Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency - Blog

Awang Fadilah Purple Island Winner of Nami Concours 2015

1/31/2015

Congratulations to Awang Fadilah for winning the Purple Island Award of the 2015 Nami Councours. Opened to illustrators from all over the world, this is the second time the Concours has been held. It is sponsored by Nami Island Inc, Korea, and aims to 'offer opportunities for illustrators to showcase their creative talents and raise the quality and standard of picture book illustrations'.

"The 2015 Concours received 1300 submissions," said Yusof Gajah who was on the panel of juries, "and I was very proud when Awang was shortlisted and subsequently won the Purple Island Award. The juries were impressed by his naive art and its rich local content. I hope he will keep improving his work."

The winning works will be exhibited from 1st-31st May at Nami Island, Korea.

This is not the first Awang has won a major award. In 2006, he won the Runner-up prize of the Noma Concours organised by the Asia Pacific Centre for UNESCO, Tokyo. His story and illustrations were subsequently published by Oyez!Books in a beautiful book, 'Land Below the Wind'.

Awang Fadilah

Awang Fadilah

Awang Fadilah, Land Below the Wind

My Mother's Garden is Mamas Garten

1/30/2015

Emila Yusof's My Mother's Garden is now available in the German language as as audio-touch ebook suitable for children 2-7 years old. Designed by Anja Leidel, translated by Tim Schroder and read by Janet Heller, the book is currently available in the Apple iBookstore and Kobo eBook Store and coming soon to the Kindle Store.

In the original English Language edition, the book remains a favourite and Emila has added two more books to the Dina series: My Mother's Kitchen and My Father's Farm which will be published in March this year.

YGL Agency signs new talent, Chooi Ling Keiong

1/29/2015

The Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency is proud to add artist and illustrator Chooi-Ling Keiong to their roster of talents.

A graduate of the Kuala Lumpur College of Art (Dip. Fine Art, 2002), Chooi Ling has always loved picture books. She started illustrating for newspapers and her first picture book was published last year.

Chooi Ling finds inspiration from nature, stories and fairytales. "I create stories beneath the layers of paints...that transmit me into the world of fairy tales, as though they are real life adventures, waiting to be explored."

Chooi Ling is available for commissions and may be contacted via the agency. You may read more about Chooi Ling here.

The changing mix of what sells in print, jonathan nowell

1/17/2015

The Changing Mix of What Sells in Print - Jonathan Nowell, Nielsen Book from Publishers Launch Conferences

Grandma Lim's Persimmons soon to be in Korean

12/2/2014

Korean rights for Grandma Lim's Persimmons, published by Oyez!Books and written by Sunita Lad Bhamray with illustrations by Marjorie van Heerden have been sold to Jungin Publishing Co, Korea. The deal was brokered by co-agent Joseph Lee of KL Management.

Grandma Lim's Persimmons is the story of a typical grandmother who liked to spend time in her garden. Her pride and joy was her one persimmon tree. One day, she saw a big luscious fruit hanging on the tree. She decided that's the one she would save for her other love, her granddaughter.

But one day a strong wind blew through her garden and the persimmon fell and rolled away.

Grandma Lim couldn't find it anywhere and she was so upset. But not one to cry over spilt milk, she went to the market to get something else. When she came back, there was Mei Lin, her granddaughter with the persimmon in her hand! Now how did that happen?

You may read the story yourself and drool over Marjorie's gorgeous illustrations on the Oyez!Books library here. There should be a grandmother day and a grandfather day, don't you agree?

Sunita Lad Bhamray is an educator. Her young students were always ready for a story and she started writing stories for them. She has written many stories for children and published a novel. She finds inspiration for her stories by observing the people around her.

Marjorie van Heerden grew up on a farm near Cape Town. From an early age she loved drawing the people, animals, fairies and monsters she saw around her. Today she has illustrated more than 120 books and won numerous awards.

Korean rights for A cake reaching to the sky sold

11/30/2014

Korean rights for Norico Chua's debut picture book, A Cake Reaching to the Sky have been sold to Jungin Publishing Co, Korea. The deal was brokered by co-agent Joseph Lee of KL Maanagement.

Having her first child inspired author and illustrator Norico Chua to write the book. Her second picture book, The Werewolf and His Moon, was also published by Magic Bird Publishing.

Magic Bird is an innovative young publishing house that reaches out to under-served children and communities to help them start their own libraries.

