How to Create Books for Children: Advice and Insights with Sohini Mitra, Shobha Vishwanath, and Radhika Menon

This is part of a series of conversations from The Bound Publishing Course, India’s first comprehensive course on book, magazine and digital publishing. 

 

This article covers the best insights from an hour-long panel discussion on publishing books for children, featuring three creative professionals who have worked with children and in Children’s Publishing for a significant period of time.

 

Click here to apply for the 2024 edition. 

Most of us got into reading as children, and what we read helped shape our worldview and influenced what we read as adults. Thus it’s no surprise that children’s literature is an important and indispensable part of the publishing industry. During a session of The Bound Publishing Course, we spoke to three industry experts from Puffin, Karadi Tales, and Tulika to get their insights into this industry.

In this article, Sohini Mitra, Shobha Vishwanath, and Radhika Menon discuss the ins and outs of children’s book publishing: how they entered into this section of publishing, what makes for a good children’s book, how they decide which books to publish, and more.

 

Sohini is a publishing professional with nearly 17 years of experience and has dedicated 15 years to Penguin Random House India, she’s an expert in children’s and young adult literature. She is Publisher, Children’s and YA at PRH India, curating a diverse range of titles that align with consumer and industry trends. Sohini has also collaborated with renowned authors like Ruskin Bond, Sudha Murthy, and Rupa Pai. She has also championed many debut voices in children’s publishing.

 

Shobha is a Publishing Director and the co-founder of Karadi Tales. She is a firm believer that reading should be for fun and that art enhances the reading experience. She guided Karadi Tales to garner international reputation, while simultaneously making their books national favourites across India.

 

Radhika is the brain and spirit behind Tulika, a pioneering publishing house started in 1996 which is recognized in India and internationally for its outstanding range of multilingual children’s books. The books are available in different languages and reflect cultural diversity in every aspect. Radhika is a hands-on publisher, and is deeply involved in the visualising, editing, designing, and marketing of Tulika books.

1. How did you decide to pursue children’s publishing?

Radhika Menon: I started out as a teacher and was always excited by the creative possibilities in the teaching of children, and I was also interested in publishing. Teaching and having children of my own made me realise that there was a huge vacuum of Indian books as opposed to the large impact of imported books in the market. Today, ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ is still a bestseller. When I moved to Chennai from Delhi, I decided to take the plunge and start publishing children’s books. That’s how Tulika started.

 

Shobha Vishwanath: ‘Karadi’ means bear in Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada. The name of the publishing house, Karadi Tales, arises from the fact that a bear started telling all the stories that we published. We started Karadi as a family, and we started it as a music publishing house. It was under this umbrella of music publishing we started a segment for children. It started with the audiobooks, and we had no background or experience in publishing, but we thought, how hard can it be? 

 

Strangely, during those times, the books did sell because the concept was new. We used voices like Nasiruddin Shah and Javed Jaffrey from theatre and film because it was the first audiobook product in India for children. 

 

Sohini Mitra: Puffin is part of a larger entity, which is part of a larger ecosystem. The great thing is that as a publishing house, Penguin Random House is big. It has the wherewithal, the people, processes, and a lot of other things. Even though we are an imprint, we have complete autonomy,and we have the independence to run the list. We have a small team that is very passionate about the books that we create. From the production team, to the design team, to the cop-editorial team, and the post-press team, it’s a group of passionate creative people coming together to take the book into the market.

 

2. How do you build a catalogue for children’s books? What sort of research do you do to find out which titles are suitable for kids?

Shobha Vishwanath: One of the wonderful things about being a smaller, independent publishing house is that what we create is not always determined by the market, what the children are reading, or what’s most popular. If we went that way, most of our books would probably be of the same kind. What we publish is determined by which manuscripts resonate with us, and it should be something different compared to what we have already published. We do have to keep the price point in mind, the cost of everything from production to paper have gone through the roof. It’s become difficult to produce good quality, hardcover picture books- which is what we would ideally like to do for children.

 

Radhika Menon: We also don’t really look at what will work in the market. 

 

If we respond and resonate with it, we publish it. 

 

What is heartening is that there are very large and diverse markets. All books don’t work for everyone, there are different readers for different kinds of books. We’re not looking at the mass market, and the decisions have worked. We haven’t gone wrong in our editorial instincts. Children’s publishing is booming, and we are always on our toes now. We are more aware of the way the market is now than before. There is readership which will buy certain kinds of books, but that’s not a great marketing strategy.

