ABSTRACT
The literature and publishing ecosystems confronted a colossal shift after the COVID-19-induced lockdown that led to books being classified as non-essential goods. Electronic publications that were considered either as a yardstick to test the market before going to press or as an extension of print are now explored more by the readers, writers, and publishers especially after the digital publications of Tanweer Fazal’s The Minority Conundrum: Living in Majoritarian Times (Vintage books), Devdutt Pattnaik’s Pilgrim Nation: The Making of Bharatvarsh (Aleph Book Company), and Sonali Gupta’s Anxiety: Overcome it and Live without Fear (Harper Collins). A recent book consumption survey (16 October 2020) in India also confirms that over 71% of the year’s reading was on digital platforms. This chapter aims to study this digital-first approach in Indian literature by locating the digital literature published in Indian regional languages and English, and the reception they received. We attempt a survey, sampling the publishing houses, small-scale digital publishing platforms, and authors who have brought out their works in 2020. We also study the opinions of a diverse readers’ community, so as to understand the responses to the shift to digital. Even though lack of effective publishing strategies, archaic Government policies, the digital divide, and inadequate academic attention has always been a detain, the COVID-19 lockdown have unfettered the significant potential of digital publication in India. The study looks in detail at the factors which attract and repulse the interest of huge publishing houses, authors, and readers especially in regional languages, for “doing digital.”
