Hardly any business has a longer, deeper tradition of pessimism than the Indian book trade. Ask any publisher-bookseller (often they are one and the same here) and he or she will invariably sigh and tell you that things couldn't possibly carry on like this for long - people aren't reading any more; the trade is dominated by sharks who are deciding whether to either pack up or diversify into fast foods and coffee parlours. Yet come October, planeloads of publishers and wholesalers are headed for the Frankfurt Book Fair and London with one simple objective - to shop around. But what is the Frankfurt Book Fair and what do we go shopping for? Frankfurt is the largest book fair in the world, established in 1968, held in October every year. Every major publisher in the world is represented there, including non-English publishers, with their books, software packages and state-of-the-art print technology. The fair's basic purpose is to exhibit the latest as well as forthcoming books, audio-visual cassettes, DVDs, computer software packages and so on in the communication industries. These products are sold in bulk; or alternatively, the rights to reproduce them against royalties are sold. In many ways, the fair could be described as a rights bazaar. So what do those who make the journey do in a world that is totally strange to most of them? They simply concentrate on old and tested titles that can be picked up at ridiculously high discounts. Negotiations on titles, the quantities required, and discount and credit terms are finalized in Frankfurt and despatch instructions sent to publishing offices in London. The Indian contingent does not much care for either new or forthcoming books.This is because first, they are not sure how the Indian market will accept these and not willing to take the risk. Second, the discounts on new titles are not enough to leave our distributors with a decent profit at the end of the day. But quite simply our publishers cannot 'connect' the titles to their market because they do not have either the experience or the educational background necessary to do so: they simply look upon books as 'products' and treat every book as such. This pat formula works in the West, but here every book has to be treated in relation to its special niche market. This is the basic reason why new titles are not seen in the Indian market or only appear against specific orders and therefore in driblets. Of course apart from the sure-shot sellers, there are many non-books - celeb books and packaged soap operas that promise glitz, sex, romance. Here discounts are highly flexible and depend substantially on the quantities picked up and credit terms. For a cash-strapped business, this makes sense. It may be a bit much to say that Frankfurt and London are the conduit for the whole lot of remainders which find their way into our markets at the expense of the new and more serious and relevant titles. The real question is whether anything can be done to stop or at least reduce the inflow of such titles. The honest answer is: precious little. The margins on new books after providing for discounts to libraries (the individual buyer has almost disappeared) are not enough even to cover overhead costs. These costs and a decent profit for further growth can only come from deals in Frankfurt and London. These deals have now become the norm and as long as they remain, the trade has no reason to complain.