No price too high: Why a poetry book priced at ₹2,750 is selling like hot cakes in Tamil Nadu

“Emakku thozhil kavithai.”

(My occupation is writing poems.)

When Subramania Bharati (1882-1921), one of the greatest Tamil poets, made that statement, he was met with laughter.

Present-day Tamil Nadu, however, is brimming with people trying to make a career out of writing poems.

Many in literary circles believe there are more poets in this state than readers of poetry. In Tamil Nadu, a state where a new poet is born every day—the observation, at times made frustratingly and at other times made appreciatively—by some Tamil writers is laden with truth.

Not too long ago the emergence of new poets happened only in literary magazines or in the Sunday supplements of major Tamil dailies. Today, however, anybody who wants to turn into a poet doesn’t have to reach out to magazines to put their work in the public domain. All one needs is a social media account. Poets in Tamil Nadu haven’t just found easy ways to put out their work, they also find the venture more profitable.

But who really is a poet? According to Bharati, “Those who write poems are not poets but those who lead their life in a poetic way are.” Bharati who lived a poetic life, unfortunately, lived in abject poverty and died after being trampled by a temple elephant in Chennai.

Many who followed Bharati did not see the kind of penury the great poet had lived in. However, neither did they earn the kind of fame of their idol nor money.

Some recent developments, however, indicate a shift in the trend, announcing a metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel.

“Some 30 years ago, when poet Samayavel brought out his poetry collection Kaatrin Paadal, it was priced at just Rs 5. But today, poet Manushyaputhiran’s poetry collection Miss You is priced at Rs 2,750. Once, cats used to be the only company of lone poets, but now their inundated by fanfare, gifts and champagne bottles from readers,” says Prabahar Vedamanickam, assistant professor in department of Tamil at The American College, Madurai, in one of his Facebook posts.

Replying to this post, Augusty Gandhi, a reader, said that though it’s encouraging to see more and more poets today, it has become difficult to standardise their works and choose the best.

That notwithstanding, Manushyaputhiran’s collection, despite skyrocketing prices, is selling like hot cakes at the ongoing 45th Chennai Book Fair. With about 200 pre-orders, the book sold over 500 copies in just about seven days of the fair. This is a huge thing because for an average Tamil reader, the expenditure at a book fair doesn’t go beyond Rs 1,500. What makes the trend even more surprising is that people are paying the huge amount to own the book at a time when many of the poems from the collection are already on the poet’s Facebook page.

The Chennai Book Fair, an annual event, is usually a 10-day affair. This time, however, keeping crowd control requirements due to Covid in mind, the event was made a 19-day event. The book fair which kicked off on February 16 will be underway till March 6. With a few days still to go, it is expected that the poetry collection will cross the 1,000 mark in terms of copies sold.

The success of the book has made many ask will Miss You prove to be a trendsetter in publishing and marketing poetry collections or will it be a one-time wonder? Do poetry collections still bring profits to the publishers? Before finding answers to these questions, one should understand the path Tamil poetry has covered so far.

Three phases of free verse

A polyglot, who knew six languages, and stayed abreast with the developments happening in the western literary world, it was Bharati who introduced ‘free verse’ writing to Tamil. Until then, poets followed many rigid rules and meters. Though Bharati through his ‘vasana kavithai’ (prose poetry), broke the rules of writing poetry, it was because of Na Pichamoorthi that the format of free verse gained popularity.

According to Tamil scholars, the growth of free verse had three phases—Manikkodi Period (1930-1945), Ezhuthu Period (1950-1970) and Vaanambadi Period (post 1970s). During the time of Manikkodi magazine, most poets wrote free verse mostly centered on the freedom struggle. In the period of Ezhuthu magazine, poets came up with new kinds of themes and imagery that spoke much about the everyday life of people.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the poetry movement in Tamil Nadu was vibrant in the southern parts of the state, including Thanjavur, Madurai and Chennai. But in the 1970s, Coimbatore saw a new wave of poetry. The credit for that goes to the poetry movement Vaanambadi. The movement gave birth to different kinds of poetry formats such as haiku, limerick and short verse. This was a phase when poets started to write more on social issues and love.

From poet to political commentator

In the 1990s, the Tamil literary world started embracing postmodernism. It was in this period, Manushyaputhiran shot to limelight. Noted novelist Sujatha around this time started introducing new poets through his columns in popular magazines such as Ananda Vikatan and Kanaiyaazhi by sharing their poems. Sujatha shared one of Manushyaputhiran’s poems Kaalgalin Album too and heaped praise on him in his columns and literary meetings. This is how Manushyaputhiran gained popularity.

