The determination of the cost of publication of books is based on calculation of the price of the paper, printing, binding, cover-design, block-making, remuneration to authors including royalty, establishment charges etc.  Thus when the actual cost of publishing a number of books is arrived at, it is increased by 100%.

       The Bihar Hindi  of the Granth Acdemy (BHGA) produces books for university level under a centrally sponsored scheme.  It publishes academic books or such books which can help in smooth change-over of medium of instruction from English to Hindi in respect of sciences, technology and humanities.

       As per the norms of the Government of India, the Academy allows a maximum discount to customers for promotion of the Academic publications.  Normally, a book-seller is given 40% discount over a purchase of Rs.3000/- and 10% sales-agent commission is given to sales-agents for procuring orders.

       Those book-sellers who purchase books of the gross value ranging from Rs.1000/- to Rs.3000/- get a discount at the rate of 35%, purchases up to Rs.1000/- are allowed discount at the rate of 30%.  There is a separate provision for supply of publications to libraries.  15% discount is allowed for purchase of books whose gross value is between Rs.1000/- to Rs.3000/-; 40% is given as discount even to libraries as is given to book sellers for purchases over Rs.3000/-.  The purchasers have to bear the cost of parcel but the Academy does not charge anything for packing and transport cost upto Rail-head.  There is a general discount of 15% for any type of buyer.

       The agents who procure orders upto the value of Rs.1 lakh within a year, get commission at the rate of 10%.  Those agents, who place orders for supply of books the value exceeding Rs. 1lakh in a year get 15% as their commission.  It has been found that the book-sellers generally place their orders through some agents.

       The amount of discount which comes roughly, as much as the cost of production, is set-off against the probable loss to the Academy for allowing the discount.  This way the objective of production of book on no profit, no loss basis is fully achieved.

       The quantum of discount is on the high side, though the discount given is attractive, it does not very much help in pushing the sale of the Academy publications.  On the other hand, the cost of the book would be considerably reduced if the rate of discount is slashed, since the Academy publishes only textbooks or reference books required by the university students teachers, the prospect of sale will not be affected if the discount rate to trade agencies is lowered.  It will also help in bringing down the prohibitive price of the books.  The idea behind allowing liberal discount to trade agency has not shown any tangible proof of being helpful in sales-promotion.  However, the Academy has to carry on with this policy because of lack of suitable alternative sale-points.  This Academy has proposed to the government that sale centers should be opened at the university head quarters or in round about areas as a first step towards having a net work of sale centers of Academy publications.  These centers will keep books of other academies also, and may be other government publications, to make this ale centers viable units.  It is, at present, just a suggestion and an experimentation.

       The problem of sale of books is really baffling.  Ordinarily, one may think that the sale of textbooks, which are taught at the universities, should not be a problem at all.  It is not really so.  Though the policy of change-over to Hindi as medium of instruction has been accepted, the boys as well as teachers still pathetically lean-on the English books which they find to be more helpful and satisfying.  The Academy has no monopoly on the production and supply of such books and it cannot, being a semi-government instruction, compete with private publishers, who may take recourse to many sharp-practices to their advantage.  Illustrative of this fact is a phenomenon, that university libraries and other such institutions generally route their orders through private sale-agencies and thereby do not take advantage of full 40% discount.  Academy cannot afford sale-centers at convenient places  which may be easily accessible to the students and small libraries located in the rural areas.  Still Academy tried to promote sale of its productions by utilizing the good offices of the government over the universities and through direct contact with the universities and principals.  The Academy organized exhibitions at different places and participated in the exhibitions within and outside the state including exhibitions  organized exhibitions at different places and participated in the exhibitions within and outside the state including exhibitions organized by the National Book Trust, India, the list of books were circulated to universities, colleges, book sellers and other agencies, which are potential buyers of books.  The publications are also advertised in leading newspapers.  Occasionally formal releases of important books are made by inviting important dignitaries at suitable functions.  Here also, the Academy is handicapped due to paucity of funds in making adequate and effective  publicity.  It should remembered that the difficulty is more real, because, the Academy do not produce popular books like novels and other best sellers which attract large number of audiences.  It is a fact that the books produced by the academies as stated above, are not popular and hence thus have average readers as their buyers.  Even the small libraries do not or cannot afford to stock books of high academic utility or reference books.  Thus, the range of sales-promotion is limited, more or less to the university libraries, college-libraries and individual students.

       Other academic publications specialized books of government agencies, which purchase books for public libraries, in respect of every branch of engineering, medical, agriculture and business management have not yet been prepared and published.  However, a few textbooks prepared by the teachers of these faculties are more symbolic of the fact that books are under preparation in specialized faculties, than they are of any use in change-over of medium in those subjects.  Even the fringe has not been touched in the specialized faculties.  It depends upon the experienced teachers in these specialized faculties to come forward with original or translated textbooks with a determination to really start teaching in regional language when the books are available.  There is no indication that there has been any change over the medium of these specialized faculties.  No doubt, it will be very difficult, yet a beginning has to be made with the object of succeeding fully.

       Holding of exhibitions more frequently in different parts of the linguistic area may be more helpful in making the general public more familiar with the subjects of books on regional languages, which may also extend the frontiers of their knowledge.  Apart from helping in the sale, it will help the people at large in getting acquainted with the progress that has been made in this direction.

       In general, the market for the academic publications is confined to the university libraries, libraries of academic institutions as well as public libraries.  As already been indicated above, there is no very enthusiastic and voluntary response from these institutions.  Further, these institutions also depend for their working on the government grants in one form or other.  The universities can also release funds for library purchases only when they, in their turn get adequate and timely grant from the government.  It may not be out of place to mention, that the private book-sellers also achieve success in sales promotion, only when the institutions get liberal aid from the government.  The government thus is the most potential factor in promoting the sales of books in the country.  It is ironical that the institutions which have been established, maintained and are being sustained by the government should not get priority attention from the government at the time of such purchase.

       The academic publications do not have prospect of catching the general market because do not publish books of general utility.  Therefore, the government should pay special attention to the academies and ear-mark a certain percentage for purchase of academy publications with specific directions to the agencies which make purchases.

       Further, the habit of reading a book in our country is not very high.  The intellectual class (who purchase books on their own and read them) is confined to the English books of imagination and information and on such popular subjects as political science, international relations, and such other subjects of instant value.  The cost of books in Hindi is generally so high and the type of people who purchase books on their own are economically situated that they cannot purchase books.

       In order to expand the market for the academics publications, they have to diversity their publications and include some publications which useful to the several intelligetia.  For this, the price of books have to be reduced.  There is scope for reduction even in respect of textbooks.  Presently the five academies of Hindi-belt do not have adequate co-ordination among themselves in publishing the books.  For instance, a book on history is published by a reputed scholar in M.P. or Delhi , the book on the same subject need not be published in U.P. and Bihar .  If this co-ordination takes place the number of copies of a particular book to be published will be very large and the price will be considerably reduced.  This will also ensure uniformity of standard in terms of quality of printing, getup, cover design, etc, which also improve the book more attractive.  Though the present prospect of academic publications is not satisfactory, the future is certainly going to be very bright with the students and public get more familiar with the change of medium and inevitable improvement in the quality of publications and all round economic gain.