My new "My Name" friend Susana writes teeny books for children in the native language of Rwanda, Kinyarwanda. The subject of the books are Rwandan people or the animals that live in the bush not far from where she lives. She has her illustrating team paint watercolor pictures to illustrate the books on tables right outside her office. Each book is about 6 pages long with beautiful illustrations for each page. Publishing long colorful picture books is expensive in Rwanda, so the publishers Penda Kusoma are betting short ones might make a bigger profit.
Challenge: Can you retell Susana's story in the illustration above? How much is said just in an image? Now innovate: What's missing in books these days? Are they too long, too short, too hard to store? Too expensive to publish? Are the stories interesting enough? Who do you want to reach and why? Did you know that you make change happen through stories? Write and design your own mini book with friends. Be sure you have a writer, an illustrator, a publisher and an editor. Publish the mini books on your own website. Use social marketing to get the word out. Monetize.
Hi Sue,
ReplyDeleteNewcomer to your blog. I work for an NGO called Worldreader and we're dedicated to taking up the same challenges requiring innovation you've laid out here! We work with publishers around the world, but mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, to digitize and distribute their books to eager readers in their first language, like Kinyarwanda. I would love to talk with your mentioned author, Susana, and/or Penda Kusoma about working together. Any chance you could put us in contact?
Thanks!
Alex