Some nationally significant print media also publish lists of local “bestsellers” regularly and run extracts from notable books. Others print book abstracts and occasionally even reviews. Some run “book babble” columns where certain individuals are asked questions regarding their book-reading habits. There are some book readings in radio and occasionally even a discussion.
However, it can be nobody’s argument that enough is already been done by the media to promote books in our country. Quite the contrary, I happen to think that the print and electronic media in Nepal are not doing even half of what they should be doing to promote books. Hence this article reflects upon some of the ways in which they could be more proactive in promoting books.
Print Media
Publishing book reviews are perhaps the most important promotion activity that print media can engage in. Book reviews inform the public about the appearance of new books and tell them the views of the reviewers as readers. This is a service provided by the print media world over. However, our print media has thus far failed its readers in this count.
Take for example the case of Kantipur, the most successful newspaper in the history of Nepali print media. Even as it’ll complete 17 years of existence shortly, Kantipur still doesn’t run a designated book review page. It does publish book reviews occasionally, sometimes even a full page, but it’s clear that this happens as a fluke, and not by design.
When pressed by critics, all who’ve edited this newspaper up to today have acknowledged that carrying a regular book review page would be a great idea. When asked why this hasn’t happened, the editors have said that there aren’t enough good book reviewers who can write for the paper. I’ve always considered this to be an excuse to divert attention from the infirmity of the editorial office to anonymous third party individuals who haven’t been seriously engaged by designated review editors. If the Indian newspaper The Hindu can publish one and a half pages of book reviews each week and an eight-page monthly literary supplement, it should also be possible for Kantipur to do the same.
Himal Khabarpatrika, Nepal’s most successful fortnightly newsmagazine, hasn’t been able to graduate from one- or two-page of book abstracts or introductions (not reviews) even as it has completed 10 years of existence. It hasn’t shown commitment to regularly publish good-length book reviews in the manner of, say, Frontline, the most influential English-language fortnightly newsmagazine published in India. The latter devotes at least six to 13 pages of each issue to book reviews.
One ex-editor of Himal Khabarpatrika once told me that there’s a dearth of good reviewers. This complaint seems to be a constant refrain because it was recently repeated to me by Ajit Baral, the coordinator of the weekly Akshyar supplement of Nagarik Dainik which does run a review or two on average each week.
Having been part of a review-generating group for six years (1996-2002) for a newspaper, I think that the claim that there’s a dearth of good reviewers is greatly exaggerated. I’m referring here to the one-page Review of Books published in The Kathmandu Post between 1996 and 2002. Founded by Ashutosh Tiwari in collaboration with a group of booklovers, this Review was a monthly supplement during its first year of existence. However, between 1997 and 2002 (when it was unceremoniously dropped by the then editor of the Post), it was editorially prepared by Martin Chautari and published twice a month.
The Review’s production coordination rotated amongst a small group of reviewers who tapped a large network of colleagues, both Nepalis and foreigners, to generate the contents. More than 125 writers were engaged over the six years. These reviewers were located in our earth and not imported from Mars or some other planet and hence they can be found with some effort. Some people have suggested that since this Review was done in English, it was easier to find reviewers. This is a lame excuse. The number of individuals who can write reviews in Nepali – if you think of those located in Nepal and in the Nepali diaspora worldwide – is much bigger than the number we managed to engage in the Review page.
What’s lacking is editorial commitment. Editors of big daily newspapers should simply designate a member or two of his staff for this purpose and tell them to challenge relevant members of the public at large to come up with the required number of reviews each week. It should be that simple.
The print media could also do other things to promote books. It could investigate many aspects of the publishing industry and regularly report about them. It could do research on the books that do well (or don’t do well) in the market and tell us why those have succeeded (or failed). With the passing of each calendar year – and 2009 will end soon – it could report on the best and most popular books of the year in each genre in all of the languages in which books are published in Nepal. It could write about publishers breaking new grounds in the publishing landscape, or those engaged in unscrupulous and illegal business practices. The possibilities are limitless once you step out of the unimaginative routines of copy production that dominate the newsrooms of Nepali print media.
Electronic Media
In a country where nearly half of the population can’t read (that’s more than 10 million Nepalis), commonsense would suggest that radio would be a more effective medium than print for the promotion of books in Nepal. Given the fact that there are now about 200 FM radio stations in operation reaching anywhere from 70-80 percent of the Nepali population, you would think book readings and discussions would be very popular program genres in these independent radios. Sadly that’s not the case. Just like their print colleagues, radio promoters have done very little to promote books.
Information about book launches and awards given to some books of this or that category do make it into the news over radio occasionally. Some stations even have a program dedicated to book readings. But look for interesting discussions about books on Nepali radios, and you’ll be dismayed.
This absence is a bigger tragedy than the insufficiency of regular review pages in our print media for two reasons. First, the relatively larger reach of both FM and SW/MW transmissions (than print) hasn’t been taken advantage of. Second, radio provides, format-wise, a more flexible platform than print to promote books. It provides multiple interactive possibilities between program hosts, authors, editors, critics, readers, listeners and other players of the book industry in real time.
What am I thinking about in terms of format possibilities? Take for instance just the radio talk genre. In the first format, authors or editors of books can be invited, and the program host can begin by describing their new book. Then the discussion can segue into the research that went into its making and other aspects of its writing and editing. This can be followed by discussing the questions raised by the contents of the book. In my experience of having tried out such discussions in the Dabali program which I used to run over Radio Sagarmatha during 1998-99, the jest with which those who have written books usually talk about it is extremely rewarding to listeners.
A second format would be for the host to invite reviewers and authors for a discussion and let them have a go at it, interjecting in the middle only when it’s necessary to retain some discipline in the program.
A third talk radio format would be to invite two or more readers/critics and ask them to share their comments on a particular book.
A fourth format would be to try a variation on the last one. For this, the host would invite the author of a book that’s already been talked about in some room discussions or reviewed in print or online media. Instead of inviting the commentators or the reviewers to the program, the host can repeat the comments and questions that they’ve raised elsewhere and ask the author to address them.
A fifth format would be to invite the author to the studio and make her take calls from listeners who have read her book. FM radios, where program production in more than 25 languages spoken in Nepal is already in operation, also allow us the luxury to talk about a book written in another language in the local language of the station’s primary broadcasting area.
But books can be promoted by radio in other program genres as well. For instance, radio stations can broadcast weekly news bulletins on new books and interesting happenings in the publishing industry. Radio program producers can follow the lead of some print publications by reading abstracts of new books. This idea could even be executed as a joint print-radio project. Producers can try book readings, selecting extracts to match available program segments. Similar format programs could also be broadcast over television channels (but given the relatively high expenses of television operation, I’m less hopeful about seeing such programs.)
In other words, there’s much that the print and electronic media can do to further promote books in our country. Are there any takers?
Onta is a historian of 20th century Nepal and is based at Martin Chautari.
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