When Bloomsbury published Harry Potter, we started earning a lot of money which was exciting as well as bewildering, said Alexandra Pringle, Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Publishing, London.

As a publisher one has to be constantly agile and on the edge of the precipice, she said during a session on “Mobilising New Readers” moderated by Asif Farrukhi.

“There is nothing like unbiased publishing and all publishing companies were involved in politics,” Mr Pringle added.

When asked about the writers doing working as a tool of marketing, she said when now popular Khalid Hosseini was not known, he had to go to literary festivals with the first festival like having four to five people to listen to him and “we do everything for writers to get known”. She explained that readers wanted connection with writers.

“It does not matter whether you read at Kindle, iPad or anywhere. A book is a book, it would remain so.”

Managing Director of Oxford University Press in Pakistan, Ameena Saiyid, talking about writers promoting their books, said it depended on authors. “Some authors are good at it. They write a book in a year and then spend the next year promoting it and we target such authors as we want the writers who like interacting with people.”

When Asif Farrukhi put a question whether the ‘selfie-crowd’ also buys books at festivals or not, Ameena Saiyid revealed that OUP sales in the Karachi Literature Festival were phenomenal. “Book is a way to get selfie with the author as well as his/her autograph.”

Alexandra Pringle said it’s not about festivals as at the end it’s always about the book and extraordinary books will find their way. “It’s not all about authors that much. If readers find something about a book, they would like to read it.”

Chiki Sarkar, publisher and founder of Juggarnaut Books, India, said the “selfie culture” did not increase sales in India. “There was an author at the Jaipur Literary Festival who did not sell any copies,” she added.

She said she looked for stories about which people feel strong about. “I would really like to read on Shahbaz Taseer’s kidnapping and the questions around it. Had I been a publisher in Pakistan I would have a book on it.”

VIRGINIA WOOLF: A session was held on Virginia Woolf and its title was taken from the Edward Albee’s play “Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf”.

The Guardian’s literary editor, Claire Armitstead, said there were many ways people were afraid of Virginia, including her writing and way of living.

“She raises questions about the gender and body,” she said, adding that Virginia was still relevant and growing with time.

Emma Woolf, great niece of Virginia, said her aunt was revealed to her more after reading her diaries and letters. “There are so many myths about Virginia. Everybody has read of her but not read her. All stereotypes that we have about her are not well-founded as she wanted children too much.”

Emma said Virginia’s relationship with her body was complicated. Leonard (her husband) was keeping her alive and gave up his political commitments and career to look after her, she added. Emma did not agree with Adrian, saying Virginia knew what she was writing about and she was all about stream of consciousness.

Zareena Saeed termed Virginia the writer who tried to engage both female and male genders together. She said the novelist raised questions and urged women to think about their narratives and identity.

“She is not limited to a particular space and is beyond isms,” she said, adding that Virginia made you question whether you had space. All women owned this to her as she urged them to look for their space in society.

“In our society this question is still to be answered.”

Poet and critic Adrian Hussain said he was concerned that “we all depend on her biography to read her texts but we should be focusing on her texts, not her life”. He said he might appear like a beleaguered male among the feminists on the panel but gender was ultimately irrelevant when it came to Virginia’s works. “Modernism is all about meanings. It is not just stream of consciousness.”

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2016