25th August, Kathmandu, After five single chapter releases, Sujeev Shakya’s ‘ArthatPariwartan’ hits the market as Nepalaya’s first primary e-book release. An anthology of essays, the book builds up on the premises of Shakya’s previous book Arthat Arthatantra, and goes a few step forward to diagnose the maladies that keep Nepali society on the hinge of poverty, while also offering innovative solutions to combat the same. This is Shakya’s fourth book and the second one in Nepali.
“The response for single chapter releases was encouraging,” said Kiran Krishna Shrestha of Nepa~laya. “It’s a behavioral leap for many readers to embrace the virtual platforms and we were willing to undertake our primary ebook release with a pinch of salt. But the response for the single chapters show that we are ready for ebooks.”
Nepa-laya has been making all its publications available through various mediums in addition to the regular traditional printed form. As a result, all Nepa-laya books are now available worldwide through Amazon and Barnes & Noble network. English edition of the books are also available as e-books on Kindle. Due to language barrier, Nepali books were not available as e-books as widely as desired.
The ebook project came to fruition when one of Nepa-laya’s online booksellers -Thuprai developed an efficient and easy platform to buy and read ebooks. So far, since lockdown, Nepa-laya alone has sold several thousand books through Thuprai.
“We live in very exciting but equally uncertain times,” says author Shakya, explaining the idea behind the book. “The only way to keep up with the times is by embracing positive changes continually. As Nepal transitions into a democratic federal system, it's time for us to set up the apparatuses of development and gear up for prosperity, the mandate approved by the recent election as its prime agenda. But there are several challenges and constraints we need to address inorder to achieve this. The book classifies just those and attempts to find remedies, so the dream of prosperity becomes an attainable one.”
The ebook will be available for reading on Thuprai app, just like its previous single chapters. Those who have bought single chapters before will be eligible for a discount.
‘Arthat Pariwartan’ is priced at Rs.250 for the Nepalese market. The readers also have the option of listening to the audiobook or buying single chapters of the book at Rs. 15 each. The book’s print edition is due for release post-lockdown.
Corona Pandemic has put an end to all public gatherings, replacing them with virtual meetings. In the same lieu, Publications Nepalaya has started Book Talk, a youtube interview series through which Bhushita Vasistha will conduct interviews with the recently published authors or authors with long standing contribution to Nepali literature. The youtube link to Sujeev Shakya's interview for ‘ArthatPariwartan’ can be found here.
The book can be read though the Thuprai app, or by connecting through this link.
