Mumbai initiative sees children being helped turn authors

In a first of its kind initiative, Crossword Bookstores has conceptualised a program ‘I Want to Be an Author.’ where students from across Mumbai's schools will be encouraged to submit their short stories in the hopes of getting published.

According to Anup Jerajani, Head (The Write Place Publishing, An Initiative of Crossword bookstores Ltd) the maximum possible number of stories, written by the children, will then be shortlisted and published in a book format by The Write Place.

He further adds, “The process also involves mentoring and felicitation of the young authors by some of the most reputed and renowned authors of India.”

As per the initiative, budding authors from the classes 5 to 10, across Mumbai’s schools can write to them till December 31, following which they process of collating the works will begin.

According to Jerajani, the idea for the initiative came to their mind when their self publishing arm The Write Place started getting a lot of talented young authors who would approach them to publish their books.

He adds, “There is a plethora of writing talent all over the country. And teen authors are on the rise. We believed that it was natural for us to offer this opportunity, to school-going children and hear their stories. Fortunately, while we were conceptualising this program, Raghav Podar, Chairman Podar World Schools came forward and agreed to launch the program in his premises.”

The initiative has seen almost 100 schools and about 50,000 children showing active interest in it.

Speaking about the ultimate goal of  the initiative and the process of selection Jerajani says that their larger goal is community-building, by stimulating young minds to chronicle their experiences and encourage reading and writing amongst kids, while the process of selection involves the editorial team of The Write Place who will evaluate the short stories based on the content.

Jerajani further adds that the endeavour is just in the seeding process, and they have begun the initiative in Mumbai only for the first year. He adds, “We are hoping that it will grow leaps and bounds in the coming years and we hope to make this a pan-India initiative.”

Once the authors are selected, they will be promoted vigorously by the endeavour. Jerajani puts this down to tie-ups with influencers and the goodwill of the media to take the value -added opportunity to the masses.

“We would also promote it through our 96 Crossword stores and our own social media,” he says, adding, “The process envisaged by the initiative,  also involves mentoring and felicitation of the young authors by some of the well-respected authors of India.”

The initiative not only allows youngsters to showcase their skills while interacting with iconic authors of India but also helps them become by having their story published by ‘The Write Place’ the publishing arm of Crossword.