Bookstores see Jinnah' flying off the shelves

CHENNAI: There's nothing like a good old controversy to have a book shoot off the shelves and Jaswant Singh's Jinnah: India, Partition,
Independence' has been doing just that. Though Singh's book was set to do well because of its subject, it topped best-seller lists in a couple of days with the BJP expelling him for his comments on Jinnah.

"A controversy makes any book's sales go up by 60%. On the day of the release on August 17 and the next day, we sold 400 copies in Chennai," says T Sharon, regional publishing head, Rupa & Co, the publishers and distributors of Jinnah'. "But after his expulsion on August 19, we ran out of stock. We've put in our third order for books. Even Hyderabad and Bangalore are out of stock."

He says stores were not as enthusiastic when he approached them for advance orders. "Many were hesitant to place massive orders as they felt Jinnah was an old topic. We had advance orders for about 300 books and thought we could probably sell between 500 and 700 books. After the controversy, we've been unable to meet orders," he says.

While booksellers say the subject is an interesting one, this time it's really the headlines that have made the book sell. "We've sold 200 copies till today. As it was a book by Jaswant Singh and on a historical subject, we had orders from libraries, institutions, academics and interested readers, but after his expulsion, everyone wanted to read the book even politicians have shown interest," says M Hemalatha, senior manager, customer relations, Higginbothams.

Though B Saravanakumar, Landmark's merchandiser, doesn't know exactly how many books they've sold, he says they ordered about 700 initially. "We've had to re-order 1,700 books. With all the news reports, there is also demand for another book on Jinnah, Rafiq Zakaria's The Man Who Divided India', but this is out of stock," he says. Jaswant Singh's book is also on the homepage of Landmark's website, being offered at a special price, and is getting loads of orders.

A representative of Odyssey says the Adyar store has sold all its copies and is waiting for more. "Non-fiction is usually slow-selling and read by older, more serious readers, but all kinds of people want to buy this book," he says.

Will this spur demand for his previous book A Call to Honour'? Not really, say the tradespeople. "We always order back titles of an author when he releases a new book, but I don't expect phenomenal sales," says Hemalatha. The Odyssey spokesperson says, "Jaswant Singh is a familiar name as a minister and an author, and his previous book did well but the headlines are making this sell likehot cakes."

Sharon expects the demand to continue for the next three to four months. "Apart from the expulsion, the fact that a man from the BJP is praising Jinnah, a Muslim, has created interest. And there is talk that Singh might visit Pakistan, that's bound to spur sales too," he says.

"The media has done a lot of good for this book. Lots of thrills surround it," Hemalatha says, laughing.