Mayurpankhi participates at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2021

Mayurpankhi, a children's book publishing house based in Bangladesh, was invited as a guest this year at the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair), one of the largest and most important international events in the publishing industry. It serves as a place for thousands of publishing industry professionals to come together and share their ideas, negotiate international book rights, and discuss new trade innovations.

The 73rd edition of the fair took place from October 19 to October 23 and the physical fair was supplemented by a number of digital events, along with several programmes in the city of Frankfurt, Germany. "This initiative was funded by the German foreign office and the program culminates with the Frankfurt book fair. This is fantastic news for our team as this is an additional testimony to the fact that we are a very serious consideration when it comes to international book business," Mitia Osman, CEO of Mayurpankhi, told The Daily Star.

Mitia started the publishing house in an attempt to create colourful and captivating books for children reading in Bangla and English. With publications like Reesham Shahab Tirtho's Babuibela series, Rickshaw Konna, and their other wide spectrum of picture books, nonfiction books, and notebooks and exercise books, Osman's publishing house has been redefining the quality of production and aesthetics in Bangladeshi children's books. 

They displayed their products at a colourful stall in Hall 4.1, Booth H89, at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The books on display included a range of fiction titles, as well as some non-fiction picture and illustrated books.

"Our schedule was packed with 30-minute appointments, throughout the entire day. Publishers can decide who they want to meet and have to mail these details at an earliest," Osman said.

Decorating the stand is another important aspect of the fair and Sabyasachi Mistry deserves a shoutout for doing some of the illustrations featured on the stand this year. Other preparations included organising meetings with scouts, translation agents, and foreign publishers, in order to pitch their books and discuss opportunities for collaboration.

Unlike Ekushey Boi Mela, the Frankfurt Buchmesse is a trade fair where publishers can meet agencies and find the right books to publish. Representatives from book publishing and media companies attend the fair to negotiate rights and licensing fees. "While our Boi Mela is completely dedicated to physical bookselling, this fair allows publishing professionals to interact with publishers from around the world and print books in many different languages," Osman shared.

This year's event was focused on children's books and Mayurpankhi was one of the 17 global children's publishers. Over the course of their stay, these publication professionals learnt about each other's markets and gained from an exchange of their respective experiences.

"By the end of the fair, we made new connections, reconnected with our old friends, and came across opportunities for our books to gain a wider readership. It felt great to display our new publications, receive feedback and discuss exciting new ideas," she explained.

As of now, Mayurpankhi is shifting its focus to picture books. "My biggest challenge as a publisher is to get parents, teachers, children in Bangladesh to embrace the idea that picture books can be read by older children as well", the publisher shared. "In Frankfurt, I came across a picture book manifesto created by a group, and dedicated to the picture book publisher from Spain. This manifesto embodies everything I believe in and it can be applied universally."  Osman said.

Maisha Islam Monamee is a medical student who likes reading, scribbling, and blogging. Follow @monameereads on Instagram.