Novels, storybooks dominate Ekushey Book Fair

Booksellers and publishers have expressed satisfaction with the sales of books particularly those of novels and storybooks as Amar Ekushey Book Fair witnessed a large number of bibliophiles on Saturday.

Many of the visitors preferred buying novels and storybooks to other options. Apart from this, science fictions, detective books, history books and children’s books were also in high demand.

Over the last two weeks, many people visited the fair but few of them made purchase. With the fair nearing the end, the readers are seen purchasing their favourite books in larger numbers.

According to the booksellers and publishers, most of the people visiting the fair currently are purchasing books.

The booksellers said they are optimistic about a boost in sales at the eleventh hour of the fair. They are also hoping to witness a record sale of books in the last week of the month-long fair.

Md. Jakir Hossain, Manager of Prothoma Prokashon, told The Business Post that overall sales over the past few days were not satisfactory. “But after third Friday, we are getting good response from booklovers.”

We used to see a high turnout of visitors in the last week of February. A very few visitors purchased books over the last two weeks. We are hopeful that readers would purchase more books at the eleventh hour,” he added.

Md. Farukue Hossain, manager of Pearl Publications said, “Sales at the book fair gained momentum with high turnout on last Friday.”

“We hope the fair will see more visitors in the last week and turnover will be notable,” he added.

However, sales of newly arrived books have yet to gain pace as the prices of such books are costlier.

Compared to the previous years, the price of paper rose sharply in the market which forced booksellers to increase the price of books by 22-25 per cent, according to the Bangladesh Publishers and Booksellers Association.

Due to high prices of books, newly arrived books are in low demand.

Mahmud Hossain, manager of Anyadhara Publication, said that they are selling publications mostly previous years as consumers are unwilling to purchase newly arrived books due to high prices.

The publications of previous years are in high demand due to their rational prices, he added.

Yesmin Akter, a private jobholder who came to the fair from Uttara in Dhaka, said that for the first time, she visited the fair today (Saturday). “I have purchased my favorite books from the fair and I am very much excited to have much collection.”

“But I could not buy newly arrived books as per my expectations due to their high prices,” she added.

Shyamal Paul, convener of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair Standing Committee, said, “The book fair has already witnessed a huge turnout of booklovers.

“We are hopeful that it will be a boom year for the publishers even though they are facing challenges in the market.”