According to an old Chinese saying, crisis is an opportunity for change. When crisis hit the world in early 2020 in the form of pandemic, ...
According to an old Chinese saying, crisis is an opportunity for change.
When crisis hit the world in early 2020 in the form of pandemic, India’s publishing industry and its many independent bookstores were choked – first by a series of lockdowns and then by the challenge of adapting to digital operations almost overnight.
With schools shut, children – although relatively at low risk of infection in the face of the coronavirus – found themselves at home, socially isolated from their peers, bored and restless. Not surprisingly, children’s books in India saw a surge in demand from young readers and parents.
Against this backdrop, while publishing in general has been – and still is – going through hard times, one of the success stories has been that of Wonder House Books, an imprint of the Delhi-based publisher Prakash Books. Catering primarily to the pre-school / early reader market, the company has gained in sales over the past 18 months and emerged as one of India’s top sellers in interactive books for children in the 0-8 age group.
Starting up, starting out
Wonder House Books was conceived at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair, where its current managing director Gaurav Sabharwal and chief editor Prashant Pathak met and bonded...
