MUMBAI: Within a week of Random House and Penguin merging to become the world's largest books publisher with an estimated revenue of $4 billion, the aftershocks have started. The new entity, eager to cut cost and streamline operations, has asked author Vikram Seth to return his $1.7 million (approx Rs ten crore and thirty lakh) advance, a part of which was paid to him for A Suitable Girl, the 'jumpsequel' to his best-selling novel, A Suitable Boy .

Seth, one of the world's bestloved writers, was scheduled to submit his manuscript this June but has been unable to do so, leading to the publishers' demarche. At the time of going to press, Seth's agent David Godwin was in furious negotiations with Hamish Hamilton, the imprint under which A Suitable Girl was to be published by the end of the year.

"It would be unfair to say the deal has been called off," he told us in the course of a telephone conversation hours before his meeting with the publishers was to begin in London. "Vikram has been known to take his time with his books. Our aim is to settle this new date with Hamish. If we can't, then Vikram will decide what he wants to do next," he added. At the same time he cautioned us saying the matter is unlikely to be resolved by evening.

Penguin Random House 's drastic step goes straight to the heart of the dilemma the publishing industry finds itself in. "Worldwide, but especially in Europe, the publishing world is in a state of crisis. The focus now is on commercial books that can be churned out quickly and cheaply. The space for literary books has shrunk rapidly," said a well regarded industry watcher who is also a longtime acquaintance of Seth.

But an author like Seth who commands million dollar advances and who took eight years to write the voluminous A Suitable Boy, works on his own terms. He does not share his manuscripts with anyone until he is ready and will not be bullied by publishers, having once said, not entirely in jest, it was his job to get the money out of publishers and it was the publishers' job to get the book out of him.

It must have been more than a minor delay that set the wheels of discontent rolling at Hamish Hamilton, says another publishing industry insider. "It's possible that Vikram Seth has not started on the book or that it's nowhere close to completion, which explains the move."

"He is so good at doing so many things that perhaps he gets distracted, and everything he does, he does with hundred per cent commitment so delays are inevitable," said the industrywatcher who chose to comment without being named. In the time Seth signed on to do the sequel in which A Suitable Boy's heroine Lata will be looking for a girl for her grandson, until now he has published another book, A Rivered Earth, and painted his version of bottles of Absolut as part of the vodka company's campaign.

The vice-president of marketing & corporate communications at Penguin Random House, India, denied comment on the development saying they do not comment on individual contracts.

Seth has in past interviews said that he would not have taken on A Suitable Girlwere he not sufficiently enthused about writing it. At the same time he has refused to feed the frenzy of readers wanting to know more about the sequel. "All I can say is this: I am not quite sure what the book will be like and what it'll contain, but please allow it to surprise me as well," he told Outlook magazine in 2009. Well perhaps this is the first of the many to come not just for him but for us as well.

