PGDM2019-2021

AMC Project Report

Reshma Chauhan
PGFC1927
Introduction
The world book fair was inaugurated on 4th January and continued till 12th January 2020 at Pragati
Maidan, Delhi. This year the book fair celebrated the 150 th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The purpose of the theme is to celebrate various aspects of Gandhi's life as a writer, editor,
publisher, and journalist. I along with my group members visited Pragati Maidan on 10 th January. We
visited different book stalls and interacted with the publishers over there. A total of fifteen foreign
exhibitors were there from countries like Saudi Arabia, Germany, Sri Lanka, Egypt etc.

Description of International and National Exhibitor

To enhance our learning and for gaining further knowledge we first visited foreign exhibitors’ stalls.
We interacted with few of exhibitors over there and we chose a German publishing house for our
further research. The name of the publisher is German Book Office. Main office- Frankfurt, Germany

Different genre of books was being offered

by this publishing house. The books mainly
consist of novels including mysteries,
thrillers, fiction, romantic, historical, realist
or even post-modern by different writers.
Those books depict various culture and
tradition of Germany. The publishing house
has its various online presence and it uses
Amazon to sell its book to its customers and
to make available for the different writers.

Next we visited national exhibitor- Speaking Tiger. It is a publishing company that sells different
books under the publishing house name. The company publishes a diverse list comprising quality
fiction and non-fiction from South Asia and the rest of the world, with a strong emphasis on new
voices. Some famous books of this publishing house are- Ravish Kumar (The free voice) which gained
the maximum sale in the book fair. Books like Ruskin Bond autobiography, The Hollow Kingdom,
Shaping Seed were also there. The famous writers in this publishing house were- Edna Fernandes,
Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, Bhawana Somaaya etc.

Digital Footprint of International and National Exhibitor

The German Book Office New Delhi has been representing Frankfurter in the capital of India since
February 2008. This publishing house has its own website for India and for Germany. The website
offered network opportunities and introducing contacts
with other writers and publishers. The publishing house
has its social media presence on LinkedIn and Twitter.
It has its active presence on the Instagram. Through
these platforms it became easy for the house to
promote their books. It has 269 followers on LinkedIn
and 766 followers on twitter. It has a total of 1054
followers on Instagram.

Twitter- [Link]

Facebook- [Link]

Instagram-[Link]
hl=en

LinkedIn-[Link]
book-office/
Talking about the digital footprint of Speaking Tiger, it has its social media presence on twitter
having a follower list of approx. 2500 profiles. The company has its marketing page on Facebook
through which it indulges with many writers, influencers and common people. It has the same
number of followers on the Instagram also. The company is active on all its social media handlers
and it is much cautious about making its digital footprints. It publishes a diverse list comprising
quality fiction and nonfiction. The page daily gets updated by the publishing house by using book
pictures so that they create a buzz in the marketplace. They use Amazon to sell their books. With the
help of Amazon, the publishing house didn’t need to establish retail chains, the company easily sells
their book online and also enjoys a much profit while selling it online. The publishing house gets in
touch with their customers easily with the help of these online and social media platforms. The
company has its own website that also provides an ample of information about the products that are
being offered by the Speaking Tiger.

Twitter- [Link]

Facebook- [Link]

Instagram- [Link]

LinkedIn- [Link]
Gap Areas- Problem Identification
The International exhibitor publishing house has its book in the book fair but most of them were
only for the show. Approx. 90% books were only for the marketing purpose and they were only
promoting their brand name, but we cannot buy those books. And if we want to buy them then we
have to make a purchase from Amazon. Only 10% of books were present for sales. Another gap that
we noticed in German Book Office is that it has a low online presence on the social media platforms
like on LinkedIn and twitter. Even the company’s website was also not much attractive as compared
to other publishing houses. Though it is present on Facebook, but it has fewer digital footprints over
there.

The national exhibitor, Speaking Tiger, has an effective digital presence over all the social media
platforms. The company, in collaboration with Amazon, sells their book all over the world, and it also
has some retail collaborations in India. But still the company is not able to sell their products all over
the India even in remote areas. The gap we found in this is that the company has less marketing
platforms as compared to other India publishing houses. Due to this many writer often prefer other
popular brands for publishing their novels and books.
 Social Media Presence
12000

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
Twitter Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

German Book Office Followers Speaking Tiger Social Sites

Speaking Tiger Followers

Conclusion
The whole book fair was designed to segregate different publishers from different parts of the world
to show cast their tradition and culture. A blend of taste was offered by various food stalls present
over there. We have learnt a lot about the culture from different parts of the world under the
umbrella of the book fair. There was a total of six hundred publishers from India and from overseas
offering books in variety of languages and genres in different stalls. Indeed, it was an amazing
experience we all had.

Suggestions
As we see that the German Book Office has a less presence online that is why it is being difficult for
the publishing house to make its presence in the Indian market. So, I suggest them to go more online
and make selling though online channels to increase their productivity. For national exhibitors, they
should indulge in more marketing strategies and more retail chains across India. That will help them
to grow in national and international markets. And will also help them to gain advantage over other
publishing houses.

References –
 World Book Fair details: [Link]
check-dates-timing-theme-and-other-details-here-1578312330-1
 Websites: [Link]
[Link]