HarperCollins plays it smartly by the book

Publishing, like politics, thrives on making bets. Penguin Random House India made the wrong bet by overthinking the consequences of publishing a book written by someone no longer in the establishment - or, more importantly, someone it thought the establishment doesn't much care for.

After the publishing house with a flightless bird logo dumped Sonia Gandhi's forthcoming memoir, 'Belonging: A Journey of Love' - for reasons we all kind of know - HarperCollins India picked up what every non-illiterate Sonia supporter and critic alike would want to pick up in November. Here, we have to commend HarperCollins for rushing in where the Antarctic bird was too petrified to tread. Probable result: Harper laughing its way to the bank.

Read more: HarperCollins takes over India publication of Sonia Gandhi’s memoir after Penguin exit


Frankly, the book promises everything: romance in Cambridge, saris in Delhi, an assassination in the garden, and the perennial question of how an Italian girl became the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress. It should be part-soap opera, part-statecraft, and wholly irresistible.

Sonia G may no longer be in the thick of things. But her story is, what in non-publishing circles is called, irresistible. This is one publisher understanding that the only constituency that matters is the cash register. Penguin RH may have been loyal to the crown. But Harper has been admirably loyal to the bottom line.