If Everybody Cared

A storybook success

If the hallelujahs over the supercalifragilistic growth of Indian publishing ever pipe down, a tiny jubilatory chorus will be heard from an unsung corner – children's writing. Business here too is booming, if anyone cared to know. "It's growing at 7.5 percent a year," offers Manasi Subramaniam , editor of Karadi Tales. Evidence of this can be had at the bookstore, where children's shelves have multiplied like Biblical loaves over the last year. Old hands like Young Zubaan, Tulika, Tara , Pratham, Katha, Karadi Tales , have found new company in indie outfits like Little Lattitude and Fun OK Please, as well as imprints like Little Squirrel put out by distributor Leadstart Publishing.

"Indian children's writing has spiraled in the last two years," reports Sivaraman Balakrishnan, marketing manager at Crossword. "While Ruskin Bond and Anita Nair were some of the few writers you could earlier recall in this category, now there are at least ten you can rattle off the top of your head." A couple of years back, you had to tunnel deep to find contemporary Indian writing for children. "Now, Indian writers account for 22 percent of our total stock of children's literature," says Balakrishnan.

The stats can be imputed to the fact that publishing houses have expanded their production quotas, and have opened up to new writers – of which there are many.

Subramaniam, editor of Karadi Tales, says she receives an average of one manuscript a day, many from mothers who discover story-telling skills in the folds of motherhood. But maternity alone doesn't flip the switch. A growing number ofmen and women are beginning to find their inner Madonna (the 'virgin' who wrote for the very fist time). Incidentally, this year the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards received 62 entries in the children's writing category, a jump from 46 last year, when the award was introduced.

Tulika, the 15-year-old giant of children's publishing, says 2011 has been exciting because of their collaboration with many first-time writers. "There's Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer, a creative director passionate about trees, who has written Let's Plant Trees, a little picture book that comes with real seeds" lists Tulika's editorial team on email. "We have Black Panther, a real life adventure story written by journalist and wildlife enthusiast B Aravind Kumar and Siri's Smile,a picture book by widely travelled stage and film actor R. Amarendran.

Short Fiction - If Everyone Cared pt.1 by LoveWriteLife

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