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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Tell-all political books fly off the shelves
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Tell-all political books fly off the shelves

Candid autobiographies by politicians and books on political figures are turning out to be surprising money spinners for publishers

Former external affairs minister Natwar Singh. Photo: MintPremium
Former external affairs minister Natwar Singh. Photo: Mint

New Delhi: Candid autobiographies by politicians and books on political figures are turning out to be surprising money spinners for publishers, outselling the average fiction and non-fiction books by 5-10 times in a market that was thought to be staid.

Tell-all books have been flying off the shelves amid heightened interest in politics—and political gossip—in a year marked by elections to the 16th Lok Sabha.

Where the market was once dominated by books that were reverential about living political figures—though far less coy about the dead, notably Jawaharlal Nehru—the newer crop of writers have been frank, at times brutally so.

In turn they have sparked off hot political controversies in the media.

The most recent books have included Sanjaya Baru’s The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh that centres around the former prime minister; One Life Is Not Enough, former external affairs minister Natwar Singh’s autobiography that paints an unflattering picture of Congress president Sonia Gandhi; or Strictly Personal, Manmohan and Gursharan, a take on the private life of the former prime minister by his daughter Daman Singh.

Journalist Kingshuk Nag’s book, The NAMO story, A Political Life, highlights the misgivings about Narendra Modi during his days as chief minister of Gujarat and also presents his account of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Political commentator Baru is a former media advisor to Manmohan Singh while Natwar Singh is a former Congress stalwart who was close to the Gandhi family.

Sales of the two genres ‘Biographies and Autobiographies’ and ‘Politics and Government’ grew 35% by volume and 37% by value in 2014, according to Nielsen BookScan, a data provider for the book publishing industry, owned by Nielsen, a consumer insights provider.

“This is majorly due to the election situation in the country resulting in increased consumer interest in reading books related to politics. Autobiographies and biographies related to political leaders were well received too," said Vikrant Mathur, associate director, Nielsen BookScan.

“Political memoirs have truly come of age. While people who were in power have been writing about their own life and experiences for a long time, there is now a shift towards people who are close to power—observers, participants—beginning to write about their take on things," said V.K. Karthika, publisher and chief editor, HarperCollins India, the publisher of Daman Singh’s latest book that has sold 10,000 copies since being released last week.

Baru’s book, published by Penguin, has sold 75,000 copies since its release in April and Rupa Publications’s One Life is not Enough: An Autobiography by Natwar Singh sold over 62,000 copies in just a fortnight.

Sales were fuelled by pre-publication publicity focused on controversial revelations—Baru’s book said Manmohan Singh was not fully in control of his cabinet and was subservient to Sonia Gandhi, while Natwar Singh’s book talked about Sonia Gandhi refusing to become prime minister in 2004 because her son Rahul bitterly opposed it.

Karthika pointed out that there was growing interest among readers on the private lives of political figures.

“We have always been consumers of gossip. However, earlier it was restricted to the lives of cricketers and actors, etc. For the longest time the focus was on the public life of political leaders, but now that wall seems to be breaking down with the public gaze on their private lives as well. With so much curiosity these books easily generate 5-10 times the sale of an average book," she added. Books sell between 3,000 and 5,000 copies on average in India.

According to Ananth Padmanabhan, senior vice-president (sales), Penguin Books India, the success of these books has a lot to do with the dramatic changes that have taken place in India’s political scenario.

“The circumstances and the success of political tell-all memoirs go hand-in-hand. It has to do with the anti-Congress wave juxtaposed with Modi’s success. This genre (non-fiction and politics) has taken 10 years to achieve this cult status. I think Baru’s book also sets the tone for how a tell-all book can be written," said Padmanabhan.

But Baru does not like the tag. “Mine is not a ‘political tell-all’ book. It surely does not ‘tell all’. It is my analysis of UPA-1 and the making and unmaking of Manmohan Singh as PM," he said, referring to the first term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Singh.

Similarly, television journalist and former editor-in-chief of IBN18 Network Rajdeep Sardesai said his yet-to-be titled book was not about political revelations but about the general elections. “My book is a journalist’s account of what I believe is a very critical phase in Indian politics," he said. The general elections of 1952, 1977 and 2014 have been watershed elections and therefore, (there is a) need to document them, he said.

To be sure, the Indian market has matured both in terms of authorship and readership, according to Kapish Mehra, managing director at Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd. “There is a greater degree of acceptance of autobiographies in political memoirs. Indian writing in the English language is in its third generation and we are evolving both as readers and writers. There is space for direct political and non-political autobiographies, no holds barred," said Mehra.

The extension and expansion of the Internet is also driving sales of books, helping the political genre as well as biographies and autobiographical writings. “The rate of sale of every genre has increased because of the proliferation of the online, social media and the whole Internet ecosystem. Typically, any best seller title gets 40-50% of its sales online," said Padmanabhan.

Baru’s book has generated 40% of its sales online.

To cash in on the current craze for books in these genres, Rupa Publications’ Mehra said, the publisher was working on another book by a prominent political figure, to be released by the end of this year. He declined to disclose details. Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai’s Not Just an Accountant, from the same publishing house, is due for release next month.

Upcoming books from the Penguin catalogue include editorial chairman of Outlook Vinod Mehta’s Editor Unplugged and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Beyond 2020, both slated for release in October, in addition to Sardesai’s book on the 2014 elections, expected to be released in November.

Tell-all political memoirs could well determine the upswing in the fortunes of the publishing industry in 2014 with just three recent books clocking sales of 2 crore—Baru’s book on Manmohan Singh, Kingshuk Nag’s The NAMO Story, A Political Life and Natwar Singh’s autobiography.

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Published: 19 Aug 2014, 12:14 AM IST
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