The party is over, as far as Penguin is concerned. The leading publishers, responsible for shooting authors into Page Three headlines, have decided to put a stop to book launches. They have finally discovered that the wine-and-dine five-star launches they introduced in Delhi are just that: the P3P appear, drink and disappear, leaving untouched the mound of new books waiting to be sold. So dismal are sales at book launches that there have been occasions when the publisher barely managed to sell five books at a launch. So unless it is Vikram Seth or Khushwant Singh, a Penguin book launch in future would mean modest book readings or setting up interviews with the press.
We all know Sunil Khilnani is writing that definitive biography of Nehru. But the question is: just when is he planning to write it? Meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor has beat him to it by coming out...
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