The incidence of book piracy in the country is on the rise. So much so that one-fourth of India’s total book market (which is estimated to be between Rs 5000 and Rs 7000 crore, except educational and text books) is dominated by pirated books. That’s what publishers and digital book sellers estimate.

Rahul Sethi, president, e-commerce, ibibo Web which owns Tradus.in, India’s fastest growing online shopping portal with special focus on books, told Financial Chronicle, “Book piracy has reached an alarming level. As much as 25 per cent of Indian publishers’ total business goes, thanks to piracy. Over and above this, publishers also suffer significant price erosion due to piracy.”

And now Tradus has entered into exclusive tie-ups with publishers such as Harper Collins, Pearson Education, Rupa and company., Wiley India, Penguin Books India, and Scholastic India, in order curb piracy and promote the sale of original book copies.

“We will eventually extend such associations with all other leading publishers including regional publishers. We are already in talks with leading publishers like Harvard Business Review, Random House, Oxford, Tata McGraw Hill and a number of regional publishers. We already have 50,000 titles live and over a period of next six months we expect to have 3 million titles live, once we firm up our associations with regional publishers. We will cover all the key regional languages,” said Sethi.

Online book business through direct association with publishers is possibly the best solution to curb piracy. And online book business in the country is estimated to be nearly Rs 70 crore with nearly 10,000 books getting sold online daily, Sethi said.

Sachin Bansal, CEO, Flipkart, another leading online book mall, put the figure on a higher level.

“The online books market in India is estimated to be Rs 100 crore presently. But it’s growing exponentially. And there is enormous scope to grow. In the US alone, the online books market is estimated to be nearly $5 billion. We have grown by more than 10 times over the last couple of years, but are confident of growing at a much faster rate in the years to come,” Bansal said.

Both of them agreed that the growth rate of digital book sales has been phenomenal. According to Sethi, it is growing at anywhere between 50-70 per cent year-on-year basis.

With piracy swelling up, publishers will be increasingly turning towards the online digital medium for the sale of their books, Sethi said.