Babus & bestsellers: How bureaucrats strike gold with book deals and bulk buys

Economic Times

05-07-2025

Whenever a writer somewhere gets a windfall, it makes me unhappy. Writing is a grim, thankless profession, and one can do without the added aggravation of witnessing one's colleague suddenly not worrying about counting one's rotis for a few months.
A couple of years ago, when a friend won a major purse at a literary prize, I wrote to her confessing that all through the day, the lines from Shahryar's immortal ode to indigestion, 'Seene me jalan/ A burning in the heart,' were playing on loop in my ears. Thus ended one more beautiful friendship.
When the news broke that Union Bank of India (UBI) had purchased 2 lakh copies of Krishnamurthy Subramanian's India@100: Envisioning Tomorrow's Economic Powerhouse, a paean to economic successes of the Modi years, I was envious. As a former chief economic advisor, Subramanian had a ringside view of all economic activities, and had chutzpah to cash it in. The book is priced at ₹595 for a paperback, and ₹995 for a hardback. If we go by the standard 10% royalty, Subramanian would have made ₹60 lakh. My publishing nose tells me that in such 'sweetheart' deals, a sliding royalty scale of 25% to 30% is applicable. So, the actual share could be close to ₹2 cr. The publishing house earns much, much more. Publishing is a wake-up call for most young writers: 95% of books submitted to 'reputed' publishing companies get rejected. In Indian English trade publishing, there are about 10 houses. To this mix, you can add about five more university and academic presses. Their standards are rigorous, and after 3-4 stages of vetting, a book is published. But even in these blue-chip companies, when a serving senior bureaucrat walks in, the chief editor's eyes start glittering with avarice. Provided the manuscript is half-decent, the firm will quickly draw up a contract. Now, this deal can be structured in several ways - all perfectly legal. ∙ Co-pub In such deals, a civil servant ropes in a government institution to co-publish the book. The institution agrees to bear 50% of the cost. The publisher then inflates the estimate. The total cost is pegged at ₹15 lakh for 2,000 hardback copies. The institution pays ₹7.5 lakh and receives 1,000 copies. The publisher, having made a profit, makes little effort to sell the remaining copies. There's no royalty in such deals. What the author gains is the prestige of being published. The books are often distributed free to national and university libraries, polishing his CV and boosting his profile. The institution, or its chairman, secures a powerful ally, while the publisher laughs all the way to the bank with the (taxpayer's) money. ∙ Buy-back In such cases, the 'scholar-bureaucrat' is tasked by the publisher with securing a buyer for 5,000 copies at 40% discount. The author earns the standard 10% royalty - enough to fund an Oyster Perpetual. It's the bureaucratic equivalent of a 1970s benefit match for a retiring Test cricketer. If he's a serial anthologiser, he might add a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, a Breitling Navitimer, and even a TAG Heuer Monaco. A prolific anthologist with literary leanings is worth his weight in gold to a publisher. The truly karmath ones churn out 2-3 such volumes a year and charms government and embassy libraries - via XP division - into stocking copies. It helps that most middle-class Indians remain unaware of conflict-of-interest concerns. ∙ Sweetheart deals The author is so well-connected that he cobbles together a cartel of institutional and corporate buyers. The print run is 10,000-20,000 copies, and royalty rate is 25-30% of MRP. The author takes the retailer's share, as he has 'executive-produced' the deal. The Subramanian-publisher-UBI deal seems like an uber spinoff of the sweetheart deal kind. It should be called 'masterstroke deal'. The problem with all such 'masterstrokes,' though, is that they get called out. Subramanian found that out soon -- when GoI cancelled his IMF posting much before his tenure ended. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.) Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. Zepto has slowed, and Aadit Palicha needs more than a big fund raise to fix it
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