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Make literature marketable, please!

My brother would always hesitate whenever I ask him to buy a lovable book here. You can buy many books half the price they sell in England. But he never buys a single book in our market. This had been puzzling me every so often. Is he getting loaded with money, I wondered.

I got the answer one day at last. He is lured by the 'buy one get one free'. There is no point in buying book here even it is half the price, so to say. Our booksellers must be following the same technique too, but I haven't seen it. I have seen it in soap and other items more than enough. We use soap anyway, but the sellers are so concerned about which brand we should use. Too sad booksellers are not equally concerned.

As long as they have their steady income by stationery, textbooks and a few novels or short stories, the booksellers do not care for other things; they don't just want to boost their income, or are they short of strategies to market literature?

This 'buy one get one free' may seem a bit commercial and you may argue literature should not be reduced to that level. Come on, literature is after all a mode of living for some writers. In England some writers live by books, because they have a steady publishing industry and good reading culture (in the sense those who buy and read) Whatever you write has a value, and you have every right to follow every trick of the trade to sell it!

I remembered the enigma of my brother when I saw a facebook status update by my closest colleague. She was eagerly waiting for September, the book month. I was among the lot who commented on her status update by bringing up this 'buy one get one free' thing.

I am not sure if I am a bookworm or anything, but I buy a book only when it tempts me. In that case I am scared to step into some bookshops lest I will be lured. But still I hear parents lament their children don't read much, and publishers complain their fiction don't sell properly.

In countries like England people buy books like we buy fruits and vegetables. This is basically because books are more affordable than here. Who would give it a chase when they can buy one get one free? There is nothing much but that 'free' tag is enough to seduce the weak customer.

Isn't it damn shame we have one month specifically for buying books and another for reading books, just like some days for mothers, fathers and others? Does that mean we should not buy and read books off these months? If we go back to our glorious past, we are a nation who could listen well when there were no books. Now we are shifting to the audio books from reading books; wonder if we are going back to our roots!

This goes best for the bibliophiles who hate hanging around libraries. Now these bibliophiles are of two forms: collectors and readers. Readers are concerned mostly about contents, while collectors are fond hardback publications: both need to have a personal collection for self-reference.

Bibliophiles will somehow read the book they want. Now with the Internet on your palm, this is even easier. Some book converted to both e-books as well as audio books make our life easier. I have a friend who sometimes uses up the whole night to read one book over the Internet. Just imagine concentrating on one book, without facebooking or anything!

If booksellers can come up with more ideas like what my brother has fallen to, I am sure they will enjoy a better customer hold.

The second hand book is another scheme to magnetize the customer. But bookshops and pavements mostly have magazines and decade-old supplementary books. Seldom will you come across a one or two-year old book. People don't even leave or forget books here and there, like in many developed countries.

Bibliophilia is all right, but make sure you won't get bibliomania of collecting books obsessively affecting your physical and mental health.

I am sure you won't, so booksellers, over to you, to make literature marketable for the sake of poor fellows who simply cannot wait one whole year for September. [email protected]

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