Forced by dull sales to wake up and smell the coffee, booksellers in India are shifting their shelves into cafes, shopping malls, health clubs and hospitals to boost business and taste instant success.

"After being in the book business for over 80 years, we decided to introduce the concept of co-location and co-branding. The belief is that selling books from espresso bars and other such shared locations boost book sales," said Sandip Dutt, CEO of Book Café, spilling the beans on his latest business move.

The main plot - of positioning books with refreshments or other recreational facilities - seems to be paying off as shoppers rush in to browse and buy at the kiosks.

Sipping cappuccino while flipping through a favourite book without being interrupted by the telephone, a chatty neighbour or even a street dog barking is now made possible for the customer.

Most book bars satisfy two hungers at once - that of the mind and that of the body. Walk in, select a classic - say, Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men In A Boat" - and settle down in a corner to have a quiet time of it, occasionally making tasty inroads into pastries or a pizza.

"Book Café aims to be a key contributor in developing an intellect-driven society while doing sound business," said Dutt of his two-year-old strategy to transfer books from their traditional terrain.

A subsidiary of the English Book Depot in Dehradun, Book Café is all for the "edutainment" business.

Book Café has 20 outlets in 14 cities of India, including six in Delhi, set in 50-300 square feet of space. In 12 outlets, it also has a tie-up with Café Coffee Day.

The company is planning to open 100 outlets all over India by December 2006 to boost the reading habit while tingling the taste buds.

"We will invest Rs.180 million in 100 cafes within the next 18 months. These cafes will be small and work as a corner bookshop in your neighbourhood," Dutt said.

There will also be free delivery of books. Buzz the bookshop and get a book of choice delivered at your doorstep or somebody else's, if one wants a break from the routine floral offerings when it comes to gifts.

A book help-line will assist booklovers track down topics or titles.

Currently, the cafes have over 5,000 hard copies and 60,000 titles that can be browsed online, ranging from fiction, romance, children's books and classics to non-fiction, art and culture.
 
"Once a customer places an order, the book will be delivered to him free of (delivery) cost. Besides, every book here has a unique dial-up number that helps in knowing the reading habit of a particular customer, on the basis of which we offer him new titles," said Dutt, an author of two books.

Other bookshops are also set to buy into the cafe culture, with an offer of bitter or chocolate Latte as a subplot to their main business of selling hard covers, paperbacks and coffee-table collections.

"Now lifestyle is entering into the book business," said R. Sriram, CEO of the Crossword book retail chain, who was here last week to inaugurate their first store in Gurgaon.

"We are going to launch four bookstores in Delhi this financial year and will inculcate the café culture," Sriram told IANS.

These cafes will facilitate book festivals, meet-the-author programmes and help brew knowledge like the coffee houses of yore, famous for their steaming debates in the Victorian era.

Bookstores like Café Turtle in the uptown Khan Market area and Oxford Bookstore in the Statesman Building have already caught on to the marketing mantra - making coffee on the side is good for business.

Booksellers are hoping the strategy will help their bottom-lines get back into the black, as black as the coffee that comes with the books.