Goa,1556: Binding ideas and dreams

Alternative book publishing venture Goa,1556 has entered its tenth year, making this a huge achievement for Goa’s publishing sector, in particular, Frederick Noronha, who has been spearheading the writing movement in Goa. As a gesture of gratitude, Fredrick will share ten free ebooks during the course of the year. Café speaks to him about his journey as a publisher

Published on:

12 Jul 2016, 11:36 pm

Herald Café: How old is the Goa Book

Club and what motivated you to start

Goa,1556?

Frederick Noronha: Google helped

me remember that the Goa-Book-Club

(on Googlegroups) was launched in

November 2010. Leroy Veloso and

Augusto Pinto, incidentally both from

Moira, have separately been partners

in getting this going. Broadway, the

bookshop, has hosted us amidst their

lovely crowded bookshelves, tea and

warm samosas. As for Goa,1556, I set it

up because I had been long in journalism

and needed new challenges. I love

books, and, even ten years ago had a

collection of 1500 plus books on Goa

alone. Also, my view is that unless we

look beyond market-dependent only

solutions, smaller places like Goa will

not get a chance to express themselves

through books.

HC: This marks the beginning of the

tenth year of Goa, 1556; how has the

journey been over the past nine years?

FN: Hard work, sleepless nights, fun, a

few tense times (once, the plane carrying

our books from Mumbai was landing at

Dabolim, while the launch function was

already getting started at Benaulim!).

Lots of appreciation from readers, an

immensely satisfying experience, even

if books is a slow-earning field. It's

gratifying to know that Goa,1556 will

be at least a footnote when the literary

history of Goa gets to be written one day.

HC: Which was the first title and the

100th title published by Goa,1556?

FN: The first was 'Songs of the

Survivors', the story of Goan refugees

in Burma, by my co-villager Yvonne

Vaz-Ezdani. Our 100th title is 'Songs

of Praise', a book which seeks to

resuscitate the old Konkani hymns.

This title, unlike the first, is really

about songs! It including the laidinhas

and contains both lyrics and musical

notations. As a 'thank you' to our

readers, we priced this 280-page book

at just Rs 200. We are part of the efforts

to make quality books available at an

affordable price in Goa.

HC: How long does it take to publish

a book, right from the time an idea is

pitched to you?

FN: This is a big challenge. While we

are proud of almost each one of our

books, sometimes delivering them has

taken time. It depends on how well the

manuscript is written, and how 'clean' it

is. Ideally, unless we're clogged up with

a lot of pending work, a book should

take say 6-8 months for completion. But

sometimes a book involves quite intense

re-writing. In my experience, editing and

proofreading can delay the process.

HC: How has the internet and social

media helped in getting the word about

the books around?

FN: I've been a kind of cyberjunkie

for over 20 years now, and this helps.

The Net is an amazing place to build

awareness about new books, specially

for a small and scattered community

like Goa's. But more than that, I must

also give credit to the bookshops that

have helped us majorly (the Coutinhos

of Golden Heart Emporium in Margao

and Khalil Ahmed of Broadway), our overa-

hundred authors, readers, reviewers,

even members of the press.

Pamela D’Mello helped a lot in

stabilising Goa,1556's editorial operations

earlier on. Bina Nayak, our old faithful

designer, ever so enthusiastic and

supportive. Our printers, the Regos in

Bangalore and earlier, Rama Harmalkar.

This is a very collaborative venture; it

has to be, because I neither have deep

pockets nor a willingness to take loans.

HC: The new platform for readers are

ebooks. What, according to you, are the

pros and cons about ereading?

FN: Ironically, I initially thought of

starting out as an ebook publisher. Today,

I feel these books are not picking up as

fast as promised, specially in India. Their

licensing is too restrictive. By contrast,

paper is still inexpensive. Selling an

ebook is an enormously difficult job. For

our tenth anniversary year, we plan to

create and give away for free ten ebooks.

HC: What are the books Goa, 1556 is

currently working on?

FN: We're working on four

autobiographies set in 20th century Goa.

All are from such different perspectives

that you'd think the authors were talking

about different places! The ten free

ebooks mentioned above will attempt to

revive old works, and also works which

might find it difficult to otherwise make

it to print. We're co-publishing Anita

Pinto's children's book, after English and

Konkani editions now in Portuguese.

HC: What’s in store for Goa,1556?

FN: We don't have some grand plan. I just

want to psyche people into writing good

books, something we're all proud of. And,

at the end of the day, something worth

leaving behind.