Under the initiative, called One for One books, every book that a consumer buys, an identical one will be donated to selected homes or communities. So every time you buy a book from One for One, you are not just getting a wonderful book but you are also giving one to another child. A Cake Reaching to the Sky may be bought at the One for One online bookstore and it is a pleasant surprise that their books are reasonably priced.

Norico at the launch of her book, 2013

Publisher's review:
This book, designed to be read from the bottom of the page upwards, is about a boy and his grandmother and all about using imagination to colour reality.

The boy’s life is represented by a fantastical array of delicious cakes and tarts in his attempt to bake enough cakes to reach his grandmother in the sky.

There are sugared candy poles, ice cream highways, a giraffe dog, a walking fish, rainbow sponges all waiting to be eaten with his grandmother.

This fun, touching book will make you hungry and touch your soul; making you think about the importance of family time.

German Digital Deal for Emila Yusof

10/28/2014

Emila Yusof's My Mother's Garden has been sold to Anja Leidel of KONO Design und Technologie GmbH for world German ebook right. KONO also optioned world German print and digital rights for the series. The enhanced ebook with audio will be published before Christmas this year.

It was a case of serendipity, according to Anja who said, "What a pleasure I ran into Emila, at my very short trip around the fair halls in Frankfurt!" Emila was at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year with the Malaysian country stand organised by the National Book Council.

Since it was first published in English, My Mother's Garden has gone through a second print run and translated into Malay by Malaysian publisher Karangkraf. It has also been animated by Moker Taiwan and English digital rights sold to Perbadanan Kota Buku, Malaysia.

My Mother's Garden is the first in a series of books featuring Dina, a fun-loving and curious little girl who observes her surrounding with wide eyes. It is targeted at very young children who are learning to read. The text is simple and children will learn to identify items around them. A day with Dina is a happy, satisfying day and young readers will gain satisfaction as they explore the world around them and learn new words. "Dina is a friendly little girl and she hopes to have friends from all over the world," says Emila.

The second book in the series is My Mother's Kitchen and the third book, due to be published in January 2015 is My Father's Farm.

Spread from My Father's Farm which promises to be as endearing to young readers as the first two books.

Yusof Gajah's Red Elephant now in Arabic at Lamsaworld

10/22/2014

Yusof Gajah's popular 'Where is My Red Ball?" which has been translated into German and Korean is now available in Arabic at Lamsa World.

"It looks amazing and we love it," said Bilal Tahrawi, who is in charge of project management at Lamsa.

Yusof's book, along with many other wonderful apps for children may be viewed at www.lamsaworld.com

About Lamsaworld
Lamsa Kids World is a state of the art digital service tailored for children availing a world of creativity and imagination. A wide array of content varying in context and type can be found at Lamsaworld and these include interactive stories, games, art, rhymes, and learning.

Lamsa's aim is to deliver true value to Arab speaking children throughout their childhood journey inline with cultural, traditional, and objective values.

Who's Who at The SESA Alliance

8/3/2014

The first six members of the SESA Alliance who will be exhibiting at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Hall 5.0 D33
Come and join us for drinks and tea on Wednesday 8th October 2014, 4.00-5.30pm

ANVIL PUBLISHING, INC. [The Philippines]
www.anvilpublishing.com
Anvil has been cited Publisher of the Year ten times and close to 138 of its titles have been given the National Book Award in different categories by the Manila Critics Circle. Founded and operationalized in 1990, it publishes and occasionally imports a wide range of books.
Contact: Karina Bolasco / karina.bolasco@gmail.com

Karina Africa Bolasco has been in the book publishing business for thirty-four years now—ten years at National Bookstore and twenty-four years at Anvil, which she founded and grew into the biggest and most prestigious publishing house in the Philippines today. Karina was hailed as one of the Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service in 1995 for her work in book publishing and literacy development. She was the 2004 Fellow for the Asia Leadership Fellow Program of the Japan Foundation and International House of Japan. She also represented the Philippines in the US-State Department International Visitor Program of 2005. She was a former chair of the National Committee on Cultural Education of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) from 1995 to 2001 and a current governor of the National Book Development Board (NBDB). She is Board Member of Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP) and Vice Chair of Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc. (FILCOLS). She has delivered a paper twice at the International Publishers Association Congress, in New Delhi (1992) and in Berlin (2004), and has spoken in many other book publishing conferences on publishing issues. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature.

