynote address at the conference, writer and politician Shashi Tharoor said the subject of the conference - 'Crossing Currents' - had intrigued him.
He spoke of his personal journey wit' 'the bo'k', how when he was young and asthmatic, reading was his only and best entertainment. Since then, there has been a sea change in terms of what is available for entertainment, the MP said. Though the digital variety must pose quite a challenge for publishers, Tharoor said publishers should not see it as such, but rather that all the new technology can only enhance the reader experience. The conference was also addressed by Holger Volland, the head of the digital initiative of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
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