By P.T. Bopanna (in picture)
Coorg is not an ideal place for selling books as there are no regular book shops. Though there are no exclusive book shops, a few departmental store owners have come forward to stock the books.
Despite the odds, my latest book ‘Are Kodavas (Coorgs) Hindus?’ has been sold out within a month of its publication.
I had no immediate plans of reprinting the book, mainly because I have temporarily shifted base to my home town Gonikoppal (Athur) from Bengaluru.
However, I decided to go in for the reprint at the prodding of Kunchettira Vasanth, the owner of Nilgiris store at Gonikoppal where I used to keep my books for sale. The Nilgiris had run out of stock of my book and there were enquiries for the book from customers.
Among the shops selling my books for the past decade is Daily Needs at Gonikoppal, run by two brothers – Kademada Sunil Madappa and Dany.
Usually in Coorg, the authors are supposed to leave their books in stores and collect the money later after the books are sold.
However, the Daily Needs owners pay you the money on delivery of the books, without waiting for the copies to be sold. Of course, they buy the books from authors who are ‘saleable’.
There are two shops at Madikeri who have been helpful in selling my books. One of them is Komal stores owned by Kunchettira Ganesh and the other is Arun Stores on College Road run by Arun M. Krishna.
Arun told me recently he plans to open a book section in his store. A welcome news for authors and readers. If not a book shop, Coorg can boast of a ‘book section’.
