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Brand new vistas at random

SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY speaks to the Random House International Director, Simon Littlewood, in New Delhi to celebrate the launch of Manju Kapur's "Home", the first book of its India wing

SPREADING WINGS Random House International Director, Simon Littlewood PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

One meets Simon Littlewood a little before his publishing house formally goes Indian. So, what does one expect? A man keen to strike a chord with an altogether new set of readers? A few seconds of waiting and one comes across a smiling, genial Londoner with zeal in his eyes, bounce in his step and warmth in his conduct, indicating in more than one way that he has been waiting so eagerly for the moment to arrive. Finally, it is here, he almost has to pinch himself to believe.

"Book publishing is not like any other business, it is a business of passion. It is enthusiasm-driven surely," he says.

That justifies his enthusiasm for the evening that awaits him at New Delhi's British Council auditorium to mark the first book launch event of Random House's India wing. The book (launched this past Wednesday) is the Delhi-based author Manju Kapur's third work of fiction, "Home".

Activair Award

Quick to respond to the congratulations about Random House pocketing the respected Activair Award for Book Exporting at the London Book Fair this past Tuesday, an award received in succession for two years, Littlewood is again all smiles.

"The award says that somewhere we are doing something right. Mind you, this award is significant because it is decided by the customers."

Book exporting, he says, is now a fledging business worldwide as people have begun to be more aware about the latest good book or the newest sensation of an author.

"The media has played a big role in it though the most important role here is being played by the Internet," he feels. Random House's bestseller, Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is an example he puts forth. "Also, the sooner a book is formally exported, the better it is to put a cap on piracy," he believes. On May 19, coinciding with the release of Columbia Pictures' film based on Brown's book, Random House will launch the India edition of "The Da Vinci Code", a book that has long been available in India thanks to pirating.

Natural fallout

Very clear about what he expects the India wing to hunt for at present, Littlewood though looks at exporting of Indian books as "a natural fallout" of publishing Indian authors here.

Recently, the UK division of Random House bought the rights of Chetan Bhagat's "A Night @ The Call Center" from Rupa, and so in a way, the book exporting business has already begun from India.

"We want the India division to publish primarily Indian stories by Indian authors and that need not be just fiction," says Littlewood.

"It could be about the history of an institution too, but something that has a good story to narrate. We are not looking at going by the quantity of books we need to publish in a particular time span. The stress will be on quality. It is simple, if we don't get a good book, we don't publish any."

`South African birthday'

Though the India operations started in July last year, "about the same time as the South Africa division", Littlewood says, unlike South Africa, the number of books sold in India besides academic books, "is as big as the sale size of New Zealand with just four million people."

Commemorating "the South African birthday" of Random House, the publishing house has just launched a new imprint there called Umuzi (meaning `home' in the local language), he shares.

Steering clear of issues like the now-on-boil controversy over Kaavya Vishwanathan's lifting of paragraphs from McCafferty's book printed by Crown, a division of Random House, ("I am actually not aware of it and it is not good that I comment on it") and even quoting the name of the author who has been paid so far the highest advance by his publishing house ("It is a kind of salary for them and they deserve it"), Littlewood instead mentions that Jhumpa Lahiri's next book of short stories will be published by Random House.

"It is in the pipeline but remember, book writing is a very human process and so it is difficult to say when exactly it will be launched," he says, bidding adieu to the conversation and readying himself to present Random House India.

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