What happens when a book publisher tires of the goody goody kids' stories

She doesn't have an issue with technology. But says kids shouldn't be given devices till they're 10. Let them read books. We talk about books, fairs, cities, animals, and why those kids' squeaky shoes really must go

The first thing I think when I see Shobha is, I love her earrings. I don't tell her this. I love her necklace, too. It gives me a kick that I have the same, triangle (oblong? diamond?) silver beads on a black rope. But her silver beads are bigger. I don't tell her this either.
Shobha Viswanath - who people in UAE call 'Shoe-bha' - has been here five nights for the children's reading festival in Sharjah. She's the publishing director of Chennai-based children's publishing house Karadi Tales. We meet at the lobby at the Hilton in Sharjah. She sits on a sofa and the afternoon light catches her right profile, that dangling earring.
Her itinerary has been packed. Three school sessions, one panel discussion, a whole bunch of meetings and lunches and dinners. Being a publisher is hard work. There's a lot of travel, a lot of nurturing of contacts. Time-wise, what's the upper limit of nurturing a contact? Pat she says: "Ten years! Nurturing has to happen year after year after year".
So, does a lot of planning go into these fairs? "Oh, yes. Frankfurt is in October and I start making my appointments from June. Bologna is in March and I start making my appointments from November. December... everyone is in Christmas mode. Slots get filled up. Publishers everyone gets to meet. Sharjah is gaining a lot of traction. The Abu Dhabi book fair isn't quite there yet."
I learn a bunch of things from her. One, and this will be what will probably stick, is her disdain for parents who make their kids wear those blinking, squeaky shoes with the lights at the heel. "Why, ya, why?"
Her second time to Sharjah, Shobha's visit at the children's reading festival was as an author. Last year, she came as a publisher. I ask her if she's a jet-setting publisher (she's been going to the Frankfurt and Bologna book fairs for 10 years). "Not as much as many, many publishers are because I am a small publisher - small in many senses. First, I'm a children's publisher, which automatically makes me small because children are small people."
The technology question comes up. And I want to know what's in her kit for all these book fairs. A stapler, staples, visiting cards, a notebook, like one of those Moleskine ones, with the rubber card (the visiting cards are stapled in the notebooks). "These days my back hurts, so I carry the carry-on suitcase. All my catalogues and books are there. I carry three-four books to show them the quality of printing and illustration. (All the Karadi Tales books are printed in Chennai and Mumbai). and yes, of course, an iPad with the PDF files of the book covers and illustrations. She says, "We hate digital colouring. We want traditional hand colouring."
WHAT NOT TO WRITE
This should be heartening for wannabe children's books writers: "We are always searching for new writers. If a manuscript comes into my inbox, I always read it. And my only judgement is, is it publishable or not? I read everything that comes in. Everything. On my phone also. It excites me. You never know where there will be a hidden gem. And that excitement doesn't die out. If I get one good manuscript in two months, that's great. But usually... rubbish comes!"
So what puts her off? What does she not want to see more of? "Don't send stories with morals in them: don't steal, don't lie. I want naughty children and whacky stories. I don't want long lengthy narratives. Pictures must speak louder than words. Look at how much in your text can be taken away and substituted with pictures".
ANTHROPOMORPH-NO-NO
She's not a fan of mixing worlds. (Which breaks my heart a little bit, because I love a cleverly done bit on talking sofas and menacing jewellery). "I try not to do anthropomorphic stories. With some stories, it's fine. But unless it's well written, it's problematic. If it's an anthropomorphic story, I'm happy if all the characters are animals. Keep the world's separate".
But what about Calvin and Hobbes, I plead. "Where ya," she says. "It's all in his (Calvin's) imagination. Where is Hobbes really talking? Most of the time it doesn't work. Things are not well written. The last good story, it was my own story, I'm sorry to say. but the other one was about a little fish who wants to fly. (Coming out by July is Fly, Little Fish by Lavanya Karthik and illustrations by Satwik Gade and Ashwati). The other book is Little Vinayak, about a little elephant tripping over his trunk (Shobha Viswanath and Shilpa Ranade)."
So how does an elephant not trip on its trunk? To answer, she doesn't quite sing the little song, but she recites with a dip and a lilt: "Put your right foot out, swing your trunk to the left, put your left foot out, swing your trunk to the right, do it to the beat, with a step and a swing, right foot, left trunk, left foot, right trunk."
YES, OF COURSE READING IS ESSENTIAL
She thinks kids kids shouldn't be introduced to devices before they're 10. "It homogenises everything - the size, format, paper of the book, you go and put it on a device, it totally kills it". I ask her that eternal question. Why should kids read? Why should parents introduce reading to their kids? Listen up, parents! She says, "What can one say about reading? It has opened up all our worlds, you know. It has. I think reading makes us better people. I mean (the) bottom line is just that. It develops empathy to such a huge extent, and especially in today's day of, where America is going with its immigration policies. Books are the way, you know - how do we become inclusive, how do I understand where you come from, how do I not stare at somebody who is different from me. Books are the way. Not everyone has the means to travel and experience it. I get this sometimes when I introduce a book to publishers in a foreign country. And they say, I don't think this will work for our country because the characters are too dark-skinned. And the publisher is apologetic about it but she says this is the reality of the market - that I can't see people buying it. Which is all the more reason then for you to publish it. But that's talking at a very idealistic level. what is it that we want our children to be sensitive about? If we don't have empathy we are lost in this world."
Nivriti favours human interest stories and has a thing for the quirky, oddball stuff
nivriti@khaleejtimes.com