Keep f***ing waiting

Controversial titles and racy covers make sure some bestsellers reach India far later than they should.
When American author Adam Mansbach wrote the book Go The F*** To Sleep, he couldn’t have predicted its stupendous success. Scheduled to release in the US this October, publishers Akashic Books, had to advance the dates to April because the viral marketing of the book catapulted it to #2 on a leading e-commerce website’s bestseller list by April-end! By May 12, it was #1.
Don’t get your hopes up. Indians will have to wait a while to read the book. Publishers here are not sure about bringing a book that raises eyebrows with its controversial title.
Are Indians too squeamish about books with racy covers or a cheeky title? Says VK Karthika, publisher and chief editor, HarperCollins, “Yes, we’re a little squeamish about picking up books with a title or picture that’s overtly sexual in nature.
We may enjoy the book in our private spaces. But people have a problem picking such a book from stands or reading it in public places.”
She cites an example. Recently, HarperCollins released a book on food called The F Word. “Though we punned on the ‘F’ word on the cover, along with the illustration of a cauldron over fire, we used words like fiery, fresh, fragrant... to drive home the point that it was a book on food not sex.”
This isn’t the first time a title or cover was thought to be too racy for Indians. For publishers trying to get international bestsellers, it’s always a fight to convince retailers and distributors in India for book covers that may be considered too scandalous for the Indian middle class.
Rachel Tanzer, director of publicity, Random House who has been trying to get The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave for a while finds it hard to convince sales executives because of its titillating cover picture.
“The cover in the UK and the US with a girl’s crotch cannot make it to India. Even a shadow of a naked female form was unacceptable here,” she says. She has been trying to get Go The F*** to Sleep to India too. But the title of the book is keeping distributors away. Is the Indian publishing industry too conservative?
Kapish Mehra, publisher, Rupa & Co, says, “It’s not that publishers are conservative or afraid of getting controversial books. But we need to be sensitive. Religion and sex are topics that we need to tread on with caution in India. What works in America may not work here.” Mehra cites the case of his publishing house going through a last-minute hitch about Sujata Parashar’s book called In Pursuit of Infidelity, a topic thought to be too spicy for India. “It was a book that explores extramarital relationships in India. We decided to be bold and did come out with it in 2009. I would say the market is a lot more accommodating these days. But some areas still need time to adjust.”
Most publishers agree that it’s not the content that readers in India have a problem with. Saugata Mukher-jee, publisher, Picador and Pan at PanMacmillan India, says, “I remember when we came out with Farrukh Dhondy’s The Bikini Murders with a picture of a women’s naked legs in full view.
He has a lot of women readers, and we were told that in Mumbai especially, women won’t be able to read it on trains with that cover. So we changed it.” He states further that for middle-class nuclear families living in small spaces, it becomes difficult to hide a book with a sexy cover, so people prefer not to buy such books.
Samit Basu, author of the GameWorld trilogy and an avid reader, says, “You can’t stop people from accessing books in this day and age. As a writer, I personally feel if you hold a book’s entry into the market, the commerce works out better. There’s a lot of buzz around such books. I would personally like to write a book that falls into that category.”