BOOK SELLERS SAY BUYERS ARE VANISHING

                               


                     

BOOK SELLERS   SAY BUYERS  ARE VANISHING.

To this thought ,i add part one of my write up  " Book Release."

(1)

' BOOK RELEASE '

" Are you going to  Book Release Function today."

"Yes ,    he has spoken to me at least thirty times. I will have to show my presence even for 10 minutes .And that is the way to get a free book  .You may never open it leave alone reading  but when presented to you in a gathering, it gives you an intellectual  status ."

" Who is the chief guest ?"

" He had asked noted Scholar Dr Sharma to grace the function . Dr Sharma sought a copy of the book before  conveying his Yes or No.  At the last moment , he declined."

"Why ? What happened?"

" Some people say  that Dr Sharma told the author to  do social work  instead of writing poetry. He possibly found no merit in  the book."

" What merit he was looking for?"

" Merit ! I don't know. But when  ex minister Rafiq Shastar Sahib was contacted, he readily agreed to chair the event. Shastar Sahib  is coming with  25 party workers . That makes a good audience for media coverage of the function. Now that Shastar Sahib  is coming, menu for tea has been upgraded. Those joining the book release function will have chicken Kebab and Paneer Pakoda with tea. For Dr Sharma, the menu was simple tea and biscuits."

" What is Shastar? Caste or surname ?"

" Neither caste nor surname , It is a kashmiri word meaning Iron that is seen in every household . Shastar is  inexpensive,  easily available and  practically useful to all.  Neither Hindus nor Muslims can live without it . Rafiq Sahib was writing  sufiana poetry when he was idle. He adopted" Shastar" as his pseudonym. After his first innings as minister of forests, he  forgot poetry and literature . Now he uses Shastar as his surname . According to him, this suffix helps him  in  building  his secular image."

" What is the price of the book ?"

" What price? Who buys headache?Now  only jokers and fools  publish  poetry books  spending their own hard earned money. When  Rehman 'Kazaaakhteer'  published  his first poetry  book titled  " Gagur Ta Gagraai " , he raised a GP fund loan of Rs. 15000 . He was expecting to  recover his cost but unfortunately not a single book did sell. He distributed 50 books free in his book release function. The residual  two  hundred  fifty books were sold by his wife to a kabadi  ( scrap dealer ) for 100 rupees. From this money ,she purchased some Naas or  Naswar (snuff)  and threw the packet  on Kazaaakhteer' s  face saying:

' Put this snuff in your nostrils. They are blocked . Now that you have finished your GP fund and can not publish another poetry book, this  snuff will help in releasing  residual poetry  lleft in your  blocked nose.'

And your friend Omkar  ' Vasvaas' also could not sell a single book of his poetic collection '  Nar ta Narparistan' . He had invested  Rs.16000 in publishing  300 copies . The money had been received by him  as part payment of his LIC Policy. Finally his wife threw all these books   into the big household garbage  bin kept by Municipality near their  house and told her husband:
"  Better you put on a female dress and dance as Bacha in marriage functions. You will earn better . This is the only way to  recover 16000/- that you wasted'
This  is  the  story of poetry books . So what is the purpose of discussing price when there is no buyer."
"
(2)


INSIDE  A bLEADING  BOOK STORE  IN  MANHATTAN NEW YORK..

The communication of Auv6ust 2019....

"What are the New arrivals?"

" See the Display window . The new arrivals are there. May be  around six or seven novels. "

" I mean anything other than novels."

" We sell what is in demand. We  stock fast moving books to be  economically viable in bookselling business. Bookselling has to be   market driven  activity if you have to be in the business. "

" Since you are a little free, i am tempted to take liberties of discussing something more.  What  is fast moving stock in your Trade?'

" We don't sell politics . We dont sell drama. We dont sell religion. Travelogues , Romance, Science fiction, Fantasy,  Mystery, Horror, Biographies of well known personalities  and books for Kids are fast selling items ."

"What about poetry?"

"Nobody asks for it ,so we don't stock it. "



(Avtar Mota)

PS.
Story no 1
This is a work of fiction....
Story no 2 .
This is factual



CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.