Would You Buy A Pirated Book?

Dear Reader,

Many of us assume people spend too long on our phones, and too little time reading. Fresh data appears to support that view. Indians now spend roughly four to five hours a day on their smartphones, and close to seven hours online overall. Which means screens, not books, dominate our time.

But I started to question that assumption when I visited the book bazaar at Mahila Haat in Old Delhi.

This is a hotspot where sellers offer used and pirated books at dirt-cheap prices. Sometimes, they even sell books by the kilo.

I watched young and old readers scour the stalls under the sharp Delhi sun. They searched for titles by their favourite authors and haggled over every rupee.

“You’re saying 220 for this book. In the bookstore, I can buy it for 300 rupees,” one young woman told a vendor.

“Aisa nahin hai ke readers nahin hain. Readers hain, par books bahut mehengi hain,” said Sonu, a bookseller whose shop sits just a couple of hundred metres away from the bazaar. Sonu took a nuanced stand on piracy: he knows it’s wrong, but he believes it remains the only realistic option for most Indian readers.

Those inside the publishing industry adopt a much tougher position. Saksham Garg—an author, literary agent, and former editor at Penguin Random House India—applauded a recent crackdown. On March 25th, Delhi Police raided an illegal printing press in Rohini and seized over 20,000 pirated books. Penguin Random House India later revealed it had helped the police build the case.

Saksham told me piracy seriously threatens the already slim margins for authors. As soon as a book climbs into the top 100, pirate copies flood the market. Authors earn zero royalties from those sales.

“At times, even India’s highest-selling authors earn just 40-50,000 rupees per month through royalties,” he added.

Saksham also argued that cracking down on piracy would eventually make original editions more affordable as publishing houses could pass on the gains to readers.

In the meantime, however, many consumers, especially students, continue to shop at places like Mahila Haat.

“I know piracy is wrong, but I just cannot afford original books,” Sunidhi, a Master’s student in Physics who loves Hindi literature on the side, told me.

To hear the full story, including voices from readers, sellers, authors, and industry insiders, listen to the latest episode of The Signal Brief.

You can find The Signal Brief on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Thank you once again for listening and supporting us. We’d love to hear from you; write to us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram or X at @thesignaldotco.

Best,
Kudrat
on behalf of The Core

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