Ponytale Books gives Indian children what they want.
Six years ago Pranav Kumar Singh helped carry out a pioneering survey of Delhi schoolchildren’s reading habits. Today he has a small publishing house called Ponytale Books, where the survey data helps him produce books that he thinks urban children will actually want to read.
Singh and a few friends formed Bridging Borders, whose 2004 survey asked 500 schoolchildren, boys and girls aged 8-13 and 14-18, what they liked to read. The younger girls said comics and detective stories; the younger boys agreed, and added books on sports. The adolescent girls picked “fiction”, and the boys settled on adventure and sports books.
Unsurprising results, one might say. But how does one cater to this youthful demographic, for whom Indian publishers produce mainly textbooks? The big multinational publishers are now wading in to grab a share of this market. HarperCollins, for example, is working on a “young adult” list, and so is Penguin with a new imprint led by Shobhaa De.
Full report here Business Standard
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