Unravelling bibliophiles' preference on the basis of bestseller lists in India

• Published date: 01 February 2021
• Author: Pranvi Khajuria,R. Gopinathan
• Date: 01 February 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2138

ACADEMIC PAPER

Unravelling bibliophiles' preference on the basis of bestseller

lists in India

Pranvi Khajuria | R. Gopinathan

School of Economics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi

University, Katra, Jammu & Kashmir, India

Correspondence

R. Gopinathan, School of Economics, Shri

Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra,

Jammu & Kashmir- 182320, India.

Email: gopieco@gmail.com

This study investigates different genres in Indian book market to establish a clear

understanding of dominating genres in the market. The focus of the study is in tan-

dem with two groups: fiction and non-fiction books on the basis of 52 weeks'

bestsellers list. The model employs a point system constructed by mapping perfor-

mance score of different genres. By using these performance scores, Kruskal-Wallis

H test and Mann–Whitney Utest are performed. The results show that there is a sig-

nificant difference between each genre but one particular genre stands out the most

in both the categories. Romance in Fiction category and Self-help in non-fiction cate-

gory dominates the Indian book market as shown by the study. This evidence has a

far-reaching implication toward the understanding of the dynamics of genre prefer-

ences in India.

JEL CLASSIFICATION

Y92

1|INTRODUCTION

The dearth of research on book industry is not understandable despite

the fact that it is one industry which produces myriads of products

each year for consumers to choose from, while every product has dif-

ferent dynamism with relative affordability along with high compara-

tive extent of the commercial failures. The book and publishing

industry underwent drastic changes in the last decade with the emer-

gence of new writers and their writing styles. Established publishers

and writers understand the consumer behavior in book market and try

to produce the books that sell in the market attributing to marketing

policies, demanded genres, and other factors.

The leisure book publishing sector in the present times is flooded

with books of different types or genres providing a wide platform to

writers, publishers, and readers. For writers, publication industry pro-

vides a pedestal of recognition of their work that they intend to com-

municate to the reading community and it also serves as a source of

revenue for them. The publishers also gain from the publications and

deem it as an asset in the trade business. From a bibliophile's perspec-

tive, the industry provides heterogeneity of information, acumen, and

entertainment.

Consumers prior to a decision of any purchase of a product cus-

tomarily spend their time and resources to learn about it and to

discover alternatives. Similarly, a book-buyer's decision will depend on

the genre of one's preference and alternatives in that genre that one

learns about. The expanse of books that a consumer can learn about

can be influenced by social media, reviews, book-clubs, and most

importantly a bestseller list.

The bestseller lists, which represents a set of books in a ranked

form according to the number of copies sold since the release of the

book, gets updated on a weekly basis. Bibliophiles tend to look for

bestsellerlists as a tool to help them make their decisions as it is a gen-

erally accepted notion that sales make an opinion about the product,

thus increasing its demand withthe time. Once a book gets featured on

a Bestseller list, it then influences the decision of bibliophiles as they

are lured by the popularity of the products available in the market

which in turnincreases the sales of thatparticular product by a substan-

tial number.The list certifies as a signalof quality as the number ofcop-

ies sold represents the numberof consumers' inclinationtoward a book.

Bestsellers are also being adapted into films nowadays and are

roaring at the box-office in terms of profit for the filmmakers. A nota-

ble adaptation of Calling Sehmat by Harinder S. Sikka into a recent

bollywood thriller flick Raazi is one such example. The film gained

more popularity due to the bestseller status of the book it was

adapted from. Bestsellers on list and its film adaptations are in a virtu-

ous circle. The bestseller status of the book garners more attention to

Received: 3 December 2019 Revised: 22 February 2020 Accepted: 9 March 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2138

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2138. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of7

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2138