Kathmandu, 18th June 2020 - Alike all fields of business, Publication business in Nepal and beyond remains hard hit by the corona Pandemic. However, as with all crisis, this also came with a ray of opportunity to take the Nepali Publication industry to a new horizon of e-commerce and e-platforms.
Nepa-laya has been making all its publication available through various medium in addition to the regular traditional printed form. As a result, all Nepa-laya books are now available worldwide through Amazon and Barns & 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.
‘We tested various platforms developed locally in the past, but due to technical glitches it could not be continued,’ shared Kiran Krishna Shrestha of Publication Nepa-laya. ‘During the lockdown, one of our online booksellers, Thuprai came up with a new e-book solution and we were convinced with the outcome. Hence, we have now uploaded all our books on their platform. During the past month of lockdown, we were happy to see more than thousand copies of our books being bought as e-book on Thuprai,’ he added.
Realizing the possibility, the new Nepali e-book platform has generated for Nepali book market, Nepa-laya now plans for a primary e-book release for one of its upcoming titles. The book authored by Economic Analyst Sujeev Shakya, titled Arthat Pariwartan will be Nepa-laya’s first title to be released primarily as an e-book.
Sujeev Shakya’s earlier Nepali book, Arthat Arthatantra was published by Nepa-laya. He also has two English titles, ‘Unleashing Nepal’ and ‘Unleashing the Vajra’ to his credit. Both the English titles are published by Penguin.
“I am extremely excited to offer my new book as an e-book in the Nepali book market,” said author Sujeev Shakya. “As the title of my book also concurs, this is the change – Pariwartan, the book market is heading towards and I am hopeful this will be a new beginning for the Nepali book industry as well,” he added.
The book is scheduled for release to coincide with the start of the new Nepali Fiscal Year. “As another experiment, we plan to release separate chapters before the book launch as well,’ said Kiran of Nepa-laya. “We want to experiment the music launch model, where we make single releases before unveiling the album. Hence, we will release 4 chapters as singles prior to the book launch,” he added.
The single chapter release will be done on weekly basis starting Thursday, 18thJune 2020. The Single chapters will be available for reading on Thuprai App for Rs.15/- and the complete book will be available upon release at Rs.250. A feature in the App has been developed to identify individual buyers of single chapters, who will be automatically discounted while buying the whole book later.
“This model can be a pioneering icebreaker for the saturated book market in Nepal. As an economist, I see this as an opportunity for the entire book industry in Nepal” said Author Sujeev Shakya. As a bonus feature, the chapters will be made available with an audio option, where the readers can also listen to the chapter being recited by the author himself.
“This audio feature is a glimpse of our upcoming venture, which is to bring all our books formally in audio-book format.” Said Kiran Krishna Shrestha of Publication Nepa-laya. “With the rising young Nepali population familiar with the language but unable to read and write in Nepali, we see a big scope for Nepali audio books.”
After the weekly release of single chapters starting Thursday, 18th June, the e-book release of Arthat Pariwartan is planned for 14th July, 2020. The recent release can be read though the Thuprai App, or by connecting through this link.