BUKU FIXI [Malaysia]
fixi.com.my
Buku Fixi publishes contemporary urban novels in Malay and American [Fixi Novo] as well as translations of international bestsellers [Fixi Verso].
Contact: Amir Muhammad / bukufixi@gmail.com

Amir Muhammad is a Malaysian writer, publisher and occasional movie-maker. He has been writing for the Malaysian print media since the age of 14. His films and documentaries have been shown in many international film festivals including Sundance and Berlin. He set up Matahari Books in 2007 to publish non-fiction and film-related books on Malaysia; and Buku Fixi in 2011 to focus on urban contemporary novels.

KALACHUVADU PUBLICATIONS PVT LTD [India]
www.kalachuvadu.com
Kalachuvadu specialises in literary fiction, fiction, non-fiction and poetry in Tamil with an emphasis on marginal Dalit and women writings. We publish international fiction and non-fiction in translation.
Contact: Kannan Sundaram / kannan31@gmail.com

Kannan Sundaram is the Managing Director and Publisher of Kalachuvadu Publication Pvt Ltd. as well as the Editor and Publisher of Kalachuvadu, a monthly journal for culture, society and politics. He co-organised ‘Tamil In 2000′, a privately funded International Tamil conference on 20th century Tamil writing and was part of the International Visitor program to the U.S in 2002 and the Frankfurt Book Fair fellowship program in 2007. Kannan is on a mission to get the best pieces of literature available in Tamil translated to other Indian and world languages and vice versa, and is attempting, through his magazine, to forge an international Tamil identity which is not abrasive, illiberal and separatist.

LE CHI CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS CO., LTD (CHIBOOKS) [Vietnam]
www.chibooks.vn
Established in 2008, CHIBOOKS aims to introduce to Vietnamese readers new, modern, well-known literature from famous writers all around the world. ChiBooks Literary Agency represents Vietnamese authors, illustrators and publishers for children's books, adult's fiction and non-fiction.
Contact: Nguyen Le Chi / chibooksagency@gmail.com

Nguyen Le Chi is the founder and director of Chibooks. who had lots of experience in publishing industry. Prior to starting her own company in 2008, she worked as Copyright Department Manager and Deputy Director of Publishing at Phuong Nam Cultural Corporation (From May 2005 to January 2008) and Publishing Manager at Mekong Com Corp. (Vinabook) (from February 2008 to December 2008). She is among the first people who bought foreign copyrights to Vietnam, especially introducing Chinese modern literature to Vietnam.

YUSOF GAJAH LINGARD LITERARY AGENCY SDN BHD [Malaysia]
www.yusofgajahlingard.com
Established in 2009, the YGL Agency represents Malaysian authors, illustrators and publishers for children's books, adult's fiction and non-fiction. The Agency also represents foreign publishers to the local and international market.
Contact: Linda Tan Lingard / lindalingard@gmail.com

Linda Tan Lingard is the managing partner of Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency. She has worked in the publishing industry for more than 20 years primarily in business, legal and tax publications. Linda has lived and worked in Jakarta, Hong Kong and UK and is keen to promote multicultural understanding through books and related activities. Linda is a Frankfurt Book Fair fellow and a fellow of the Asian Publishers Fellowship (Korea).

ZUBAAN PUBLISHERS PVT LTD [India]
www.zubaanbooks.com
Zubaan publishes fiction by South Asian women; general academic list in social sciences and humanities; children's and young adults' fiction and non-fiction.
Contact: Urvashi Butalia / urvashi.butalia@gmail.com

Urvashi Butalia is a publisher and writer. Co-founder of Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house, she is now Director of Zubaan, an imprint of Kali. Among her published works are Speaking Peace: Women’s Voices from Kashmir (edited) and the award winning history of Partition, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India.

Read what the SESA Alliance will be taking to Frankfurt Book Fair 2014

SESA Alliance for Frankfurt Book Fair 2014

8/3/2014

A newly formed publishers alliance - the Southeast and South Asia Alliance - will be having a combined stand at Frankfurt Book Fair this October.

The alliance comprised six companies as follows:

ANVIL PUBLISHING, INC. [The Philippines]
BUKU FIXI [Malaysia]
KALACHUVADU PUBLICATIONS PVT LTD [India]
LE CHI CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS CO., LTD (CHIBOOKS) [Vietnam]
YUSOF GAJAH LINGARD LITERARY AGENCY [Malaysia]
ZUBAAN PUBLISHERS PVT LTD [India]

"The idea for a southeast Asian publishing alliance has been floating around for some time," said Linda Tan Lingard, director of the YGL Agency, "and with the assistance of Claudia Kaiser, VP of Business Development at Frankfurt Book Fair, we decided to call for interested publishers to join in a combined stand at FBF this year."

