Do Indians have better literary taste than Americans? It is well-known that India is a country of book-lovers, with a blooming market for English-Language novels, but one American publisher believes that Indian readers also have higher literary-standards than American readers.
New York, July 31, 2014: Aesthete Press—publisher of the highly-praised new romantic, adventure novel ‘The Wanderess’ by Roman Payne—has decided to shift marketing efforts for the acclaimed, new novel to India with the belief that India possesses “more sophisticated readers” and more “connoisseurs of high-quality literature.” Such is the market of ‘The Wanderess’—a novel that critics say is “perfect for those who love great literary classics.”
According to the World Culture Score Index™, Indians read more novels than people of any other country (an average of 10.42 hours are devoted to reading each week in India. Americans only spend 5.42 hours per week with a book in their hands).
Not only do people in India read more, but they are believed to be more cultured and than people from other countries—at least Indians who read in English—as their reading is also combined with world travel, and an education that immerses them in foreign cultures.
“Indians who read novels in English, a language that is not their first language, are educated people who want to better themselves culturally,” says Payne’s publisher, Aesthete Press. “They want to explore new cultures and learn ideas that are foreign to what they grew up with. They are not like the average American reader who looks for books mainly for something to take to the beach… something they can read where they don’t have to think too much.”
With this belief, Aesthete Press is planning to market all of their future books of high literary-value to India. They are beginning this marketing change with Payne’s new novel, ‘The Wanderess.’
“Roman Payne,” they say, “is a very culturally diverse and sophisticated writer. He is an American—born and raised in Seattle—but has spent the last 12 years living in France. He, like all Western thinkers, has been influenced by Indian thought. One of the legacies of this is his passion for yoga. His novels, almost always set in Europe, talk about the lives, the dreams and troubles, of wanderers passing through foreign countries, experiencing foreign cultures and values.”
According to market research done by Aesthete Press, Indian readers of English-language books are four times more likely than Americans to experiment with more sophisticated genres of literary-fiction, such as European Romanticism and Classicism. Aesthete Press believes that they are the people who will appreciate Payne’s books.
“Roman Payne’s novels are extremely Romantic, and they have a deep influence of Classicism,” says Aesthete Press, “he is a writer who taught himself French by reading the great French poets and French novels of the 18th and 19th Centuries. This is a kind of writing that appeals to the Romantic literary culture of India.”
But how is this American publisher going to begin marketing to India? Aesthete Press says, “We have started by reducing the price of ‘The Wanderess’ in its ebook version down to only 99 rupees, whereas the rest of the world is asked to pay 10 American dollars for the same book. We will see from there how well India receives our titles, and if we should continue to offer special deals to this country.” CCI Newswire
