A book is a book is a book

       In Indian Academic Publishing the language book production is regional in content, but national in purpose.  Thousands of copies of hundreds of titles in each major Indian language are produced year by year by the various agencies in each state and by national organizations.  The progress of printing technology which has its impact on English book production does not seem to have much influence on book production in languages.  Obviously it is not economical to venture in costly processes for short printing runs.  But even in conventional processes one cannot honestly admit that quality is aimed at every stage of preparation and production of a language book.  The reason may be different in different houses.  This may vary from the lack of technical knowledge of the assistant handling a language, to the lack of language-knowledge of the technical assistant.  It is also normally expected that all operations from typesetting to binding to be done at one place in language bookmaking: the language typesetters with unbelievably small units first manage to get the jobs but later find it difficult to deliver a minimum quality and on time.  Added to this, many language books are produced at small towns and cities lacking proper facilities.  The finished product projects itself glaringly among smoothly turned out books in English in India .

       In every organization dealing in academic publishing there is, at some level, someone, or a small unit supposed to be responsible to bring out books in languages.  The success of language publishing and the improvement in the quality depend on these individuals.  An average employee of this unit may not be a technician, may not have got any training or even interested in his job.  There are of course exceptions.  It is a privilege to be a pioneer anywhere.  Those engaged in production of language books in academic publishing are still pioneers in a sense.  Whether they know it or not, they are part of a great national activity and must be able to take their task as a challenge.

       There is an anecdote of Gandhiji and the melodious `M.S. Subbalakshmi'.  When the singer pleaded guilty of not able to sing any Gujarati song to Gandhiji's advantage, the Mahatma replied: "Even arithmetic tables will be sweet music to me when you recite them".

       May be, this anecdote as popular among the producers.   Even boring class lessons could be made attractive by producing the textbooks reasonably well.  They need not necessarily be dull.  Badly produced textbooks may be one major reason for higher dropout level in our schools.  Similarly, well produced language books should be able to sustain some reading interest among the younger generation.

       On a closer study it is noticed that the difference in cost or time is not much between a fairly good book and a poor one.  A good production needs a little more planning, some vision, and careful attention in details, from the selection of paper size to typesetting to binding style to cover design.  As a matter of policy, all the textbooks and other reading materials should be produced reasonably well, as the young readers have a right to expect quality in anything offered to them be it a toy or a book or an eatable item.  Let us hope to have a society where a new generation is introduced to quality products from childhood, so that they in turn, will be able to produce greater world quality in their days.

       Most of the organizations in academic publishing are aware the handicaps in the language book production.  There are many genuine reasons why these books are not as well produced as the English counterpart:  These books are circulated within a language zone and not treated as National production: the printing number is often low and hence not attracting quality printers:  The conventional manner of choosing a press on the basis of quotation often results towards a printer who is cheap in every way including quality and service: each book and each organization may pose a fresh problem which may be genuine in its own context.  A close study of many such cases should be able to help in sorting out similar situations and to find methods for improvements.

       In some big organizations publishing is just one activity and language book making forms a small fraction in the overall functioning.  The problems of those engaged in such book production are not fully appreciated at higher levels in their own organizations.  They expect good work and the problems posed are taken as excuses for not bringing out a proper language book.

       It is therefore suggested that those who handle language book production are given proper training and their problems are also understood to find solutions in a technical way.  For instance, except in typesetting there is not much different in language books production, if the same technical processes could be used in printing process also irrespective of the number of copies printed.  A policy decision is to be taken whether cost of production is a factor or not in priced publications.  If not, language typeset matter could be printed by good offset even for small editions.

       Language book producing staff should have good knowledge about typesetting layout.  As varieties are few in language typefaces the effect of using italics or small caps or all caps in English is to be obtained by judicious spacing.  On occasions, language typesetting occupies more space than the English version of the same matter.  When folders or booklets are planned in  several languages in a uniform layout it is a tricky job to adjust a translated heading or text matter in a layout originally planned for another language!

       In translations, some languages occupy more lateral space than others and this depends on the individual translator as well.  Hence the book varies in size in its different language editions.  Incidentally, many a time, a language book which is to reach an economically lower society is priced higher than the better produced English counterpart.  This is an anomaly.  Again it is a policy matter of the concerned organization.

       Preparing index to books is not a pleasant task in language books.  In many translations, the index portion is not translated – and at least in one case, I know, the translation was not rearranged in the alphabetical order of the translated language and it was left to the office:  There is a suggestion worth considering in the preparation of index.  The usual method is to give the page reference which will vary from edition to edition or from language to language in translation.  Instead, if the chapters and paragraphs are numbered in textbooks and scholarly books, it is enough to locate these two points in the index, and the same numbers will continue to identify any matter in any edition, in any translation – like a Gita śloka!

       There is a strong case for the preparation of a manual for those engaged in language book publishing to maintain a sort of standard.  This may be done by the Directorate of  Printing, or DAVP staff or a Committee containing representatives from public institutions after fully studying the various requirements and problems in different organizations.  The manual should be able to help any assistant or official engaged in language publishing in the following areas:

       Copy editing

       Word count calculations

       Designing a publication

       Planning and estimating

       Selection of paper, a study of paper sizes

       Method of giving printing instructions

       Developing a layout sense

       Chapter openings – various styles

       Proper use of white space

       Designing meaningful folio headings

       Organising descriptive contents

       Instructions for blockmaking

       Preparation of paste ups for map, illustration etc.

       Paper storage problems

       Binding details

       Selecting different styles of binding to suit the need necessity of proper  margin in trimming in series of publications

Visualising a finished product

       Creating national awareness in anything should be possible only through language publishing which reach a wide readership.  Hence creating an awareness of this task among those engaged in language publishing becomes our task through a manual and training courses.  Besides technical information and knowledge, these personnel are to be aware of the objectives and purposes of books they bring out.  Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  All-round quality consciousness is also a necessity.  We may be able to bring out well produced books with originality in languages and need not necessarily keep an English copy as model every time, if an aesthetic sensibility is found in all levels.  Just like a Korean hockey players were made to climb high cliffs with bare hands as part of their training to climb high cliffs with bare hands as part of their training to be able to strength out well, our production people should also be exposed to roots of Indian culture, architecture, music and arts so that there is some impact which will be reflected in our language book production.