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Fast e-book self-publishing in India

17 April 2015

The article at a glance

Cambridge Judge graduate launches e-book business for Indian authors. Digital publishing can often be an uphill battle, especially in India, with new …

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Cambridge Judge graduate launches e-book business for Indian authors.

Fast e-book self-publishing in India
Digital publishing can often be an uphill battle, especially in India, with new authors facing difficulties in publishing their work and making it available to a global readership. Dushyant Sethiya, a graduate of Cambridge Judge Business School’s Postgraduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship (PGDE), is aiming to make it easier for Indian authors through his new venture, Kartindo.com, which he co-founded with his brother, Pallav Sethiya, a computer science engineer.

Kartindo is an e-book self-publishing and distribution platform offering affordable and fast publishing, with access to global distribution channels. The platform allows people to publish their novel, story, research or article as an e-book and Android app. The self-publishing platform enables authors to reach readers via Kartindo’s network of libraries, online bookstores, app stores and other outlets across the globe.

Kartindo offers two options for authors: free and paid. If authors choose the free option, they provide the e-book in the required format and can access a limited number of leading e-book markets for distribution. If the author selects the paid option, Kartindo offers various levels of service ranging from creating the e-book to distributing it to all leading e-book markets.

The venture began in Dushyant’s small hometown of Mandsaur in central India. “I was working on the idea of Kartindo when I joined the PGDE programme and was able to apply my learning to every aspect of the venture during the course from idea evaluation to financial analysis,” he says. “A key benefit of the programme was that we were able to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, and look at how to complement weaknesses with strengths, which for me is the key to entrepreneurial success.”

On reflection, I can see how the programme has transformed me and enabled me to communicate with greater impact and confidence. It has also made me very aware of the need to understand whether business plans will work before implementing them and to keep pace with change.

After facing several challenges related to setting up a company in rural India, including a shortage of appropriately skilled employees and a troublesome Internet connection, Kartindo relocated to the larger city of Indore and launched earlier this month.

“Self-publishing transforms the lives of established and new authors by offering them the power to control their publishing and that is what we are aiming to achieve in India by enabling authors to control their e-book publishing and distribution whilst contributing to the economy at the same time,” he says.