Today I have an interview with Editor/Publisher Sayoni Basu. Sayoni
together with Anushka Ravishankar started a new publishing house called Duckbill, partly owned by Westland
Books. Aimed at young readers, it was launched in May 2012.
Here is my interview with Sayoni:
Q What was
the reason you set up Duckbill Publishing, leaving the safety net of a
successful career with Amar Chitra Katha?
I love editing and creating books. My role at
Amarchitrakatha and also earlier at Scholastic was increasingly suit-like and
policy-making and I really missed the excitement of discovery and creation.
Also, both Anushka and I felt there was a lot more which could be done in the
children and young adult book space, and we wanted to do it. So Duckbill was
set up!
Q What kind of books is Duckbill hoping to publish?
Really good, fun books. One of the great things
about being independent is that we are not tied to any number of books we have
to publish. This is very liberating. We will publish only when we find a book
which we feel deserves to be published, which is a story the world should read.
Primarily fiction. For the moment we are not looking at picture books, though
we hope to in the not too distant future.
Q What will be your strategy to compete with the
more established publishing houses?
I don’t really see any competition—there is enough
room for everyone. There are not enough books, so we can all thrive.
But yes, clearly for authors who can publish with
anyone they choose, our USP is that we believe we have a lot to offer in terms
of editorial and marketing. We also have the luxury of time, and we want to
work on each book we sign up so that it is the best book it can be, and we will
try to sell each book in the best way it can be sold.
Q Why is there a lack of children’s books,
especially a series, in the Indian Market?
Children’s books are harder to sell—unless they are
educational. They are also harder to market. Since the numbers are smaller,
authors earn less, and therefore are often not willing to invest the years that
it takes to develop a series. Publishers too often lose interest if the first
couple of books in a series do not sell too well. So it is really a question of
both author and publisher saying we will do, and doing it!
Q You already have a good online presence. How
important are Social Networking sites in promoting books?
It is early days to say! The problem is that
children are not on social networking sites, their parents are—and I am not
sure that parents look for children’s books when they are on these sites! (It
is of course different for young adult books.) But we do believe that it is
vital for a small unknown brand, because you are building a community and
eventually hopefully your potential customers will hear!
Q What are you looking for in your submissions?
Good unusual stories and a strong voice.
Q What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
To write for the pleasure of writing. If one thinks
of publishing and fame too soon, the story you are telling gets compromised,
because inevitably one is thinking of what-will-make-my-book-sell rather than
what-is-going-to-happen-to-my-characters.
Q We keep
hearing about catch them young. But still there are not many good Picture Books
in India. What is the reason for lack of good quality Picture Books in India?
Because there is not much of a culture of reading
picture books. As a society, we look for educational content for our children
and probably most parents would rather buy multiple ABC and 123 books than a
picture book which simply tells a story. Also, picture books by very definition
tend to more expensive because of the art and four-colour printing, and many
parents feel inhibited by the price.
But it is changing slowly!
Q You have had several successful innings starting
with being the editor of Puffin, then moving on to Publishing Editor of
Scholastic. From the books you edited, name three of your favourite books.
Anushka Ravishankar: Moin and the Monster
Manjula Padmanabhan: The Unprincess and Other
Stories
Siddharth Sarma: The Grasshopper’s Run
Q What do you think is the reason Indian writers
writing for children don’t do well abroad?
I think Western societies still prefer their
children to read stories of familiar worlds rather than the unknown and
foreign. Unlike kids in India who grow up reading stories from all around the
world—possibly for English-reading kids more from other parts of the world than
from India!—there is always a certain amount of reluctance, especially for UK
and US publishers, to pick up Indian children’s books.
Sayoni's Bio: Educated in Calcutta and Oxford, Sayoni Basu has
worked in publishing for more years than she cares to remember, at OUP,
Penguin-Puffin, Scholastic, Amarchitrakatha. She is now primary platypus at
Duckbill Books. She has also worked as a librarian, security guard and tea
lady.
Thanks Sayoni for agreeing to the interview. We all wish you lots of success in life.