Linda who spoke at Global Local India in February this year about publishing in southeast Asia was gratified by the response from several Indian publishers and in view of the geographical proximity and large Indian diaspora in southeast Asia, south Asia was included into the alliance.

"We're expecting to see a great new partnership and to begin an ongoing relationship with publishers in the Asian region!" said Urvashi, founder of Zubaan, India well known for their fiction by south Asian women. For Frankfurt, Zubaan will be "bringing some stunning new novels, originally written in English and some in translation from Indian languages, and two graphic books, that focus on speculative fiction and violence against women."

Kannan Sundaram, publisher of Kalachuvadu Publications, India, will be looking to buy Tamil translation rights for international literary fiction and non fiction. "And we have original Tamil fiction now available in English that will interest foreign publishers." he added.

Malaysian publisher, Buku Fixi who won the Bookseller International Adult Trade Publisher Award at the London Book Fair this year is also part of the SESA Alliance.

"We will be looking for Malaysian translation rights for international pulp fiction and YA titles and to promote our own range of 50+ contemporary novels. Plus we are keen to meet and make friends!" said founder and owner Amir Muhammad who recently published Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane, Stephen King's Joyland and has got the Malaysian rights to Murakami's new book, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

"With the focus on ASEAN and Indonesia in the next two years, there could be growing interest in our part of the world. It is a better time to showcase our literature, our cuisine, architecture and design, our arts, and culture, our history as a nation and people," said Karina Bolasco, publishing manager of Anvil Publishing in the Philipppines.

This will be the first time Anvil Publishing will be exhibiting at the Frankfurt Book Fair and Karina is interested to buy both reprint and translation rights in basic education following changes in their curriculum in line with international K-12 reforms.

Le Chi Culture and Communications, popularly known as ChiBooks will also be exhibiting for the first time at the Frankfurt Book Fair. However, the publisher should be no stranger to international publishers as it is a key publisher of translations from UK, US, China and Taiwan in Vietnam. The Vietnamese publisher of Candace Bushnell, Rick Riordan and John Grogan among others, has translated, with some in the process, close to 200 titles since it was established in 2008.

Clearly the Vietnamese appetite for bestsellers, YA and chick lit is not on the wane as founder and CEO Le Chi is expecting to do more shopping at Frankfurt Book Fair. At the same time, the enterprising Le Chi is bringing with her a list of well-known Vietnamese authors to tempt publishers looking for new works from Vietnam.

Apart from the five publishers listed here, the YGL Agency has added more titles and publishers to their list in addition to their more popular Oyez!Books and Yusof Gajah children's titles. These include Suryastra, an independent publisher from India, Armour Publishing from Singapore; Wild Crane Press from Singapore, Litara Foundation from Indonesia and PTS Media Group from Malaysia in addition to Buku Fixi.

Suryastra, which means sun energy in Sanskrt has an eclectic list in art and design, literature and drama, science, environment and sustainable living; Armour Publishing has a good range of non-fiction titles on health, parenting, management and biographies as well as attractive value-based children's books for up to early teens.

Wild Crane Press, a new publisher, specialises in beautiful lusciously illustrated picture books.

And for those who are looking for specific Indonesian picture book titles for children, Litara Foundation, established in 2013 by five Indonesian authors and illustrators has wonderful stories that would make good introduction to Indonesian culture.

The PTS Media Group is an innovative and leading trade publisher in Malaysia with a comprehensive range of books from children, YA, fiction, non-fiction to Islamic titles.

"This is only just the beginning," said Linda. "You could say the Frankfurt Book Fair is the SESA Alliance's first outing. If there are enough publishers, we may have combined stands at other fairs such as the London Book Fair. And it's not just international fairs we are thinking about. We have already started discussions with Silverfish Books, an independent bookstore and publisher in Malaysia to have a rotation of publishers from around the region to promote and sell their books at Silverfish. We are expecting publishers from India, Singapore and New Zealand to join in this promotion next year."

The SESA Alliance will be having drinks and tea at their stand in Hall 5.0 D33 on Wednesday 8th October 2014 at the Frankfurt Book Fair, 4.00-5.30pm. All are welcome.

Check out Who's Who at the SESA Alliance