Buy Genuine Books in Nepal

Our book-loving community at Books Mandala is filled with known and well-read people. The group infects us with enthusiasm for reading. The passion and love for the act are truly commendable. Each one with abundant knowledge about books and authors, and utmost respect for the artwork and the authors. The reading culture in Nepal is seeing a lot of improvement in the current years. As Booktube, Booktok, Bookstagram and communities on other social platforms, people are looking to buy more books, collect books and build their own little worlds.

This spark of interest in reading has been very beneficial for publishers, distributors and booksellers in Nepal. Physical as well as online book stores are thriving off the reading culture. Businesses are built out of books and their growth is remarkable. With the right social media and content marketing, businesses have no problem attracting the target audience. Amongst all this, there is a greater problem of books piracy that needs addressing.

What is piracy?

Piracy, by definition, is the unauthorized use or reproduction of someone else’s work. Imitating authentic books to publish cheaper, poorer quality books at a much lower price is book piracy. This is a truly disturbing deed. Think of how much thought, effort, dedication, sacrifice, and love goes into creating something of your own. Whether a book is good or bad is mostly a personal opinion, but stealing someone’s intellectual property means denying the efforts and dedication of all those involved. The publishing companies that took a leap of faith in accepting someone’s work of art and making it available to the world are cheated. This is especially the biggest setback for unestablished or emerging writers and publishers. When you don’t get your work’s worth, it is difficult to get by.

How does book piracy arise?

When a book is released, there are various versions of it set to come out in the market. The most common are the hardcover and standard paperback versions. The hardcovers books are usually released for established authors who have a wide following and audience. They are bankable bestsellers and people anticipate their releases. As for paperbacks, the standard has changed over time. Usually, publishers will release ‘trade paperbacks’ for the initial run, as an alternative to the more expensive hardcovers. These can be sold at a third or even half the price of the hardcover books. And when the book gets a good response from the market and the demand increases, publishers will release a much cheaper version called the ‘mass-market paperback’ book. These are still authentic, inclusive of copyright and royalties, just a lot cheaper.

As this trend was established, readers expected and waited for these books to arrive in the market. They would be smaller in size, with extra pages to compensate for the reduced length and width. The only disadvantage is that unauthentic imitations of these books started to circulate in the market; and enter piracy.

And as long as there are readers deliberately buying these imitations, the piracy plague will keep growing. 

This problem is also not limited to physical book stores. But piracy has spread its wings on social media as well. You can find tons of social media handles that sell books at dirt-cheap prices. The advent of digital books has also opened up a new avenue of book piracy. Digital books are much easier to pirate because they are easy to share as files on the Internet and require no physical storage space.

Why avoid counterfeit books?

Counterfeit books harm the reputation of publishers and distributors. They infringe on the intellectual property rights of authors. They harm the publishing industry as a whole, as well as readers. At times you may feel the need to resort to pirated books to cut down on some expenses. But there are several reasons not to. The trend of counterfeit books is a plague. It starts slow and engulfs a whole community such that it is difficult to get out of it. 

The first and the most important reason to buy genuine and authentic books is that that is how writers make a living. Somewhere in the world, an upcoming writer dreams of making it big, or a bestseller hopes their next book does just as well. This is not possible if they are not paid fairly.

Second, counterfeit books are substandard products. You can tell a counterfeit book from a genuine one with the following standards.

• Poor Text Quality

These pirated books are not only dirt-cheap but also dirt-poor in quality. They are printed on cheap, dirty, weak paper. Even the content inside is questionable. The images and text bleed through the pages; the text or image on one page is visible on the backside. The ink may be smudged. Overall, the reading experience is irritating.

• Content inconsistency

This is identifiable when you are actually reading the book. Maybe lines are overlapped or misaligned when printing. There may be pages out of order as a result of hasty binding. Or the content is entirely out of place. Some text might even be blurry or unrecognizable.

• Low-quality images

The difference is quite obvious with this one. While most counterfeit books are text-only (to cut down on publishing costs), some may include images. The images on the cover page or inside may be blurry or black and white. Reducing the size of the book alters the dimensions of the images too, so they just look out of place and stolen. The resolution is poor.

• Uneven Spine

Since these counterfeit books are bound haphazardly, the spine lacks structure and form. The text on the spine may not be centred. The spine images are taken off the standard versions and cropped to fit new dimensions. This means that the spine either shadows the front or the back cover. Genuine books have pages glued together uniformly to the spine to create an even curve and great finish. Counterfeit books don’t.

So, why should you degrade the value of your hard-earned money to buy books that are just not worth it?

Where to buy genuine books in Nepal?

Sometimes buyers, as well as sellers, don’t even know that they are buying/selling counterfeit books. At Books Mandala, you can rest assured that you will get the most authentic materials. Books Mandala is one of the largest online book stores in Nepal. With over 40,000 books to choose from, you can find almost everything here. From the most beloved classics, the newest sensations and some rare lesser-known books, our collection is so large you can’t possibly browse all the way through.

After over 4 years of being in the business, most readers in Nepal resort to our store to look for genuine books. Their trust in our books and services is our most valued achievement. We purchase books directly from publishers and distributors internationally. These books are sold fair and square. Royalty and copyright fees are paid where it’s due. As a customer, you get the very best quality books straight as it was published. We take orders and deliver all over Nepal as well as internationally. You can visit our stores in Lakeside, Pokhara and Gairidhara, Nepal and see for yourself our authentic collection. Or place an order now from our website.