 

Sohini Mitra: The guiding force is always finding a great story. Having said that, when you have a limited budget of 80-100 books, you have to be very prudent about where your money’s going because the input costs going into a book today are absolutely astronomical. Every book is a risk. A lot of times most publishers work out of instinct. You are constantly asking the question, I liked the book, but do I love the book? Will the audience love the book?

 

3. What are the key skills a children’s book publisher needs to have?

Sohini Mitra: You have to be adaptive, and have an ear to the ground to spot trends and gauge what the Indian market wants. The Indian market is also not one large market, you have to cater to the parents and you have to cater to children. These children are at different stages of their reading journeys, who have many distractions in the form of gadgets and other things. It is a challenging market due to geographical diversities as well. The urban landscape works very differently from a B or C category town. You need to have patience and creativity. There is no formula for editing or to determine what is selling in the market. It is a very creative job in which you deal with many people who have a lot of creative talent. 

 

Soft skills are equally important, you need to have time management skills, and the skill to navigate through tough conversations. The world of books is driven by many passionate people who put their blood, sweat, ideas, tears, and everything into a product. It’s such a wonderful feeling to see your book in a child’s hand. The joy of converting a non-reader into a reader is really unparalleled.

4. What are some of the marketing challenges for childrens’ publishing since children don’t have the awareness or interest to buy books like adults do?

Radhika Menon: When we do the blurbs for the book, we’re thinking of the parent, because the child is not going to read that. What do we want to tell the parents? What will catch their attention? There is more engagement from parents these days. Book events and book festivals have gone a long way in creating awareness and publicity for authors, illustrators, and schools.

5. How likely are you as a publisher to commission a children’s book that takes risks on its format or storytelling choices?

Sohini Mitra: In the publishing space, there is a limited choice of books that we can do.

 

I think that as publishers it’s our responsibility to bring out the different voices, narratives, and perspectives out there. 

 

For example, we know that so much of Mughal history is being erased from textbooks. So, we made a conscious decision to invest a lot of time, money, energy and resources into creating a book about Mughal history. Children should be given stories and narratives of all kinds. 

 

We are doing a lot of books for which the reception might be uncertain, but for one naysayer, there is always somebody who says yes. India is a vast country, and we have all kinds of audiences. 

 

Our job is to make sure that books on every topic of interest get out there. Publishers recognise that books are conversation starters, that is why when dealing with sensitive topics, we give the writing and artwork a sensitivity check and a legal check. That is how diverse content is created. As publishers it is on us to do due diligence before we put a book out. 

6. Any advice for people looking to break into this industry?

 

Shobha Vishwanath: Read children’s books. Even as an adult, you must read children’s books. Adults are the buyers of the books, so if you don’t read them, the children are not going to read them. I think children’s books take more effort to create compared to adult books. It’s like a world in a grain of sand!

 

Radhika Menon: The key word is passion. In children’s book publishing, and in children’s books, there are different kinds of publishers. There are mass-market publishers, independent publishers and big publishers who are bringing out a lot of different books and changing the profile of children’s books. It’s a wide, wide world, and it’s up to you to decide which direction you want to go in. 

 

Sohini Mitra: Read childrens’ books and champion children’s books.

 

 I truly believe that the world needs more stories, and that we can never tire of them. 

 

Stories are the place to be, and our main task is to influence minds. It’s a supremely fulfilling job because a lot of us feel like we are creating the readers of tomorrow. Just inhabiting that world is absolutely magical. There are so many ways in which we can make a difference in a child’s life. If you get the opportunity, do give children’s publishing a chance, because it really is very rewarding

In this panel, our experts emphasised that despite being targeted towards children, children’s books can be enjoyed by people of all ages. In fact, when marketing is taken into consideration, it is the parents who are the main target audience, not the children.

 

Children’s literature is an integral part of not only a child’s development, but also the publishing industry. It can be a playground for creativity, a way to start meaningful conversations, and a medium for introducing sensitive topics to younger audiences in a manner that is accessible and understandable to them.

 

The Bound Publishing Course is designed to help you understand India’s publishing scene and give you the resources you need to get started in publishing. It is a 3-month certified course that teaches you everything you need to know about India’s publishing and digital media landscape. The course will start from 14th September till 15th December. Applications are open now. Know more here