Publishers say they now publish fewer Kannada books a year as the number of buyers has dropped.
Bengaluru: Nov. 23, 2018.
The sale of Kannada books have gone down in the city in the recent past.
Ramu G, Pragathi Publishers, said, “Our Kannada book sales have gone down by 75 per cent. We get very few orders these days. To tackle this we participate in book fairs and exhibitions to try and sell the books.”
Publishers say they now publish lesser number of Kannada books a year as the number of buyers have dropped.
Raghunath Rao, Nava Karnataka Publishers Ltd., said, “We publish only 200 Kannada titles a year, now. The demand has decreased and will decrease further in the future as well. This can only change if the government makes reading Kannada mandatory in schools.”
Book sellers, too, are finding it difficult to sell Kannada books. They sometimes sell them at discounted prices.
Manje Gowda from Blossom Book House added, “We earn about Rs. 10-15000 a month selling Kannada books. For English it is much more.”
Ashwini S, an MA student, said, “People read Kannada books less these days as the English books are more popular and learning English has become important these days.”
Some book sellers like Sapna Book House, Nava Karnataka Publishers, and Total Kannada have also taken to online selling as an option to combat their problems of continuous loss.
