Guwahati, April 29: Publishers in Assam have joined the e-marketing business by tying up with e-commerce giant Amazon. Buying Assamese books from home has never been easier.

Considering the growing popularity of e-commerce sites, the young tech-savvy generation and the Assamese people in other states of the country, at least six major publication houses have so far made their books available on www.amazon.in.

Banphool Publication, Aank Baak, Banalata, Purbanchal Prakash, Jyoti Prakashan and Assam Publishing Company are some of the publishing houses whose books can now be bought on the Amazon website.

This development is seen as a huge leap for the publishing industry of the state. Publishers are hopeful that they would be able to cater to the needs of a large number of Assamese readers who live in other states.

Assamkart.com, which sells Assamese e-books, was the only source of Assamese books till now for many who live outside Assam.

Binod Nath, who hails from Upper Assam's Sivasagar district and lives in Bangalore, was delighted to know about the development. "We used to collect and buy Assamese books whenever we visited Assam. Sometimes we placed the order to a publication house through its website. Only a few Assamese publishing houses have websites and their services were not satisfactory. Now we can browse many books on one platform and buy. As I regularly use Amazon, buying Assamese books will now be very convenient," he said.

Rupjyoti Konwar, an employee of Banphool Publication, said within a week of making their books available on Amazon, they sold around 60 books. "And, so far we have sold books worth Rs 28,000," he said. Konwar said maximum orders came from Delhi, followed by Hyderabad, Calcutta and Bangalore. "We are also in talk with other e-marketing sites like Snapdeal and Flipkart," he said.

Konwar said as Amazon's delivery facility is yet to cover every district of Assam, they (publishers) have tied up with other courier services. "We have been given assurance that if we perform well, our books will also be available on www.amazon.in. If that happens, we can sell our books across the globe," he said.

Ganesh Nath, proprietor of Aank Baak, is hopeful that readers will now be more than happy. "Many booksellers are neither aware of the readers' choices nor do they make conscious effort to keep quality books. When a reader visits such a bookstall, he/she does not get the books he/she actually would have loved to read. Now, we are hopeful that the readers will benefit from finding books of their choice. It is a good way to promote quality books," he said.