Book launch or traffic jam?

A panel of nine people to launch a single book is a travesty that India's publishing industry can ill afford

- Somak Ghoshal

Ask any writer and it's likely they will admit that it takes a village to put a book out in the world. Starting with the author, the process usually unfolds through a widening circle of actors, most of them working behind the scenes, but each having a hand in the chain of events that turns words typed on a screen into pages, printed and bound, then displayed on shelves, real or virtual.

If the book happens to have a formal launch event, that's when a different "village" gets a public airing. A case in point is an invitation I recently received to attend one such event with not one, not two, but eight people on a panel to discuss a book—excluding the author.