Book fair sees boost in sales amid high turnout

Despite lacklustre performance in the last couple of days, sales have finally gained momentum at Amar Ekushey Book Fair on Friday with high turnout of visitors.

At the weekend, the booksellers and publishers saw a boost in their sales as the visitors flocked to the book fair.

The booksellers and publishers claimed that with a good sign of satisfactory sales on third Friday, the book fair has officially reached the last phase for which they used to wait for record sales.

On Friday, Suhrawardy Udyan and Bangla Academy premises saw a large crowd while many of the visitors were seen purchasing books compared to the last couple of days.

Many of the booksellers said that the fair used to witness a good number of visitors and sales in the last ten days of the fair which has begun on Friday while they are optimistic about highest performance in the upcoming several days.

Bazlur Rahman Bakul, manager of Anindo Publication, said that sale in the last several days was dull despite high turnout of visitors.

“Most of the visitors used to seek books in the past several days. But from today many of the readers started to purchase books as the fair has been reaching the final stage”.

Those who will visit the fair in the upcoming last several days of the fair most of them will purchase books for themselves or to provide them as gift to family members or friends, he added.

Annesha Prokashon manager Aliza Ahamed said that the overall performance of the past seventeen days was not notable. However, she expressed her optimism to witness significant sales as the fair is very close to the final stage.

“Many visitors visited the fair on Friday while many of them purchase books which bear a good sign about satisfactory sales in the upcoming days,” she added.

Usually, most of the readers used to purchase books at the final stage of the fair as they wait for newly published books.

A good number of diversified books have been released at the fair.

According to Bangla Academy, a total of 1936 new books have been published at the fair so far.

Many of the bibliophiles thronged the Suhrawardy Udyan venue for the newly arrived books.

Masud Ahmed, a student of Dhaka College, told The Business Post, “I have much enthusiasm for newly arrived books. There are diversified publications at the fair while most of the publications arrived in the fair very recently. I collected some 10 newly published books and have a plan to collect more at the eleventh hour of the fair.”

The writers also said that in the past days the readers used to purchase books hardly. Currently, those who are visiting the fair are purchasing books, they added.