Publisher Milee Ashwarya says people are reading more than ever

Remember the discussion around reading and how it can get lost in the face of Netflix and social media? That speculation can be put to rest. Milee Ashwarya, Publisher, Penguin Random House India, says that people are reading more than ever.

In an interview with Business Today, Ashwarya said that the publishing industry has been disrupted most by technology and then the epidemic, but in recent years a lot of people have returned to avid reading. What they are reading has changed.

The growing Indian middle class is interested in personal development and self-help books. It is generally observed that as an economy develops and people gain spending power, they turn towards personal development. Ashwarya says that this is the reason that bookstores are increasingly stocking up on self-help books.

She says that it is the heyday for non-fiction, and publishers are more drawn to the genre than fiction.

There is a chance that a work of fiction will do well, but it doesn't happen easily. A good non-fiction work already has a ready audience, according to a comparison. More and more publishers are keen on non-fiction, Ashwarya says.

She claims that the reading space between bookstores, authors and readers is intact despite all the changes that the industry has undergone in the recent past and at a time when some publishers and bookstores have shut down shutters for good.

Reading has changed its form, it is now a distributed experience over paper books, e-books, and audiobooks. Ashwarya says that publishers have changed with time to meet the changing needs of readers, but the keenness for information and the need to grow with books are both in place.

Ashwarya is excited about regional literature appearing in the English language, as a result of emerging authors. Ashwarya thinks that the new authors of today are both young and restless, just as the appetite to consume the written word is prevalent.

One thing I notice about the lack of patience among new authors is a reason why self-publishing has become common, an easy solution. It takes time to get a good book out and the author should have the patience to work together. Authors should try to put in their best for a book because when a book is out, it is out and it will always be out there. While many are turning to the route of self-publishing, it is still a good idea to polish one's work well. She says that a book needs effort.

Let's allow children to read in whatever form they want because reading is about being open to stories and information. She says that there are various ways to absorb stories and narratives and once children are introduced, they would naturally grow up to be readers.