Indian Talent, Global Content
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Indian Talent, Global Content |
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September 2010: What's in the breeze |
Catch Them Young!
Publish your book What is common between Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, Ruskin Bond, J.K. Rowling and Richmal Crompton? They are some of the best known children’s writers. But they did what they did as adults. What about children who write for children? Are they rare to find? Not really. In 1641, Francis Hawkins became one of the earliest child authors to have been published. His book, Youth Behavior, a book on etiquette and manners for children was targeted towards children his age. In 1947 came one of the most popular child authors the world has ever known, Anne Frank, whose diary is still being read as widely as it was when it was first published. In 1984, Jamie’s Turn, the true story written by young Jamie Dewitt based on an accident that occurred in his family’s farm was published. More recently in 2008, Harper Collins published How to Talk to Girls written by nine year old Alec Greven. Alec now has two more books on its way. This is a huge inspiration to children all over the world. To publishers the success of these authors could mean an untapped venue with a huge potential. So much for the world scene. India is not too far away either. In 1996, Samhita Ami’s Mahabharata: A Child’s View was published by Tara Publishing. For Kids by Kids, an anthology of the works of young writers is another interesting book published by Scholastic India. They are all written by school going children. This has been a huge opportunity for young talent. The more such ventures, the greater the inspiration for children to write and for adults to encourage them. Very often writing begins in schools for a very critical reader, the teacher. When encouraged, it turns into an interest to write for a larger audience, their friends and family. The appreciation they receive gives them a feeling of being an author. Today children’s magazines and newspapers are an easy option for children to express themselves. Most dailies have a children’s corner or a pull out for young readers. The world of ePublishing too provides many interesting opportunities for children to publish their writing. Take 14 year old Ankit Fadia, for instance. His website Hacking Truths first began out of an interest in spreading awareness about ethical hacking. What started out with a small friends circle went on to become a 20000 strong worldwide community and resulted in a bestseller, An Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking that earned a review in the New York Times. Today, if he is not training crime branch officials or IT firms on cyber security, he writes for magazines like PC Quest. Rituparna Bhatacharjee, an 11 year old from Kolkata, published a collection of Bengali short stories called Bhutiya. The publication that hit the stands when she was just a student of class VI, won her many an award and recognition. With the exposure for children today, they are only waiting for an opportunity to make their voices heard. And when it is their work, more children their age are likely to read them. Take the case of 8 year old Raja Monsingh who became the youngest writer in India to be published with his book Pizza, Paisa and Peace. In it were expressed his ideas on worldly matters. Now who wouldn’t want to take a look at that? And writing is not all about books. Children write if they have an audience. They write about what touches them or bothers them. Nine year old Anshul Khosla is a director and scriptwriter from Mumbai. His documentary Love Changes Everything won the award for Best Script at the Young Film Makers’ Film Festival in Canada in 2006. Children are no longer blind consumers of literature. They are reading books that border more on reality and less on traditional genres. They are willing to read new authors. Indian publishers are getting ready to meet the demands of this fast paced thinking generation. The only way they can keep up is to open up to a new generation of young writers. They are constantly looking for new writers who can bring them unconventional ideas to cater to these changing trends. There has been no better time that now to take a look at that interesting manuscript that won you the best writer award in school last year. It could inspire you to write another. Who knows it may be the next bestseller. Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in November, 2009. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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