Jumpstart, the annual congress of content creators for children books promoted by the German Book Office (GBO) that started in 2009 will be held this year at two locations. Whereas Delhi will conduct the master
classes for writers and illustrators on 25 and 26 August, Bengaluru will host the highly popular event on 28 August. This year the theme for the event is ‘Let’s Play,’ which is refreshing considering that the straitjacket academic children’s publishing in India still accounts for over 90% of the published content.
Limited Indian expertise
Even now children books are considered a serious academic business in most parts of India and studying by rote is more popular than learning through play, making the school bags of infants heavier each year. Infusing creative energy and technique into writers, illustrators, artists, story tellers, film makers, game builders, techies, animators and designers to create content that is both playful and educative is easier said than done. However, the Europeans have mastered the process and the GBO lessons that include talks and presentations by experts from India and abroad along with displays and performances and one-to- one interaction will in all probability make this format of master-classes very popular with both publishers as well as premedia digital start-ups.
GBO will also explore what it means for content to transcend media platforms, how literature in its most classic
form, is interpreted in toys, games and other media.”Play is critical both to the creation and to the enjoyment of books,” says Sujatha Rajasekhar of GBO, “and we will explore the different facets of play and its intersections with books, media and learning.” This would of course be a new and refreshing challenge for GBO to find the right experts considering the limited work done within the country by Indian publishers, most of whom do not measure up to the standards of Europe or even South-east Asian nations.
One of the key achievements of the GBO in India has been its persistent effort to promote the trading and exchange of publishing rights, that has today become a standard practice in most publishing events including the World Book Fair held annually at New Delhi. The Jumpstart event has brought to India authors like Christopher Lloyd whose book What on Earth Wallbook has been published in eight languages by Pratham; and French artist Hervé Tullet,who sold rights for five titles to Pratham last year.
Supported by collaborators like British Council and the Goethe Institut, GBO had publishers like Scholastic India, HarperCollins, Young Zubaan, Tulika, Tara, Karadi Tales and Pratham participating last year. However, Indian language literature where some of India’s classic gems in children play fiction have been written needs to be explored and brought to the table.
GlobaLocal 2015
After five successful editions of GlobaLocal, The Forum for Content, GBO New Delhi will organize the sixth edition of this event in New Delhi on 12 and 13 February 2015.
GlobaLocal is an annual B2B networking conclave bringing together national and international players with facilitated business meetings and multiple formats aimed at furthering business outreach between international markets. In 2014, around 200 participants benefited from the event and established across-the-industry contracts while some
interesting collaborations also took shape.
