Children’s Book Online

In the course of a discussion a writer friend told me that the Children’s Book genre is very competitive one. He was narrating how anything falling out of the genre of text books is notoriously more challenging to market than mainstream fiction and non-fiction. The discussion led me to introspect as to whether it is something to do with the not-so-prevalent habit of book reading among the children or it is the failure of the circulation mechanism that are trying hard at many venues but are often clueless to understand the target audience.
When one is writing children’s books it is not only being addressed to a mixed audience, but the individual’s with purchasing power are only half your audience. Remember: children’s books are written for both a child, and the adult who is buying the book. True, there are some cases where a child has some spending money, but the majority of sales are impulse purchases made by adults for children.
In terms of the market trend to take the book out to the desired audience a whole lot of channels are being used. Some of them are doing large children’s festivals. One such writer/publisher admitted to not being successful in selling 30-40 copies in what was a whole day affair. Some of them are hitting malls but the footfall is increasingly getting less over there during recession and footfall-sales conversion being even lesser.
A few publishers whom I know also adopted the innovate strategy of developing an in-school program with puppet characters. So far they have gone to many schools and have more scheduled. Some schools do like the idea of interacting with them but not all will sell the books. And being an educationist I personally feel that the decision makers are different in every school…even within the same district.
Well, the market will keep plugging along till one finds the magic bullet. While I do support the idea of reaching out to your audience in whatever possible way, I recommend the writers/publishers to have a common meeting ground for the same. How about selling your books on the online kid’s corner? It can also be a common meeting ground where authors, parents, schools, teachers and even children can review the given book. At least, Chitra Awasthi and Rit International is open to this unique idea and we are offering it through www.chuckkle.com.
Easy, Fun, Inexpensive…Give it a shot!

Destination dreamland with chuckkle park

While growing up, playing and watching cartoons one name that we all remember in our collective consciousness is Disney. It seems the undeniable brand power internationally made Disney case study after case study. And I say why not – after all, Mickey Mouse is synonymous to US pop culture and Walt Disney’s marquee signature is universally recognized in any language around the world. But more than that what has made Disney a symbol of children’s amusement is the fact that children across the world identify themselves with Disney and Mickey Mouse.
While working on a number of projects for children in India, I often wonder whether we should have a Disney India. It would be even better if we can conceptualise a brand new amusement park for the Indian children. The breaking news to create a brand-new Disney China outside of Shanghai valued at over $3.5B (USD) has further goaded me to think on these lines now. Since we have made a success of country’s first website for the children, www.chuckkle.com, it won’t be a bad idea to translate it into Chuckkle India Amusement Park.
Still, I would like to make it very clear that Chuckkle India is not a spur-of-the-moment decision to attract media space or bring western media groups over to India. The idea has been percolating over the years to bring a brand-new amusement park for the Indian children and families. Previous attempts in this country were not so successful due to various reasons and I feel Chuckkle India must take those case studies as a learning curve for the future.
A first glance at the idea of an amusement park in India does not reflect the obviously apparent gravity of such a plan. There are numerous theme parks throughout India and one more to that list doesn’t seem to be all that ground-breaking. However, remove the roller coasters, the different attractions, market positioning and the USPs of Chuckkle Park as a whole, and the details and symbolism of Chuckkle India takes front stage of national and worldwide importance.
On the eve of the Commonwealth Games, India has invested billions in infrastructure to develop the city of Delhi-NCR to be a global spectacle. It’s also no mystery that tourism plays a big role in India’s plan to earn foreign currency and extend their image. However, the build-it-and-they-will-come model does not always pan out according to plan. In this case, we have to understand that if we want to play nice and rebrand ourselves to be more open, opening our doors to private participation and exemplify a spirit of a two-way street.
However, I must admit her that the whole concept of Chuckkle India is still in its infancy stage. There will be hiccups along the way and I’m sure there will be areas of disagreement; however, Chuckkle India can be such an important venture for more than just operational reasons to amusement industry. It symbolizes an opportunity for India to demonstrate its ability to exude ‘soft power’ on a global stage. In either case, I see Chuckkle India truly being the place ‘where dreams come true’.

Needed a kids corner

We live in a different world today and hence our world view and approach to deal with situations has to be different. Unfortunately, when it comes to dealing with the needs of the children, more often than not we tend to become a regulatory authority than a guiding force. This has been the root cause of the much talked about generation gap. For instance, we all grew up in a cultural context where even watching television was controlled and regulated by the parents and other elders in the family. Today most of the children make their own choice as far as watching TV is concerned.

Similarly, with the advent of the “World of Mouse”, that is Internet; parents are increasingly finding it difficult to cope with this new menace, in their own perception of course. The conventional wisdom suggests measures to control the children. However, what is urgently needed is understanding; as far as website usability for children is concerned. While I won’t deny the fact that the medium, because of its uncontrolled nature, can have a negative influence on the young minds, we have to understand the fact that the outside world where they go and interact can have even more negative influence on their minds.
Millions of children already use the Internet, and millions more are coming online each year. Many websites specifically target children with educational or entertainment content, and even mainstream websites are adding "kids' corner" sections for children -- either as a public service or to build brand loyalty from an early age.
Despite this growth in users and services, very little is known about how children actually use websites or how to design sites that will be easy for them to use. Most website designs for kids are based on pure folklore about how kids supposedly behave -- or, at best, by insights gleaned when designers observe their own children, who are hardly representative of average kids, typical Internet skills, or common knowledge about the Web.
A lot of people keep asking me as to what is the way out? Is there a need to control the children as far as web surfing is concerned? In my opinion, that will be a regressive step which may have far reaching consequences as far as a child’s psychological needs are concerned. A progressive society will never try to curb the inquisitive minds of its growing population. The question that we need to address is that what children actually want and what they get. Only then we will be able to find the gap between needs and stuff on offer.

If we address the issue from this macro perspective it will be easy to identify the gaps and we as a society will be able to provide solutions to our children, instead of curbing their inquisitive minds. Well, I have made a humble attempt with the launch of www.chuckkle.com, India’s first and only website for the children. It is just a few months old and the response and feedback has further strengthened my resolve to take it forward to the next level.