Books in Kannada and other languages doing well online

English learning guidebooks in Kannada seem to be extremely popular

NEW DELHI 12/08/2015: A customer reading book at the Fact & Fiction Book Store at Vasant Vihar . August 12, 2015. Photo: Pranay Gupta

Consistent reports about declining reading habits and the assumption that the young will continue to grow disinterested in regional literature is at odds with the recent spike in online sales of books in Kannada and other regional languages.

Amazon, the leading international web portal which opened shop for Kannada books a few months ago, has seen a 30 per cent increase in sale of Kannada books in the last three months alone.

Interestingly, English learning guidebooks in Kannada seem to be extremely popular with “Rapidex English for Kannada Speakers” and “Learn English in 30 Days through Kannada” being among the top-selling books.

Aavarana by S.L. Bhyrappa is among the top selling books in Kannada language on the portal,” says Noor Patel, Director (Category Management), Amazon India, adding that fiction, personal development and language learning are the most sold genres in Kannada.

Akshara Prakashana, a Kannada publishing house which has its own online portal, did not register an overall spike, but there is a consistent trend in the type of books that are being sold. “Novels, especially light reads and short stories, sell consistently, but plays and poetry continue to remain unsold,” says Shishira, who handles the online segment of the company.

The online portal of SapnaBook Stores gets about 3, 500 orders daily out of which close to 55 per cent constitutes regional books. “Many of the orders for Kannada books come from abroad, from those wanting to reconnect with their roots. Within the State, the most orders come from Bengaluru, followed by Hubballi, Mysuru, Dharwad and Gulbarga,” says Nijesh Shah, who handles the online sales of Sapna Book Stores. He adds that even offline sales of Kannada books are going up. “We are doubling the shelf space in our Gandhinagar store from 1,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet. When S.L.Bhyrappa’s

Yaana released, our stores sold 3,100 books in one day,” he says.Fiction is again the highest selling genre reported by Sapna Book Stores. Translations of popular English novels like

The Leader Who Had No Title (Robin Sharma),

Himalayan Blunder and

The

Magic of Thinking Big (David Schwartz) are doing brisk business.

While novels, especially light reads and short stories sell consistently well, plays and poetry continue to remain unsold, says a publisher