Indian lit festivals: profitless pomp

       At Quartz Veena Venugopal reports that India's boom of literary festivals is all pomp, no profits, as:

The Jaipur Literature Festival, which starts today, has more than a fair share of heavyweight authors, controversies, media coverage and more than 100,000 visitors. The one thing it lacks, surprisingly, is profitability. In the last six years, the festival has seen 100% increase in attendance every year -- starting with 7,000 people in 2006 and 125,000 last year. But the festival has so far been unable to generate enough revenue to cover its costs.

       Profit is a bit much to expect, especially at open-door Jaipur, as:

Since its ethos lies in making itself accessible to as many people as possible, the festival is not ticketed and visitors are allowed free entry. This leaves sponsorship as the only source of revenue and in India where supporting the arts is seen as a charitable decision and not an investment one, it has been struggling to get companies to come on board

       Interestingly, aparently: "only aspect of literary festivals that is profitable is the bookstore in the venue" -- though with unpredictable successes and failures. It warms my heart that the discerning Indian audience proved discerning:

And very often, their predictions of which books will sell go awry. "Last year, we managed to get Oprah's authorized biography the morning she was here. And despite the fact that thousands of people turned up to see her, no one bought her book," says Malhotra.