GONE are the days when Urdu`s literary works had an initial print run of 1,000 or 1,100 copies. Now the number has gone unbelievably down. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, literacy rate was low but people loved to read. With phenomenal growth in population and presumed higher literacy rate, the number of copies printed should have risen manifold but, strangely enough, it fell to just 500 copies in the 1990s.

Fast forward to 2010s, and we saw a historic low: 300 or even less copies of Urdu`s new literary works being published, except for works by some veterans.

One of the reasons behind was an exponential growth in online material, including entertainment stuff.

On the other hand, books were getting more and more expensive andreading habits were suffering a visible lapse.

Some 10 years ago, came the shell shock: some websites began offering digitised books, both old and new ones, often free of cost. Some unscrupulous elements began digitising books, illegally, and offering them online at a nominal price or even gratis! It devastated Urdu publishing that was already in tatters.

No sooner had a book been published than its digitised versions started appearing.

Of course, some big publishers, such as Oxford, take measures to prevent piracy of their titles, but the modern book piracy has assumed a new form where reading material is not printed physically and, having been saved in the form of images, is sent through online platforms.

A practice that has become so common that even students now don`t bother to get a few pages of abook photocopied as they go to a library, simply take snaps of the required pages with their cellphones, or even the entire book, and send it electronically to friends, virtually killing whatever little demand there could have been for the printed book.

An interesting part of the story is the role of so-called publishers who used to publish Urdu`s amateurish literary works, mostly by new writers and poets, by charging the authors hefty sums, of course. It was a kind of self-publishing one`s literary work and distributing it among the friends as gift. Writers did so with the hope of reaping some intangible benefits, such as, their `15 minutes of fame` at a book launching, getting some favourable reviews, being accepted as a literary figure, being invited to literary conferences or appearing on TV as expert or celebrity.Call it vanity publishing, but it suits new entrants who can sneak into literary arena without much hard work or even talent. Though some of these new writers may be talented ones, the problem is unless they get published there is little hope of being recognised or established as a writer. So the mantra of publishing world `publish or perish` stands true for new writers as well.

And that`s exactly why new writers are taken advantage ofby so-called publishers.

Some of these so-called publishers, sometimes with their own bookshop, would ask the new authors to buy at least 200 copies of their work at a discounted price, a deal often accepted since it offered a window to the perceived literary glory. But often there was a catch: only 220 or so copies were printed with writer buying 200 and remaining 20 displayed at the bookshop just toplease the writer who believed their work was being sold countrywide, though no actual marketing or bookselling was involved.

Now there is a new twist in Urdu publishing`s sad story: digital printing. It has brought the number of copies printed down to 50. The socalled publishers have changed their strategy. Equipped with desktop publishing and some sophisticated laser printers, they now offer the new writers and poets to get published just 50 copies of their literary `masterpieces`, with a fourcolour cover in hard bound. As the pages of the book are printed on a laser printer attached to a computer, the process does away with the printing plates required in offset printing and is comparatively cheaper, saving time, too.

Some of Urdu`s literary magazines, too, have now turned to digital printing and the entire maga-zines are printed digitally, including the four-colour cover. Well, this may be the future as newspapers and magazines around the world have been encountering dwindling sales of physical copies and much of the revenues are now generated through e-versions.

Many world renowned newspapers and magazines, Newsweek, for instance, have stopped printing hard copies, so do some of Urdu`s research journals.

So Urdu publishing rarely considered big business, barring a few master players has embraced the new technology. But what really perturbs one is the revelation by an insider: now some digital publishers are offering to publish five copies or just two copies of your book. So how about becoming a writer for a few thousand rupees! drraufparekh@yahoo.com