Urdu fiction does date back to prior to pre-independence times when pioneers like Mirza Haadi Ruswa wrote Umrao Jaan Ada.
These writers wrote not only to entertain, but to educate the masses, and to revive the culture in Indo-Pak at a time when the society was greatly overshadowed by British values.
Poets in the sub-continent, particularly in Pakistan, have focused on a wide range of topics from social awareness, to politics, to religion and even romance.
Urdu offers a range of books for children from folk tales to poetry to novels and short stories.
Recently there has been a trend of writing awareness books of children on issues like health, the environment, and even child abuse.
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a writer of Sindhi poetry, is widely read and understood by people all over the world.
The roots of Punjabi prose can safely be traced back to Baba Nanak's Janam Sakhis, but the lack of attention paid to the medium hampered its growth.
The literary scene was dominated by Urdu even until the 50s and no one paid a second thought to a group of people publishing Punjabi books and taking out a magazine.
He and his brother Mulla Qassim a renounce poet of Balochi Language were both widely known for their intelligence from early age.
Zulfikar Ghose's Murder of Aziz Khan was the first cohesive modern English language novel published in 1967.
The plot no doubt was purely a Pakistani theme but the fact remains that Ghose never really did live here and the rest of his novels were set in South America.
One such author, Hanif Kureishi, wrote a haunting memoir, The Rainbow Sign (1986), trying to bring together the two worlds he lived in.
Amongst them are Bina Shah, Kamila Shamsie, Uzma Aslam Khan and Sehba Sarwar, all who have proved to be authors extraordinary.
Then there is Kamila Shamsie's Kartography, which details the life in Karachi with the protagonists belonging to the elite section of the society.
Coming to the present era, in 2004, novels of Nadeem Aslam and Suhyal Saadi, two Pakistani-British authors, were long listed for the 2006 IMPAC Dublin Award.
Then there was a reprint of Tariq Ali's Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties, Nehru and the Gandhis: An Indian Dynasty.
There have been attempts, but the market is full of international authors like Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and the popular Sweet Valley, R.L Stine, Famous Five, Hardy Boys series.
Mahnaz Malik, a Pakistani born British, published her first story book for children, which serves as a fund raiser project for The Citizen's Foundation.
The book was received with much appreciation from home and abroad, and was unveiled in a colorful launch ceremony held in a local hotel.
Like every other thing in the region, the printing industry is with its own sets of problems the initial ones being the unfavorable socio-economic conditions, lack of mass education and the development of local languages.
The printing methods were further improved and the publication industry saw a boost in sales and production with the rising literacy rates and the political awareness in the masses.
Since World War II, the publishing industry has been steadily growing despite the many hurdles like the low purchasing power of the masses and the lack of facilities.
Although they are not free and even charge a shipping fee, its very convenient to search and order books online saving the hassle.
They are usually second hand or reprinted, although it's a clear violation of the copyright law but a large number of Karachiites gather at the spot for book hunting.
Founded by Razi Ahmed in 2012, the LLF "aims to bring together, discuss, and celebrate the diverse and pluralistic literary traditions of Lahore.
The boom in the education industry created a vast market for text books, both for school and post-school levels.
Where the primary sector is largely catered to by the local textbook boards, there is a serious dearth for books on professional subjects like medical, engineering or business.
Not only were text books copied and distributed but the recent years have seen a number of local and international fiction works being leaked before the release of original titles in paper back.
When asked about the situation, Bapsi Sidhwa, a leading Pakistani English prose writer, says "Piracy is a problem because of the steep prices.
The government, the NGOs and the intellectuals hardly ever take the initiative to encourage young and budding writers of the country.