KOCHI: As the curtains fell over the 9th edition of International Book Festival, doubts are being raised over the future of the festival. While the organisers continue to claim that the festival was a success, many of the participants in the fair differ.

As one of the first-timers to the festival noted, the festival spirit did not really take off in Kochi. "It is only in Kolkata that we do get a crowd that enjoys being among books," said Ullash Kumar R.K., of Combat Law Publications.

Publishers' grouse

One issue that most of the local publishers believed to be against the spirit of the exhibition was presence of second-hand booksellers.

Vendors had come from Bangalore and Mumbai, and some vendors had more than one counters in the exhibition. "Unless the organisers give more discount, like the National Book Trust that gives up to 50 per cent discount, on rent, it is going to be hard for local publishers with second-hand book vendors making good business," said Shaji George of Pranatha Books.

Almost everybody agrees that increasing number of second-hand book vendors is not a good trend to happen at a book festival. "These counters serve as a good window to sell duplicate books. Also, pages from the rare good books fished out from these heaps will be missing," said M.C. Nair, who is a regular visitor to the festival.

The organisers are now rethinking on allowing second-hand book vendors from participating in future. "We will discuss the issue at the next meetings of All-Kerala Publishers and Book Sellers Association and book festival committee. If it is found to be affecting the prospects of majority of participants, we will not allow them from next year," said E.N. Nandakumar, State president of All-Kerala Publishers and Book Sellers Association and who is heading the Book Festival Committee.

Malayalam books

So far, the second-hand books have dented the sales of English books, mainly fiction. "Malayalam books registered good sales. At the new venue, there were enquiries for serious books on sociology and classic novels," said T. Jayachandran of CICC Books.

Another issue raised by the participants was that with the increase of stalls, there were 15 more stalls this time compared to the last edition, many participants did not have anything to do with books.

"This argument is not true. All the participants did deal with books. Like there were stalls on Ayurveda and Reiki, but they were selling books too. In fact, we had to turn down requests from at least seven or eight applicants since they had nothing to do with books," said Mr. Nandakumar.

The International Book Festival committee has mooted the concept of a library of national status in the State, preferably in Kochi, as a follow-up for the awareness created through the festival.

"We have forwarded a proposal to the State Government through Dominic Presentation, Minister for Sports and Fisheries, that if agencies such as the Greater Cochin Development Authority could provide about one acre, a library could be put up. Already many financial agencies have expressed their willingness to support the movement," said Mr. Nandakumar.

This, the organisers are planning for next five to 10 years. For the time being, the common reader is not happy with the festival. "I make it a point to visit the festival for buying books, which I cannot from shops in the city. This time, however, stalls like that were few," said Venugopala Kurup, another regular at International Book Festival.

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