Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Why Mumbai's Hot for Mills & Boon
By Liz Bury in Publishing Perpectives

MUMBAI: Of the numerous UK publishing houses to set up new operations in India during the past few years, Mills and Boon has perhaps the best brand recognition among its target audience. The publisher's special formula of boy-meets-girl romance found a loyal readership in India during the 1980s and 1990s, when English language editions were first exported there.

The land of Bollywood romances filled with star-crossed lovers has a ready appetite for such titles as Taken by the Pirate Tycoon, and Blackmailed Into a Fake Engagement. "The Bollywood tradition is definitely complimentary to Mills and Boon. It's all glitz and glamor and happy endings; and meeting the handsome prince. There is a cultural alignment," says Retail Sales and Marketing Director Clare Somerville.

(read on ...)

Can the Mega-author Exist Without the Mega-bookstore?
By Edward Nawotka

In our lead article today, Liz Bury writes about the launch of Mills & Boon India, prompted in part by the widespread use of English, globalized communications and the growth of India's middle-class, which likes to shop in the new chain bookstores and supermarket-style outlets in India's metro centers and their newly-built shopping malls. The shift has also recently attracted Hachette and HarperCollins to India -- who are also mining South Asia for authors that might work in other markets across the world

(read on ...)

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