My 7 year old and I went to a bookstore today and to my great joy, I found a pile of Pratham books! I am a HUGE fan of these hard-to-find, high-quality childrens' books (published in multiple Indian languages). Top authors and illustrators donate their work to Pratham, helping them to publish well written, beautifully illustrated, extremely affordable books. We ended up buying a book on the river Cauvery.
So why am I blogging about this?
There were two (yes just TWO) measly piles of < 50 English-only titles, hidden in a corner of a three-storey bookstore. I found them quite by accident. In an even more sorry state were books by yet another not-for-profit publisher -- CBT (two piles in an even more obscure corner). On the other hand, the store was FULL of similarly priced but terrible quality books that have flooded the market in recent years. Books designed to fit budgets with average stories penned in poor English. Books picked up by school libraries because multiple copies are freely available within their budget. Books freely given as birthday gifts because the child can get *6* new books within the gift budget.
Why does this happen? Could it be that Pratham and CBT being not-for-profit aren't able to lure bookstores the way crappy book publishers do? Lower/no margins? But what about corporate philanthropy? Wouldn't giving publishers like Pratham and CBT a decent display be the most value-for-money kind of philanthropy for a bookstore?
How else can Pratham and CBT reach a wider audience? One publisher of quality books has a non-conventional way -- Scholastic always sets up a book fair at the school PTM (3-4 times a year) and then donates a percentage of proceeds in the form of books to the school library. Win-win.
What else can Pratham and CBT do to join Scholastic books (and replace "budget" books) on bookshelves at school and home?
Thanks for the lovely feedback and we at Pratham Books value your suggestion and it is our continuous endeavour to be more accessible and available through retail outlets, but unfortunately not for profit publishers like us get beaten up on margins offered by the industry and thus showcasing or attention to our titles gets a little corners or stacks of books piled together.
ReplyDeleteWe are in process of designing something as racks/shelves for bookstores which could allow more face on display of books to end users. Since store owners mind doesn't gel to much with the philosophy of Pratham Books, so you do not see us at more places but some how we have managed to be at around 30 stores now pan India with presence at Gangarams,all the Sapna Stores, Crossword-Residency road etc at Bangalore alone.
Hope to reach our goal of "a book in every child's hand" and have more mentors like you to spread the word across.
Thank you for your spirited association with Pratham Books.