Book Publishing: An endangered industry
By Muhammad Yousuf Ali
April 23rd is especially reserved to celebrate the magic of books. Renowned authors of literature like Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega are paid tribute on the World Book Day since they are the fathers of literatures of various subjects.
The decision to celebrate World Book Day was taken by UNESCO followed by an initiative to observe Copyright Day in 1995 which was announced in Paris at UNESCO’s General Conference.
The history of book publishing can be traced back to 1440 when Guttenberg invented the printing machine in Germany. Since then there has been no turning back and the publishing industry around the world has advanced many folds and has evolved from paper to digital format. Due to the repaid growth of technology books are now even available on the internet and this trend of e-books has proved to be extremely beneficial for the students.
However, the publishing industry is facing many problems in Pakistan. Analysts and experts describe that the low literacy rate (47 per cent) is main factor due to which 53 per cent of our population does not have access to books. Besides, due to low per capital income and high inflation rate the general public prefers to spend their money on basic necessities of life rather than books thus further harming the book publishing industry.
Teachers, students, scholars, researchers and libraries are the main beneficiaries and stake holders of the book industry. Unfortunately, the reading habit among the general public, students and teachers has rapidly decreased over the years. Moreover, public libraries due to limited budget find it hard to purchase books in bulk quantities and adding more to this situation the students do not prefer to study beyond the curriculum and thus stick to the prescribed books. This, in turn results in the further decline of readership. Same is the case with teachers of government schools and colleges who do not go beyond the course requirements and thus do not update their knowledge using reference books.
Piracy is yet another major threat to the book publishing industry. Mostly pirated books are imported or smuggled from the neighboring countries thus, this severely affects the publishers and suppliers since the pirated books being cheaper in price take up their rightful market share. Besides, the government also suffers as it bears the loss of taxes and import duties due to the unlawful smuggling of such books.
On the bright side, International Book Fairs that are being held since last three years provide a little relief to the publishers and suppliers since these remind that there are still a few people left who have a genuine love for books.
In the light of the problems mentioned there is still a lot to be done on part of the government in order to increase the literacy rate, reduce the import duty on the papers, stop the smuggling of pirated books, proper implementation of the piracy act, provide incentives to writers and build a strong setup of the public library network. There is dire need to respond to the threats that are being faced by the book publishing industry so that the industry could prosper.
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