New Delhi: This is a major setback for academic publishing in India, thus a shocked and saddened academic community. reacted For the decision to discontinue the India Book operations of SAGE Publications.
anymore Announcement Last week that it would stop publishing the books but continue to remove the magazines, the company is now sending emails to its published authors, assuring them of future support.
Although the authors are unsure as to what may have prompted the move, insiders say the decision was driven purely by commercial motives.
Responding to ThePrint’s query over email, Smriti Sudhakaran, Senior Manager-Marketing, Sage Publications India, said that the publication “A particularly challenging business environment for book publishing in India due to the pandemic and other economic factors”.
correction It also clarified that “the decision is very specific to books and does not affect the publication schedule of magazines, as well as ours”. [SAGE’s] Strong imported book sales in India”.
“We are actively looking for a new home for our book title and will make an announcement as soon as we are able. In the meantime, our book publishing work remains active until we change it. We are continuing to support and keep in touch with our writers through this process,” she said in her response.
Sudhakaran added He The decision essentially resulted in the exit of some of the company’s employees.
“We aim to carry out the transition with the utmost respect and care for our people and we are helping enable them to access outplacement services to help them find placements along with additional ex-gratia payments for an easier transition. are,” she said.
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‘Academic books are not cheap’
Speaking to ThePrint, a writer who publishes with Sage said, “I hope the reason is purely commercial and not political. It is a big blow to the publishing industry if an academic publisher has been operating since 1981 and decides to stop publishing books.
Sources reveal that SAGE attributed the decision to halt its operations in India to a sharp drop in sales of its academic books, adding that the publication was finding it difficult to maintain its operations.
“A significant amount of academic book purchases are done by institutions and libraries, primarily – and not individual purchases such as students and researchers are buying – and that has gone down a lot. This is because courses these days The content is in the form of a course pack, which is a mix of chapters from magazines and books, rather than the entire book,” said a source, who did not wish to be named.
“While magazines are still thriving and will continue to be so, books are not being bought,” the source said.
However, university professors told ThePrint that, apart from the curriculum pack, there is another factor that has contributed to the decline in sales of books – non-availability of library funds.
“For the last three-four years, we have not been able to buy any new books for our library due to paucity of funds. Academic books are not cheap,” said Rajesh Jha, a faculty member from Delhi University.
A faculty member of Allahabad University shared the view that academic books are expensive and libraries often do not have enough money to buy them. “We mostly resort to giving our students Xerox copies of suggested readings,” said the teacher, who wished to remain anonymous.
A source in the publishing industry said the fall in sales of academic books could also impact other large academic publishers such as Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.
ThePrint reached out to both publishers personally for feedback about what they think of the development and how it might impact them in the future, but declined to comment on the issue.
(Edited by Amritansh Arora)