Case Study · Publisher

How a Tamil publisher is selling to the diaspora directly

Without Amazon. Without Ingram. Without a warehouse. Kalachuvadu Publications — 1,350+ titles, Booker Prize–nominated authors — went direct through Stck. Here's why.

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kalachuvadupublications.stck.me · Print, digital, chapters

Publisher · Chennai

Bring the best of world literature to Tamil — and take the best of Tamil to the world.

Kalachuvadu Publications — founding motto, since 1995

The Publisher

1,350 titles. 15 languages.
One mission.

Kalachuvadu Publications, founded in 1995, has built one of the most respected catalogs in Indian publishing. Translations span Sinhala, French, Mandarin, Welsh, Spanish, Finnish, Turkish, Flemish, Catalan, Irish, Norwegian, German, Icelandic, Arabic, and Russian. Their author Perumal Murugan was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023.

But reaching Tamil readers outside India — the global diaspora — meant relying on Amazon, Ingram, and international distributors who kept ~70% of every sale. Kalachuvadu went direct through Stck to own the reader relationship and keep the economics.

1,350+ Titles

Founded 1995, Chennai

Perumal Murugan

International Booker Prize 2023

15+ Languages

Translated across five continents

Publisher of the Year

2018 & 2023

Légion d'Honneur

Publisher S.R. Sundaram

The Shift

Traditional Model vs. Direct using Stck

	Traditional Model	Direct using Stck ✦
Margins	Amazon, Ingram, distributor & retailer keep ~70%. A $30 book returns ~$9.	Keep 75% on print, 90% on digital. That $30 book returns $22.50.
Reader Data	Zero. No name, no email, no history. Amazon owns the customer.	Direct relationship on every sale. Name, email, location. Build your list.
Payouts	Quarterly at best. Often semiannual. Opaque reporting.	Every 30 days. Full transparency. Withdraw anytime.
Shipping	Several weeks from home country. Tariffs. Customs. Readers give up.	Printed near the reader. US, UK, EU, Australia. Arrives in days.

How They Did It

From Chennai to every Tamil reader on earth.

Three steps. No warehouse. No distributor. No exclusivity contract.

Uploaded the catalog

Set prices, uploaded covers. Hardback, softcover, e-book, chapters. Own all IP. No exclusivity.

Shared with the world

Social, email, web — readers in 190+ countries can discover and order, printed on demand near them.

Tracking sales, getting paid

Every sale triggers an alert. Full analytics — revenue, geography, titles. Withdraw earnings every 30 days.

Why Readers Love It

Better for readers, better for publishers

Support independent publishers

Buy direct — more revenue goes to the makers, not platforms.

Avoid Big Tech stranglehold

No algorithms, no data harvesting. Just books and readers.

Eco-friendly by design

Printed in market, no overprinting, no pulping. One book at a time.