Assam publishers association to take fair to region’s capitals
GUWAHATI: Buoyant after a rousing success of the North East Book Fair here, the All Assam Publishers and Booksellers Association is now looking to go beyond the Gateway to the Northeast and hold similar fairs across the region’s capitals.
“We have seen the high and lows of the fair over the past two decades. But positive feedback and an even greater response from visitors to the fair since the past three-four years have inspired us to think big after 21 years and take it to the other capital cities of the Northeast, starting with a fair at the District Library in Shillong in February next year,” Dhiraj Goswami, general secretary of the association, told The Shillong Times here on Thursday.
The 21st edition of the fair which concluded on Tuesday attracted over 2.5lakh people from the length and breadth of Assam and region in just 12 days, churning record sales proceeds to the tune of Rs 4crore.
“We are in touch with the National Book Trust and the authorities have made verbal assurances of support to organization of the fair in Shillong. We are also seeking cooperation from local publishers and institutions such as the Women’s College, Shillong. However, the nitty gritty would be finalized after a meeting in the coming days,” Goswami said.
Last year, the NE Book Fair had recorded a sale of Rs 2.5 crore, whereas the same in previous year (2017) was Rs 3.10 crore.
More importantly, the footfall and the earnings have instilled hope among publishers of the “physical” book reading habit and the library culture making a “comeback” amid a growing fascination among the Android generation for Kindle and book apps.
“The association is also in touch with organisations in Kohima (Nagaland) where we plan to organise a book fair next year. Depending on the success of the two fairs, we will decide when and how we take the fair to the other state capitals,” he said.
A positive trend in the book fair this year was the overwhelming presence of young readers, including schools and college students.
“The objective of taking the book fairs to the other state capitals of the Northeast is to not only inculcate the book reading habit among youngsters but to inspire more publishers to publish books in the vernacular language. Lack of such publishers in Meghalaya or Nagaland have been shortcomings that need to be rectified in the coming years,” Goswami added.
Organisers of the fair also want to raise the bar in the coming years by inviting big international publishing houses to the Guwahati fair, for which they have sought government help for timely interventions.