An Action Research Study on the Commercial Feasibility of Launching a Fiction Book Series in India

This paper reports an interdisciplinary, mixed-method action research study that examines the commercial feasibility of launching an original seven-book fiction series, The Khurana Ascension Series, in the Indian trade-fiction market, using its first instalment, The Blood Canvas, as the launch product. Rather than evaluating the literary content of the series, the study treats the book as a manufactured consumer product and subjects it to the same feasibility tests a start-up founder would apply: market attractiveness, competitive positioning, consumer willingness to pay, cost-volume-profit behaviour, and sensitivity to the macroeconomic environment. Fingerprint Publishing, the adult trade imprint of Prakash Books, is used as an external benchmark for product portfolio, pricing architecture, and distribution strategy. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire (n = 10, urban Indian students aged 15–18) covering genre preference, purchase drivers, price sensitivity, promotional response and packaging influence; secondary data were drawn from industry market-size reports and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy releases. Findings indicate that story concept and book trailers are the dominant purchase and promotion drivers respectively, that premium packaging measurably increases willingness to buy among fiction readers, and that respondents classify books as a reducible ‘luxury’ category under economic uncertainty — a finding with direct pricing and hedging implications. A cost-volume-profit model built from the founders’ own production cost sheet (₹235 variable cost per unit against a ₹399 retail price) yields a break-even volume of approximately 1,300–1,830 units depending on channel mix, with a projected first-year contribution margin of 41–47 percent. The paper connects this feasibility model to India’s prevailing monetary-policy stance (repo rate 5.25 percent, CRR 3.00 percent, SLR 18.00 percent as of mid-2026) to show how financing cost and input-price inflation could move the break-even point by 15–20 percent under a tightening cycle. Applying the Action Research cycle (Plan–Act–Observe–Reflect), the paper concludes with a revised go-to-market plan — a smaller, staged first print run, a hybrid online-first distribution channel, and an inflation-indexed pricing buffer — and is transparent throughout about which figures are verified facts, benchmark-derived estimates, or explicit founder assumptions.

Book publishing feasibility; fiction series; marketing mix; break-even analysis

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