Born as Abdul Hameed in Thuvarankurichi, a village in Trichy district, Manushyaputhiran mostly stayed aloof because of a locomotor disability. He spent most of his time reading books and was driven to the ideologies of Periyar and Karl Marx. Slowly, he started to pen poems. He chose to write under the pseudonym ‘Manushyaputhiran’, meaning ‘son of humanity’. At the age of 16, he published his first poetry collection titled Manushyaputhiranin Kavithaigal.

After completing his post-graduation in Mass Communication, Manushyaputhiran got an opportunity to work in the popular literary magazine Kalachuvadu and stayed there for nearly a decade. In 2002, he founded his own literary magazine Uyirmai and also a publication by the same name. His publication has brought out many of Sujatha’s works, a memoir of Durga Stalin, wife of incumbent Chief Minister MK Stalin, poetry collections of DMK leader Kanimozhi and works of other budding writers.

Known for his book Enna Maathiriyaana Kalathil Vaazhgirom? (What kind of time we are living in?), Manushyaputhiran has a knack of turning contemporary issues into a poem which doesn’t require any poetic grammar or nuanced language skills to understand. This skill has made it easy for him to win over fans.

In 2021, he published three poetry collections namely Anbil Oru Teaspoon Koodivattathu (A Collection of Poems on the Inner World of Individuals), Alexa, Nee Ennai Kaadhalikkiraayaa (A collection on Mundane Things) and Vasantham Varaatha Varudam (a collection of poems centred around Covid-19 lockdown) which were running into nearly 500 pages and well received by his readers.

Of late, Manushyaputhiran has also become a much sought-after political commentator and is also one of the official spokespersons of the DMK.

Poetry is not profitable

Shankarramasubramanian, one of the handful of poets who has a readership of more than 600 on his blog, said that poetry collections have never brought profits to publishers.

“If I write a poem in my blog, it immediately reaches some 500 to 600 readers. Definitely, the readership for poetry is increasing because of the influence of social media. But that doesn’t mean all those 600 readers will buy my work if it has been published as a book,” he said.

According to Shankarramasubramanian, if the work of the poets who are in the second and third line after the popular poets such as Vairamuthu, sell anywhere between 150 and 200 copies, it is a big thing.

Agreeing with his view, poet A Vennila, who is also a publisher, said that poetry historically hasn’t received the respect it deserves.

“Poetry is the highest form of language. But it doesn’t get the value it deserves. If you break the sentences into three or four words and put them one after another, it could possibly become a poem. That is how poetry is seen today. However, readers of serious poetry are fewer today,” she said.

Will Miss You be a change agent?

Sen Balan, a reader of Manushyaputhiran, said that in every field there are one or two star performers who expand the field by trying their hands at new things but the benefit of those efforts will be helpful to all the players in that particular field.

“It is difficult to count the number of people who benefited from the market expansion in Tamil cinema made by actors such as Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. After watching Titanic, many started to develop a taste in Hollywood movies. Following the success of Money Heist, many started watching web series. It was to hear the songs of Ilayaraaja that many bought tape recorders and those were also used to hear the music of other composers. Similarly, through Miss You, Manushyaputhiran has started a new trend and the work will inspire many others in the publishing field,” he said.

Talking to The Federal, Manushyaputhiran said that the reason for the success of this poetry collection is that it speaks about contemporary feelings in a contemporary language.

“There is always a huge distance between the writers and the social issues they come across. When those issues are brought into poems through a serious language, it further increases the distance existing between the readers and writers. When I write about contemporary issues like pandemic-induced loneliness, long-distance relationships, etc, it immediately strikes a chord with the readers and they start owning the poem. They share that poem on their social media accounts and celebrate them,” he said.

When asked about how marketing helped in taking this book to the masses, Manushyaputhiran said what helped expand the reach of the book is social media.

“The book has 1,898 poems running over 2,288 pages. These are the poems I wrote on my Facebook page over the last one year. I created a trend by posting the questions like ‘what would be the title, size and cost?’ on my social media accounts. My followers and readers actively participated in them.”

“On December 31, I announced the title of the work through Puthiya Thalaimurai channel. We immediately received 200 orders through WhatsApp,” he said. One reader, Manushyaputhiran added, went on to send a gold coin to pre-order the book.

“Such love shown by my readers made us do some other value addition on selling the book like providing a special bag to carry the book, a T-shirt, a heart-shaped balloons for children and selfie-point for the couples.” Some other readers donated money which helped distribute the book free of cost to readers who are unable to afford the price. “All these initiatives are being carried out to prove just one point: poetry collections will bring profits,” Manushyaputhiran signs off.