Elitist Languages look down on Market

Why is marketing—reaching out to and pursuing the reader–considered such a no-no by language publishers and authors? Could it be a matter, not of pride, but prejudice?

“If you are passionate about books and you want them at any cost, you will find them. If you expect them to peep through your window and whisper in your ears, ‘hey girl, I am here, pick me up’, you are expecting too much!” says Mrinal Pandey veteran journalist, author and a scholar in Hindi.

She is on a panel discussing usage and place of Hindi and Urdu in the country. She is joined by Rakshanda Jalil, author, translator and critic; Ashok Bajpai, eminent author and poet in Hindi; Yatindra Mishra, poet, author and critic; and Arthur Dudney, a young scholar studying Persian and evolution of Urdu and Hindi.

The panel, during the Bangalore Literature Festival, was discussing how local dialects merged in early 19th century to form Hindi and how Persian got replaced by English as the official language in 1858, with the Queen’s declaration, making Indians her subjects. Though the subject of discussion was how the elitist approach of Hindi and Persian kept them away from masses, harming the large scale adoption of these languages, the elitist approach prevailed!

The reader in general was accused of equating Urdu poetry with the notion of “mai, meena aur saaki” and grossly overlooking the present discourse. Similarly the poor reader was looked down upon for not knowing the contemporary body of work in Hindi which outshines its counterpart in any other language. And when a reader, sitting in the audience, silently gulping down the scholarly, though lively discussion, asked the panelists, how does one get hold of the new and contemporary writings in Hindi, Urdu or any other vernacular language, all hell broke loose! There were sharp reactions that ranged from self-preservatory to defensive to bizarre.

The fact is that the present day author in Hindi or Urdu or any language other than English is not on the “bestsellers” shelf in bookstores, nor is he holding book launches and signing his works smiling into selfies taken by arduous fans. And, does not matter how much one looks down upon these marketing mantras, the fact remains that these connect the author to the reader. But then, the elitist authors can never agree, can they!

“If you expect us to be Chetan Bhagat, (though I have nothing against him as an author, he has his own readership), I must clarify, we cannot be such seasoned marketers, we are writers!” cries Mrinal Pandey. This, as a small slip silently is being distributed among the audience, carrying a message from Chetan Bhagat, “Meet me at Author.TV and win goodies!” What a paradox! Yes, Chetan Bhagat and his ilk are at the other extreme of the spectrum, using every trick in the book and outside, to sell their works, quality notwithstanding. While one can frown upon their approach, one must agree, it has worked, at least in selling books.

But the issue is not Bhagat-like marketing, but a bare minimum awareness. The non-English language books in mainstream bookstores like Oxford and Crossword constitute less than 10 per cent of the total stock, and if you look closely, most are poor translations of celebrated self-help and get-rich-quick books! Online stores like Flipkart and Amazon too are not very different. There is a complete lack of communication with readership, leave aside any effort to reach potential readers who gravitate towards the available despite having a desire to read their own language authors.

“There is a bit of laziness on the part of Hindi publishers”, accepts Bajpai. “They are least bothered about retail sale, their focus is to sell to institutions and libraries who are bulk buyers.” In fact, he shares that even when these publishers were offered financial assistance to open book stores in various cities, they showed very little interest. “I myself told them that I will fund a few lakhs (of rupees), go and set up stores in 100 cities, but there was hardly any response”.

While at one end there is sheer inertia, the other end smacks of arrogance. “Information is available. If nowhere else, search Google, and you would know, who is publishing what and when. And, then pressure the Flipkarts and Amazons of the world to supply you those books. It’s a market and the sellers are bound to provide you the stuff you need, if you ask them,” maintained Ms Pandey.  Isn’t it the very flip side of market—you are asking the well to travel to the thirsty—or maybe, the feeling is, I am the author, I have made the effort to write, now it is for you, the reader to strive and read me!

If not arrogant, this notion is naïve. The whole world is walking in the other direction, the market is coming to the consumer, making it easier for him to consume the product, and here we have our language elitists who expect the trend to be reversed!

Why is marketing a bad word? Does effort to market your work signify lack of substance? Unfortunately, that is how it is seen. And, to be fair, you cannot summarily dismiss such misgivings. The so-called bestsellers and top-of-the-chart authors have been able to churn out books at a remarkable pace, and have been able to sell it in thousands before critics get a chance to spew venom. This is a strategy and it has worked. Book after book is unabashedly churned out and sell like hot cakes. True, these works do not have much of shelf life and they die a natural, or at times, a premature death. But even in that short span, they make their author rich both in monetary and adulatory terms. So, what is the harm?

The argument that the work of substance will attract the market on its own is naïve, if not misplaced. It is a fast paced, multi-channel world out there where a consumer is bombarded with hundreds of choices before he even asks. In such an environment, if you want to be discovered by playing hard to get, well, you are expecting too much from the reader. The basic question is who needs whom? Readers need authors or vice versa. Well, it’s true both need each other. But the order today is tilted in favour of the audience. And, our language authors need to understand that. No one is questioning their ability to write masterpieces, no one is accusing them of having less substance; the problem is simply of accessibility.

To put the record straight, yours truly did try hard, really did. Searched the net for Hindi book stores that would sell something more than the poor cousins of English bestsellers. The search ended in a couple of websites, one of them being www.hindipustak.org. Cumbersome design aside, the website was selling books in dollars, and to my chagrin, had delivery charges collected in dollars too! For example, a book worth 3.25 USD, would have cost me 9.75 USD, with 6.5 USD being delivery charges! Now, if you expect the ardent reader to find you thus, my dear author in Hindi, you are simply beyond reach.

The language author is sitting on a pedestal looking down on the melee of substandard English bestsellers making hay. The problem is it is lonely at the top and if you want to connect to those who definitely want to reciprocate, you need to take the first step. Come down from the pedestal, meet and mingle and speak the language that your readers speak—marketing. Come to him if you want to be embraced instead of expecting him to cross the oceans to reach you. Reach out instead of being out of reach, it’s not a matter of pride, but prejudice!