The smell of the new books, new pages and covers are inimitable! The fact that book stores and printed books continue to deftly woo readers, in spite of kindle, e-reading platforms and e-books – reaffirms this truth. Interestingly, the legendary bookstores in College Street of Kolkata, popularly known as the Mecca of booklovers, still sees huge footfalls all the year-round.
Reading is a habit and a tradition that never gets old and thanks to this an array of publishing houses are thriving nowadays. One such is the Book Farm of Kolkata. The five years old publishing house has an exhilarating journey worth narrating. In a tete-a-tete with Optimist, Shantanu Ghosh, co-founder of Book Farm, opens up about the history and journey of his publishing house.
“From only two active members in 2015, our book family has greatly grown. We have nearly 100 books published under the banner and are the only publishing house who managed to continue printing books when most of the others had to shut down. We printed and published five books during the ongoing pandemic. Our highly motivated team members look after advertising, video promotions and marketing. They also keep the brand interesting and active on Facebook. Many of our live videos go viral, on receiving demand for books we try to distribute them promptly,” says Ghosh.
Bibliophiles of Kolkata love the wide range and good stories on offer at Book Farm. Collections at Book Farm are not just excellent in quality but are available 24*7 365 days. The company has tie-ups with ten online sellers including Flipkart, Readbengalibooks, Amazon etc who have the whole repertoire. Ghosh also has warehouses near College Street and Dumdum where he stores his books.
Unlike other publication houses, Book Farm has a very niche and curated content that pleases the customers who are mostly avid readers. “We never compromise with our quality, cover and content. This is why even though the numbers of books are less, they are highly admired by our readers. Also we are very specific with our return policy. We do not think twice before exchanging damaged books, if found so,” notifies Ghosh.
Talking about the challenges during the lockdown period Ghosh says, “We had a highly encouraging response during lockdown. Our book “Suryatamorshi” was one of the most popular books which had to be reprinted twice. There were no furloughs or salary cuts in the company and we have successfully retained the full team. We even hired two employees to look after the distribution process. It gives me immense pleasure to see that at a time when most big publishing houses suffered the burns of the pandemic, we were able to carry on with our work infull throttle.”
In a move to go language agnostic, Book Farm is coming up with English and Hindi books very soon. Ghosh is known for giving the much needed exposure to young and new talents, giving them aplatform to showcase their creativity.That said, he also values the senior writers and gives them their due respect.
Suryatamashi by Koushik Ganguly
“With people everywhere undergoing different levels of trauma, stress and anxiety, we, at Book farm, wanted to do our part by providing a little solace to the troubles minds through our stories”, concludes Santanu Ghosh with a smile.Show quoted text
