Pratham Books is a finalist in the Google Impact Challenge. Our idea is to create an open source platform for children’s books. We need all our readers and supporters to VOTE FOR OUR PROJECT IDEA so that we can win this grant and make this dream a reality.
Our project will build collaborative web platforms that solve the three major problems that affect children in India – a very low number of books available for them, a lack of linguistic diversity of books and a lack of access to funding for libraries and books so that children can experience the joy of reading.
The ‘I am …’ series written by Mala Kumar will give you an insight into how this platform can be useful to you – as an author, an illustrator, a storyteller, a publisher, etc. Today’s post is from the viewpoint of an publisher.
I am a Publisher – How will this platform help me?
One of the biggest challenges faced by publishers is to find good stories. The open source platform is a vast reservoir of stories waiting to be re- published in different formats, languages, shapes and sizes, and in different parts of the world. As a publisher you can go through these stories, see which one suits your purpose best and proceed. You can also see the works of new and established authors and discover authors who would be able to customize stories for your purpose or, more importantly, write a new book for you to publish. The platform will be your new and free book agent! The repository also includes illustrations that could be used in the stories that you want to publish because the platform encourages and allows remixing, re-purposing and giving content a new role to play.
The other big challenge faced by publishers is marketing. If you choose to include books published by you in this open source platform, you can expect other resellers to buy your books. From our experience, we’ve discovered sales of books made available online, to read, are greater than those not made available online to read (3:1).The platform will allow app developers to give your book exciting new forms, sending them into more hands all across the world. Small printers would be able to get the books translated into new languages, thereby finding new readers for the books. Frankly, the possibilities are endless!
The posts we are sharing about the project will help you understand our vision as well as the scope of this project. Related posts:
1. Introduction
2. Let a Thousand Tongues Speak – Increasing language diversity in children’s books
6. Read. Create. Remix. Give – A Platform to Make Stories Accessible
You can also spread the word by :
4. Writing a post on your blog about why you believe in our mission and why you want readers to vote for us. Here’s an example from one of our champions.
Illustration courtesy : Deepa Balsavar ( from the book Rupaiya Paisa – 3 : The Money Managers)