At first glance, Queenie and Leonard Fernandes, the book publishing couple from Margao may appear quiet and reticent. But behind the quiet exterior, resides two, extremely motivated and successful individuals, who could be your go-to people if you have a book to publish.
In just nine years after they kicked off their first entrepreneurial venture, ‘dogearsetc.com’, an online bookstore, the couple has quietly consolidated their names as reliable and efficient publishers with ‘Cinnamonteal Publishing’ their publishing arm and Publishingnext, their annual, Goa based conference for the publishing industry.
But first the Fernandes couple! Queenie (37) has a masters in economics from the prestigious, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune, while Leonard (40) has a basic degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA from the USA. Not exactly the education, you would associate with the publishing industry. However, after Queenie had worked with several, research institutions and Leonard had worked with a few, IT companies, their combined love for books and reading, made them start dogearsetc.com, an online book store for old books in 2006. As Queenie explains, “We realised that people had stopped reading books, perhaps because of the cost of new books. We felt, by making old books available online, we could encourage people to read again.”
And even as Dogears began to find its feet, the Fernandes duo started Cinnamonteal Publishing to promote the genre of self publishing. With Cinnamonteal, which is their flagship now, the couple has made a mark in the world of publishing. 600 titles in the course of nine years bears ample testimony to this fact. What is interesting is that wannabe authors need to invest a comparatively, small sum of money with Cinnamonteal and in return are hand-held through all the facets of book publishing, like proof reading, editing, designing, artwork and publishing. The Fernandes couple also assist their authors to create e-books and distribute their printed book across India and even abroad.
According to Leonard, the biggest plus that self publishing has over traditional publishing is that there is more intimacy in the publisher-author relationship. “We share multiple emails with our outstation authors, besides phone calls in the course of publishing a book. Also our response time is quick. We are able to publish a book in about three months and we are dealing with about 12 authors at any given time,” says Leonard.
If quick turnaround time and speed of delivery is clearly the Cinnamonteal USP, so is their customised service. The Fernandes couple is known to have printed and published just two books for a customer, on one hand and 50 copies of a three-inch by three-inch small book with a pencil to match for a children’s project on the other. Explaining this miniature book project, Queenie says, “The client had grown up writing small essays on tiny pieces of paper. He wanted to recreate the same magic of writing among little children, so he wanted short stories printed in a small, 50 page, three-inch by three-inch book on one hand and 50 sheets of paper on the other to encourage children to think and write. He wanted all this fitted into a small box with a pencil to match. We delivered this.”
Today, Cinnamonteal works in multiple Indian languages and has seasoned editors on their team spread across the country. Says Leonard, “Having built up a good reputation, we have editors calling us now, wanting to work with us.”
Having established themselves as one of the pioneers in the field of self-publishing, the Fernandes duo has been contributing their might to the publishing industry by holding, Publishingnext, arguably, the only two-day, annual conference for the world of publishing. Scheduled to be held in Panjim between September 15-17, the sixth edition this year, promises to be a busy affair.The conference is attended by big-ticket publishers like Penguin and Harper Collins, engineering companies connected with the printing industry, authors, designers and others. Says Leonard, “There was no conference, where people from our industry could interact and network with each other. No forum, where they could sit down and find solutions to new challenges. Publishingnext provides this platform.” To make the conference exciting, the duo has also instituted six awards for the best published book, the best children’s book etc.
Not willing to rest on their laurels, the couple recently opened their first, physical book store, The Dogears Bookshop in a leafy lane in Margao. Stocking largely children’s books and Goa-centric books, the bookshop is a treat for children and scholars alike. Leonard is also keen to make the small bookshop a culture hub, where they intend to organise film screenings, lectures, discussions, poetry and book reading sessions. As can be seen, this is one, busy Margao couple!
(Rahul Chandawarkar is a senior journalist)
