Leading authors express concern over closure of Westland publications

Leading novelists and non-fiction authors in the country are unhappy and disappointed with the closure of the homegrown publishing house Westland Publications. Some authors have even said that they have been asked to find a new publishing house for their books after February.

Eminent novelist Shashi Deshpande, who recently published her book Subversions: Essays on Life and Literature with Context, an imprint of Westland, told The Federal, “It’s too bad what has happened. Westland published such a good number of books, even during the pandemic as well. They also helped so many new authors to establish themselves. Five years is not enough time to establish a publication company. What happens to the authors now? Where do the books go? It’s too bad. I hope something good will come out of this.”

“The big e-commerce companies don’t honour the author at all. In the end it’s all about numbers for them,” Deshpande said.

Historian Manu S. Pillai, whose book The Courtesan, The Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin was published with Context, told The Federal, “It is very saddening. Westland had one of the finest editorial teams and excellent writers on their list. Amazon’s decision to close–as opposed to sell–is sudden, unexpected, and quite inexplicable. I hope all the books find new homes quickly with other publishing houses and that the team also manages to make it through this strange time.”

E-commerce giant Amazon announced on February 1 that it is preparing to close down Westland Publications, one of the biggest publishing houses in India.

Amazon had acquired Westland from Trent Ltd., a subsidiary of Tata Group in 2016. The publication house has published works of several bestselling Indian authors including Amish Tripathi, Chetan Bhagat, Ashwin Sanghi, Rashmi Bansal, Devdutt Pattanaik, Anuja Chauhan and Ravi Subramanian.

“After a thorough review, we have made the difficult decision to no longer operate Westland. We are working closely with the employees, authors, agents, and distribution partners on this transition and we remain committed to innovating for customers in India,” Amazon said in a statement.

Author and Assistant Editor at Mid-day Jane Borges, who published two books, non-fiction book Mafia Queens of Mumbai, which she co-authored with S. Hussain Zaidi, and fiction Bombay Balchao, with Westland’s imprint Tranquebar, said in a post in Instagram, “Eleven years is too much of a life together and a part of me feels a little lost today, as if the umbilical cord was cut right through. I feel severed from something I have held so dear, and believed in emphatically. Today is a sad day for Indian publishing. A team as wonderful as @westland_books didn’t deserve this.”

“I am also hopeful that a third party shows interest in Westland, because it has published some of the finest books that the Indian publishing scene is definitely very proud of… But one will have to wait and watch. As of now, we’ve been told that our books will be available only till February, after which we will need to look for a new home for our books,” Borges told The Federal.

Westland’s imprints include Context, Tranquebar, Eka (for non-English Indian languages) and Westland.

Under Context, Westland has published a large number of award-winning fiction as well as many acclaimed non-fiction books.

This is the first time in recent years when a major English language publishing company would be closed down permanently in India, instead of being sold off to another buyer.

Kavitha Rao, the author of Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India’s First Women in Medicine, which was published with Westland, said in a tweet, “Westland is my publisher and did so much for me, taking a chance on a non-celeb author. The editors are the best in India and they brought out the best and most hardhitting non-fiction you will see on the shelves.”

Westland is my publisher and did so much for me, taking a chance on a non-celeb author. The editors are the best in India and they brought out the best and most hardhitting non-fiction you will see on the shelves.

— Kavitha Rao (@kavitharao) February 1, 2022

Writer and journalist Amit Varma shared a list of titles released by the publishing house including Christophe Jaffrelot’s Modi’s India, Aakar Patel’s Our Hindu Rashtra, and Arvind Narrain’s India’s Undeclared Emergency, to throw a politically-flavoured question at Amazon.

These are some of the recent books published by Westland that have been sharing a shelf at home.

They've been shut down today. https://t.co/co36NPsvi1

They've published some of the best & bravest non-fiction of our times. Is that why? pic.twitter.com/KOw3jUGQpM

— Amit Varma (@amitvarma) February 1, 2022

“Heartbreaking and upsetting day for Indian publishing. There isn’t much to say except I hope we go out and buy as many Westland/Context/Eka books we can in the coming days, for all the wonderful editors, authors, and translators who worked tirelessly to build their stellar list,” senior commissioning editor at publishing house Simon & Schuster Sayantan Ghosh said in a tweet.

Author and Contributing Editor of The Wire Raghu Karnad said in a tweet, “Book publishing is a commerical quandary, but it is still the real headwaters of thinking, knowledge, and depth in language and narrative. If you’re not reading books much, I get it (you’re on Twitter!) But as a society we lose so much enduring value in a cynical pivot like this.”

https://twitter.com/rkarnad/status/1488858464944214021

Author Devdutt Pattanaik said in a tweet, “Is Amazon giving a message to India by SHUTTING operations of a major book publishing house (not selling it) on Budget Day? Just a thought. I hope real journalists investigate whats going on. Is India such a terrible market?”

https://twitter.com/devduttmyth/status/1488792443210199041

Westland’s Delhi: A Soliloquy was declared as the winner of the prestigious JCB Prize for Literature in 2021 qwhile its Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield won the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize last year.