Starting a niche publishing business...

Had someone told me five years ago that I would be starting a business selling Bengali books, I would have a) laughed in their face and b) internally thought to myself that I would never do such a thing. In true mock-movie-dramatized fashion, fast forward to the present and here I am sitting at a coffee shop with my laptop doing exactly that! What sequence of events led to this change of heart, you ask? (And if you are actually asking that and still reading on, then THANK YOU :).

Here's the short version: I grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh but my kids were NOT born there. This created the obvious unfortunate dilemma of Bengali language loss as soon as said offspring started daycare/school. I searched and searched for some quality reading or animated material that would expose them to their parent's native language in a fun and appealing way. The initiative failed miserably, and my kids went back to their "way cooler" English books and learning videos. I have to admit that I probably felt rather defensive - after all, our Bengali experiences were also "way cool!" We definitely had the stories to share, but perhaps what's missing are a trusted platform and fun packaging, I thought. And that was how the idea of Guba Publishing came to be...

Okay, I tricked you, that was the long version (did I say Thank you for reading!). Now that you know the back-story, this is where we are hopefully headed. We want to be your go to place for great stories…we want to present these stories in the most fun, safe and appealing set-up that both kids and grown-ups will appreciate…and we want to create fair partnerships with authors and illustrators with the common goal of sharing their talent with the world. And last, but not least, we want to provide all of the above in both English and Bengali, so it’s accessible to a lot more people!

More to come on launch dates, the first books and other interesting tit bits. Please stay tuned!