Bringing books to you, digitally

Literature meets technology

Krishnaraja Wadiyar

J B Joshi

In an age where data is available at our fingertips, whether we actually read what we access is a moot point. What we really seek from the internet, it appears, is information, not knowledge necessarily.

But our ever-growing hunger for information has become too much for even the internet to satiate. And nowhere is this need for better-streamlined information felt more than in Kannada literature.

In recent years, Kannada has seen the publication of close to 5,000-6,000 books a year. But ask a lay reader, and she may not be able to name even a handful of them. And that may be less because of the decline in reading culture and more because of the lack of awareness about the books being produced in the Kannada language. Or are both factors equally to blame? Either way, what suffers is Kannada, a language with a literary history spanning over a millennium.

Enter Book Brahma, a first-of-its-kind digital space for Kannada books and reviews.

“We wish to provide information to readers, visibility to writers, a market for publishers and space for critics,” says Devu Pattar, editor of the portal, which was launched on August 15.

Multimedia platform

The brainchild of Sathish Chapparike, Devu Pattar and Vinay Kumar J, Book Brahma (BB) is an attempt at saving a language using a multimedia digital platform that brings together literature and technology.

“This is an era where you can put technology to better use, for social good,” says Vinay, chief executive officer of Verbinden Communications, the parent company whose initiative BB is.

The lack of a site that offered complete information about Kannada books made an initiative like Book Brahma imperative.

The website, also in a mobile-friendly avatar, seeks to catalogue all contemporary books and classics, and across tens of categories such as politics, cinema, poetry, science, sports, history, culture, translations etc.

The details will include the book title, author, publisher, year published, price as well as a synopsis, to help readers make a choice. It will also provide links to websites where one can buy the book, both online and offline.

The website will also serve as a repository for writers, their complete works as well as awards won, all to be accessed at the author profile page.

Literary criticism

Quality literary criticism is at the centre of this Goodreads-esque endeavour. With media organisations adopting a ‘digital first’ approach and as culture writing becomes synonymous with entertainment writing, the space for criticism has shrunk. This lack of reviews means a lack of feedback to writers.

“What critics or reviewers give today are mere reactions and reflections after reading a book. Back then, literary criticism wasn’t simply about selling or promoting books. It was all about creating a discourse. We hope to revive that,” says Devu.

The reviews at BB will be sourced in three ways — commissioned reviews from experts, users’ comments and a Book Watchers Club.

Book Brahma hopes to engage the reading public by encouraging them to submit information about author, books, pre-event invites and post-event news, and even criticism that will be vetted by their in-house editorial team before going online.

The final link in providing thorough and exhaustive information about every book is the multimedia feature — audio, video and textual — some of which will be original BB content while some will be curated from public platforms.

“Currently, we have information of around 5,000 books and around 2,000 authors. As per our list, there are around 7,000 authors, 500 plus publishers and around 1 lakh books. We want information regarding all of them to be available to readers,” says Devu.

As the younger generation of readers shifts allegiance from the musty charm of physical books to the soft glow of Kindles, ventures like BB will be instrumental in reshaping reading culture.

“Today, somebody who publishes a book in North Karnataka, may not have access to readers in Bengaluru and other regions. But if there is one platform where people can be made aware of it, and if our social media handles are strong, it can enable us to market these books to a wider audience,” says Vinay.

It’s not just about bridging the reader-writer gap or the market’s supply-demand gap, but at a more basic level, it’s about bridging the geographical gap “from Bidar to Chamarajanagara,” says the BB team.

The effort is also an answer to the unorganised business that Kannada publishing continues to be. “We need to provide it a structure and organise it to see that the benefits are reaped by everyone,” Devu says.

In some sense, this is a failing of the government itself. “BB is doing what ideally should have been the job of Kannada Pustaka Pradhikara, Kannada University and Department of Kannada and Culture,” says N Ravikumar, who owns Abhinava, a major publishing house in Kannada.

Depending on users’ feedback, the co-founders of BB will see how to get funding without making it a commercial venture.

The initiative has gained traction among readers, writers and publishers, at home and abroad.

For writer and UK-based aerospace engineer Yogindra Maravanthe, Book Brahma could act as a link between writers and publishers. “It can arm a new writer with knowledge about what kinds of writing a particular publisher accepts, their contact details, their published authors and help figure out the way forward.”

Reaching out

It will also be a boon to non-resident Indians who can now find out where and how to source a specific title from. “It’s almost like bringing home a bookshop!” he says.

While BB’s publisher information is currently restricted to India and Karnataka, Vinay says they are open to reaching out to the diaspora in other countries.

In the long-term, Ravikumar hopes BB can include other regional languages and also provide information and links to the publishers’ websites. As part of expanding the book culture, it could also talk about book laws for those taking the self-publishing route, he says.

The folks at BB believe that reading hasn’t slowed down or stopped. What has, however, happened is migration to gadget reading. As part of the next phase of expansion, their vision is to also bring all new books onto a digital publishing platform. This will help capture the new generation of readers who directly go for e-books, as well as middle-aged converts who have transitioned from physical copies.

But there are challenges in scaling to a global level. “There is a lack of technology, font issues, copyright issues, market issues. The government must take the lead in coming up with technology and user-friendly fonts, be it in Shree Lipi or Nudi, to make it accessible internationally,” Ravikumar says.

“For digital publishing technology, we may either have to partner with biggies like Amazon or come up with our own technology. But we still need more muscle than what we currently have,” says Vinay. For now, the focus is on making BB a credible online community for Kannada literature. “Like an IMDb for Kannada books.”