DIPNet

More, please

Last week was the week-long festival of Diwali. Once a celebration only for the Indian diaspora, today huge numbers of other Britons join in. Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain celebrated the festival at homes, in street parties and at prominent landmarks like Trafalgar Square. Diwali receptions were hosted by Britain’s industry leaders, corporate businesses, members of parliament, and even Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street.

As a Hindu, and director of a small publishing business, I also celebrated the festival with my family and conducted a traditional sacred account book ceremony to mark the start of the Hindu New Year– let’s face it, in the current financial climate we need all the blessings we can get!

But—I have to ask—is the publishing industry completely oblivious that such a festival exists?

Gifts have been exchanged during Diwali for centuries. Generally boxes of sweets are given, but there is a growing trend towards buying alternatives, including books. While other industries have caught on to this trend, publishers and booksellers haven’t. I’m spoilt for choice when buying books as Christmas gifts, but there’s not much on show when buying for my friends during Diwali.

Perhaps it’s time our industry became more aware of festivals like Diwali. By learning how to provide more for the UK’s religiously diverse communities we can create new business for ourselves. It’s quite simple—if we want people of all backgrounds to become or remain book buyers, then they need to find books that reflect their lives, their cultures and their festivals. It’s a shame our industry hasn’t been able to do this.

I’m not pointing fingers: when I ask myself what I have done to educate my industry colleagues about Diwali, my answer is not enough! But it does remind me that getting to understand the culture of our readers is precisely why diversity in publishing is so important. It is as much a question of good business sense as it is a moral one. Of course, in an ethnic sense I am in the minority, but I also know there are many decision-makers who are taking this challenge seriously.

The Diversity in Publishing Network and the Society of Young Publishers are among those trying to find answers. Through a series of events, the first one aimed at students in East London, they’re aiming to show that only discussions which provoke genuine action can be effective. By promoting publishing in this way to different audiences, they’re hoping to attract new talent from a whole range of cultural and social backgrounds.

Diversity is not a new issue for the industry and yes, some progress has been made. Unfortunately—and in typical British fashion—we’re being laid back, reserved and altogether a bit too slow to understand how much our industry suffers, both culturally and on the bottom line, without it.

Next year I’ll be making more of an effort to celebrate Diwali with my publishing industry friends. If more publishers can celebrate in a similar way with their readers, then there will undoubtedly be greater prosperity for all.

The DIPNET/ SYP event will be held 4th November at East London University. For more information, please visit: http://www.thesyp.org.uk.

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This blog piece originally appeared on the bookseller.com
http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/101333-more-please.html
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Bhavit Mehta is founder of Saadhak Books (http://www.saadhak.co.uk), committee member for the Society of Young Publishers, and a judge in the forthcoming Muslim Writers Awards under 16s category.