The number of books being published at Amar Ekushey Boi Mela may have increased over the years, but there is a downward trend in the quality of most of those books.
Eminent writers and readers alike have frequently complained about poor editing, grammatical errors and substandard content presentation and poor use of language in most of these books, although they do have eye-catching cover designs.
Most of the publishing houses who bring out these books do not have good editors, who are crucial in ensuring a good quality book that can be presented to the readers, said.
“These books are only piles of pages; they are not worth anything,” said Shams Swann, an annoyed reader.
Many veteran writers said the quality of novels and poems written by young writers is especially poor, whether it is the content, grammar, spelling or the use of metaphors.
Syed Manzoorul Islam, a professor of English at Dhaka University and a prominent writer, believes there are two major problems with editing.
“Not much attention is paid to the use of languages these days, and the sentence structure is flawed,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. “It is the writers’ duty to look at their work with objectivity and ensure that the write-ups are well-edited.”
He also expressed concern about the quality of children’s literature these days. “It is especially important to maintain the quality of the literature for child readers.”
He suggested that Bangla Academy should introduce a panel which will screen the errors and maintain the standard of the writings for children.
Professor Emeritus Sirajul Islam Chowdhury of Dhaka University echoed similar sentiments as Prof Manzoorul Islam.
“Perhaps the huge number of books coming out at the book fair has been possible because of the widespread use of technology. Moreover, there are some people who publish books by spending money, which causes harmful consequences for the publishing industry.”
However, he said it is the publishers’ responsibility to ensure the quality of the books they publish and see that they are well-edited.
Selina Hossain, chairperson of Bangladesh Shishu Academy who is a writer herself, said: “There are many writers who write a little but want to publish books quickly; it has become a trend of some sort. If books do not attract readers, they should be thrown into the garbage.”
Biplobider Katha publisher Sheikh Rafique, partly agreed with Selina. “There are many writers who publish their books on their own, hence such a huge number of new arrivals at the book fair,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Being the second last day for this year, yesterday saw 92 new books published at the fair; the number of new arrivals as of yesterday now stands at 3,304.
