The second edition of the Jaipur BookMark, a dynamic, agenda-setting platform for publishing professionals from across South Asia, is set to take place next week, running in parallel to the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival.

Established last year, the Jaipur BookMark has quickly garnered a reputation as the place for agents, publishers, writers and booksellers to come together and discuss the key issues of that affect their rapidly evolving industry.

This year’s event, which will take place between 21-22 January at NarainNiwas, will feature sessions such as, “Is Publishing Unbankable?” and “Content is Queen” – examining the business and financing of publishers, and the morphing and mutating nature of literary content respectively.

Norway will be the official country partner for Jaipur BookMark 2015, which will be supported by NORLA, (Norwegian Fiction and Non-Fiction Abroad). NORLA is a government-funded, non-commercial foundation which promotes Norwegian literature to other countries.

Not to be outshone by the main Festival, the BookMark has also attracted a range of top speakers for the 2015 edition including Alberto Manguel on the importance of libraries and national archives, Rajiv Mehta from Kindle on the untapped possibility of digital platforms for distribution and marketing in a session supported by Newshunt, a Gateway to India’s ‘Real’ Mobile Internet. Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi will speak on the prevailing importance of content over style, as well as Henry Rosenbloom, an independent publisher from Australia, and Dr. Shubhada Rao from Yes Bank on the notoriously difficult issue of raising finance for publishing businesses.

The Jaipur BookMark will provide a unique arena for discussion on issues particular to South Asian publishing. A session on rethinking translation is set to explore how best to translate content across multi-media and digital borders, whilst an international panel of literary entrepreneurs and professionals from Australia will be discussing the increasing trend of South-South literary collaboration.

Two sessions will look at securing and reinforcing national literary cultures and heritage. Award-winning writer Nicholson Baker and Dipali Khanna will be joined by Alberto Manguel, Shantanu Ganguly and Dr. Venu Vasudeva in an IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts) supported open forum to debate the role and place of national libraries and archives in an age when the world’s information is accessible to us anywhere through our smartphone.

Looking towards the future, Oliver Møystad (NORLA), M A Sikandar (Director of the National Book Trust, India), Prof. Apoorvanand(University of Delhi) and Prof. Avdhesh Kumar Singh (Indira Gandhi National Open University) will participate in the final session of BookMark, supported by the National Book Trust. The four speakers will debate the merits of a national reading policy discuss how a National Reading Policy may be applied across India.

Namita Gokhale, author and Co-Director of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival who helped conceive and programme the event says, “The Jaipur BookMark venue builds on the success of last year and looks afresh at issues, choices and opportunities before the publishing industry today.”

Mr. Oliver Møystad,senior advisor, NORLA, said, “NORLA, together with the Norwegian Embassy, is very excited to participate for a second year in the Jaipur BookMark. We are very grateful for this unique chance to take part in a very important venue for literature, translation and publishing at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival. We look forward to exploring more possibilities for Norwegian literature in India through this partnership, and welcome everyone to meet NORLA at the BookMark.”

Neeta Gupta, Publisher at Yatra Books, who also helped organise the event, adds, “Every year the Jaipur Literature Festival draws not just book lovers, but also publishers, international agents and other trade professionals from across the world. Jaipur BookMark is our way of recognising Jaipur’s place in the global publishing map.”

Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, producer of the Jaipur BookMark says, “We hope that The Jaipur BookMark will evolve into a robust platform for publishing professionals to come together to envision the future of the industry and focus on translations across Indian and international languages which is the need of the hour.”

Registration for the Jaipur BookMark is now open at http://jaipurliteraturefestival.org