Well Done, Cinnamon Teal.

          When Cinnamon Teal was born, Leonard and Queenie Fernandes were inexperienced but confident parents. They’d learnt valuable lessons whilst raising their first baby, Dogears Etc., which wasn’t in good health at the time.

When I met them about five years ago, what struck me first was that they’d returned home when they’d had a chance to earn in dollars; second that they were pioneers in their field, chasing their dream in Goa, not Mumbai/ Bangalore/ Delhi; third, they responded to every email I sent them within hours, sometimes minutes.

For their efforts at raising Cinnamon Teal, in 2010, Leonard received the British Council’s Young Creative Entrepreneur (Publisher) Award.

(Did I miss mentioning something in the introduction? Dogears Etc. was/is an online used-books store. Cinnamon Teal provides publishing services to authors and trade publishers in India. Engineer-MBA Leonard studied at the Goa Engineering College and the Ohio State University; he has worked in Tata Infotech Solutions, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, CarrefourSA, and Bank One (later JP Morgan Chase) across the USA, Turkey and India.)

After he won that British Council award, he and Queenie discovered that there was no platform for publishers/printers/ writers/readers to share knowledge and experiences. That’s how Publishing Next was born, destined to give them the maximum sleepless nights.

Every year, the couple slogs through sun-sets and –rises, after working hours, during working hours, stealing working hours from leisure time, to bring value to ‘the next chapter in publishing’. For the last five years publishers, printers, marketers, writers, have been flocking to Goa when this conference is held.

I attended last weekend’s edition.

I read out to Shri Husband the concept printed on a hand-out: “…paradigm shifts occur with alarming regularity…  rules of… creation, development, production, distribution and marketing of books, are constantly being rewritten as the industry witnesses unprecedented disruption, often from players outside the traditional world of publishing.”

Shri Husband’s interruption: “Did you understand anything?”

I admitted: “When I registered for ‘Publishing Next’, it was out of curiosity rather than interest.” Then added: “I stepped into the Central State Library on 11/9 at 0900 hrs. The moment after I registered and had chai-samosas (whose source I need to know, they were crisp and yum), I attended sessions without a break, learning about software that read fonts of different Indian language scripts, contracts, copyrights, legalities, podcasting techniques, using social media tools, book-factories, translation problems, library structures, nuts and bolts of self-publishing ...”

I slyly checked. Shri Husband was giving me that sideways look of reluctant respect. He commented: “You really did learn something, then.”

          I bashed on, encouraged: “You know, publishers scurry around to make sense of the changes happening in the industry without taking their foot off the pedal and risking business becoming obsolete.”

          I told him about Arunachali author Mamang Dai’s keynote address. She spoke on the journey of a writer.

At Daily Hunt’s workshop on Digitizing the Backlist, I learnt of how difficult it was to transfer fonts from print to a digital form, how easy to transmit news via cell-phones.

The fact that mobile phones were/are the reading tools of the present/future was news to me.

In Podcasting for Publishers, the kind lady from SynTalk showed us how her not-for-profit experiment was attracting listeners from across the globe.

“If I read my work and podcast it, will people across the world enjoy it?” I asked Shri Husband. He snorted.

          Tamil and Hindi represented the Indian languages on-stage. Their readers were greedy for the printed word to reach them, but couldn’t afford the prices the English readers could. Behind me, off-stage, a group of Marathi-speaking delegates discussed their issues.

          “Sometimes,” Shri Husband sagely said, “the off-stage stuff is quite educative.”

          “Should I have taken notes of what they said?” I innocently asked. He snorted again. Unpredictable he is.

          But I spoke on: “Ramu Ramanathan’s The A-Z of Book Printing was one of my favourite sessions; he showed us various printing processes and book-factories. Theatre-chap that he is, he put a lot of drama in his presentation.”

“Another favourite session was The Case for a Translation Body. (An aside: I had once applied to an organisation for translation work because I’d done some Marathi-English literary stuff myself. What I got were offers to translate shampoo-labels and information consent forms from pharmaceutical companies. My luck!)

One speaker said: Indian language authors will never be known outside the country unless their work is translated into English first.

Shri Husband commented: “Indian language translators are so poorly paid. Who would do such work except out of passion? And that’s rare.”

I nodded. We agree sometimes.

“I best liked the session on the Nuts and Bolts of Self-Publishing.  I’m going to make an e-book,” I said.

Silence. Could mean encouragement, could mean Shri Husband hadn’t paid attention, couldn’t make out.

I broke the silence: “The traditional publishers presented Growing the Publishing Business: Strategies, Technologies, Skills.”

That seemed to catch his interest. He stretched his hand, took the notes and tried to read them. “What language is this?” he asked, pointing to some words. 

“My own personal shorthand,” I confessed. He handed the note-book back to me.  

          I spoke on: “It wasn’t just the content and speakers that impressed me; the sticking to the schedule and also the food. Wholesome meals, served hot and fresh, tasty too, provided just the right atmosphere for networking.”

          “Go,” said Shri Husband “Every year. It’ll give your grey cells an annual massage.”

          “You’ll come?” I asked.

Third snort, an indication of ‘maybe’. I know he’ll join me next year. He recognizes a good thing.

Feedback: sheelajaywant@yahoo.co.in