Book launches, bumper sales and a wide range of informative seminars and workshops, the 14th Delhi Book Fair (DBF) gave the bibliophile his due and more.

With over 3.5 lakh footfalls over the last nine days, the fair was a hit.

Focusing on women’s writing this year, the fair had a rich stock of books by women authors. Children’s works, comics, literary and academic books also did brisk business.

“The sales were quite good and more than 140 stalls, out of the 290 that participated this year, have already booked their stalls for the coming year,” said Shakti Malik, director of DBF.

“Stalls of China, Spain, United States and Abu Dhabi attracted the attention of authors and publications. It helps in trade promotion as Indian publishers come up with requests for translation rights,” Malik explained.

Organisers also announced awards for best stalls, the criteria being the presentation, display and overall look. Among English publishers, Anand Publications and Viva Books clinched the honours, while Geeta Press, Gorakhpur, bagged the gold with Brijbasi Art and Press and Rajpal and Sons walking away with silver and bronze for the best stall awards.

“We proposed to the Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia to initiate a Vice Chancellors’ Fund where all universities in the Capital and NCR should pool in resources to buy books in bulk during the fair. That would not only help many publishers but also enable the universities to get most of their books at this one-stop shop,” Malik said.

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