Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Picture perfect Coffee table books are a treat to the eye

Whether a picture speaks a thousand words or not, what it does is replace hundreds of words on a page. Pictures on high quality art paper in five colour print topped with matte lamination inside hardback covers and a premium price tag – the outcome is a coffee table book.

With a rich pictorial content, a coffee table book stays focussed on one single topic and lets the pictures take us to the depths of the subject matter.

“Coffee table books cover subjects ranging from mythology, World War, weapons, home décor and cookery, to finer tastes such as vintage cars, Nizam’s jewels and horses,” observes Ram Prasad, CEO, Walden Bookstore, Hyderabad.

Interestingly, these topics are the result of the market feedback through research in the first place.

Ill-lit, musty little shops stacked with dusty books are passé. Book stores these days go all out to make shopping for books a pleasant experience.

Talking about the trend, Gautam Padmanabhan of East West Books, says, “Book retailing is here to stay. It has a shopping-experience value, similar to apparel retailing.

Spacious, swank book showrooms, a cool ambience, well-informed salesmen, soft carpets, colourful collaterals, a coffee bar close at hand... all this, coupled with the boom in illustrated publishing in India, has increased the demand for coffee table books.”

While coffee table books come in different dimensions, size, as always, does matter.

“Raja Ravi Varma’s big-sized books have the biggest appeal as the pictures almost serve as a substitute of the artist’s works,” observes Ram Prasad.

Decidedly premium, coffee table books are neither mass produced nor mass consumed.

Their niche value proposition drives their retail distribution. Upmarket chains, airport lounge shops and five star hotel lobby bookstores are typically where they are bought and sold.

The buyers? You guessed it - tourists, aficionados and people who would like to gift them to someone else.

“Since they are aesthetically delightful, look expensive and complement the finish of fine-cut crystals, coffee table books make good gifts to both corporates as well as individuals. And, they can be neutrally given, unlike a sari,” says Birad Yajnik of VQI Books, whose recent coffee table book on Tirumala has sold 24,000 copies.

With more Indian publishers getting into the game, a healthy demand, a variety of topics to be covered and a strong distribution network, the future of coffee table books looks picture perfect.

BALAJI VITTAL

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

---

---