Bangalore: Kannada books are now available online and sales are picking up. It’s a boon for Kannada readers outside the state and those living in tier – II  and tier III cities of Karnataka.  Unlike major e commerce portals, these are book retailers with an online presence who do not offer large discounts and charge for shipping of books.

Sapna Book House has emerged the biggest player in the online segment. Others who joined fray are Akruti Books, Nava Karnataka and A4dable.com. Akshara Prakashana of Heggodu has also launched an online platform, which only sells books published by them.

Sapnaonline.com has two lakh Kannada titles and gets an average of 700 orders for books every day. The bestseller was SL Bhrappya’s “Yana” – 3100 copies sold in two days.

Nava Karnataka is a new entrant and has daily average order of 25 books with approximately 1000 books online, a far cry from Sapna’s portfolio.

Online book sales indicate that readers in New Delhi, Pune (Maharashtra) and Tamil Nadu are widely using the platforms to procure Kannada books. Most of the overseas orders are from the United States of America.