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Pratham Books is a not-for-profit children's book publisher that was set up in 2004 to publish good quality, affordable books in many Indian languages. Our mission is to see ‘a book in every child’s hand’ and we have spread the joy of reading to millions of children in India.

In the last 13 years we have published over 3000 books and printed over 14 million copies and 16 million storycards. In 2015, Pratham Books' increased its footprint by going digital. As an industry leader we were one of the first publishers in the country to open license our content. All this content in now available onStoryWeaver, our digital platform that hosts stories in 59 languages. The stories can be read, translated, versioned or downloaded for free. With both the print and digital initiatives being scaled, Pratham Books is looking for a Print Production Manager to take the lead of its print, production and digitization processes.

Job Description:

As a Print Production Manager you will be driving the management of a busy studio that can change from a quiet environment to one full of freelancers and multiple projects all running at the same time. Your job will be to manage the studio and production schedules as well as the day to day administrative responsibilities of running the studio of a reputed publishing house.

This is a job that requires attention to detail, organisation and time management. Clear communication and multitasking skills are a must.

We require an individual who is motivated, knows how to manage the requirements of book production that can require multiple cycles of reviews and adaptations for different platforms. Ability to prioritize workload to manage the studio schedule within the budgetary requirements.

You will work closely with the Editorial team to ensure timely delivery of all aspects of production for print and digital books - from layouts to pagination, optimizing image quality and proofreading to readying artworks, uploading digital books and QC (quality checking).

Key Responsibilities:

• Coordinate with editorial groups to create the final files for production of both print and digital formats of our books
• Upload the digital books on StoryWeaver
• Prioritize and manage timely output
• Supervise the design and production team
• Develop work procedures, establish quality standards and be responsible for releasing the final files
• Schedule daily studio workload, coordinate approvals from different teams, manage version control etc
• Train and monitor studio staff in all relevant skill areas.
• Liaison with cross functional teams
• Maintain an efficient archiving system
• Maintain accurate records of work in progress for billing 

Must have:

• 7-8 years experience of working within a creative agency / publishing house
• A working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite
• Experience in leading a mid-size team consisting of layout artists, DTP, Photoshop and artwork people
• References to previous work

Salary: Subject to level of previous experience

Location: Delhi

Write to us: Interested candidates are requested to send in their resume to careers(at)prathambooks(dot)org

P.S. - If you are shortlisted, you will hear back from us within 15 days of applying

 

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            Ms. Ratnamala Divkar of the Konkani Bhasha Mandal writes in...

On this day, 29 years ago, Goa was declared a state. This was the culmination of a long struggle of the Goans - a struggle to establish identity to reclaim the    origins of expression and belonging. The struggle of Konkani as the official language of its land has been intrinsically intertwined with this journey. And in a lot of ways, the struggle to populate our expressions in Konkani is still on..

 As part of our Konkan journey, we were introduced to StoryWeaver, Pratham Books and its efforts to enrich children’s literature with stories across many, many  languages. It was a great pleasure collaborating with them for their venture in Konkani. The opportunity came to us at the Konkani Bhasha Mandal at the right  time, as we had been struggling to find ways in which we could contribute to children's literature in our language, Konkani. It was a great experience interacting  with like-minded people such as the StoryWeaver team.

Konkani unfortunately has suffered greatly since pre-independence and the language has not received the patronage it deserves. Konkani was not been recognised by many as an independent language but was considered a dialect of Marathi for too long. Konkani language enthusiasts and writers have had to spend much of their resources on the fight to get recognition for Konkani as a language, thus, diverting their energy from contributing to the development of the language. Finally after long drawn struggle, Konkani was included in the eighth schedule of our Constitution in 1992. There is much more to express, a struggle that still continues till today. Our Leader Dnyanpeeth Awardee Shri Ravindra Kelekar always used to say that we are fighters first and then writers.

Children's literature in Konkani was a casualty of this struggle. It’s something we have been keenly aware of and we are consciously trying our best to contribute to this area. While doing so we know that children's literature is not an easy job.

Plus, like any other state the issue of medium of instruction did surface in Goa and we at Konkani Bhasha Mandal( KBM) realised that we have to provide supporting material in education besides academics. We have made an attempt to meet the expertise in this field. We conducted workshops, had interactive sessions, produced material required in education. We are still working on this mission with our committed and passionate group of writers. There is much more to be done.

The books* created by StoryWeaver cover a wide range of topics, catering to children with all types of interests. The illustrations are lively, very attractive and makes the stories more interesting.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing us translate these beautiful stories to Konkani and reach out to our children. We look forward to working with you on original stories in Konkani.

Cheers to that!

*The books mentioned were created under a grant from Oracle India.

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1.     What do you usually read? Which language do you prefer to read in?

​My meagre reading consists of stray books, normally non-fiction. My mother tongue Gujarati would be my preference, but I also like to read books and magazines in English and sometimes Hindi.

2.     Is there a favourite book / author and why is it a favourite?

​Nothing in particular. I like exploring a wide field when it comes to authors and subjects. I am a generalist.​

3.     You have contributed for us immensely. How has the StoryWeaver journey been?

​I have  liked the stories that I have worked on  and am impressed by how educative they are. ​

4.     How does it feel when your story gets published online? 

Naturally one feels satisfied having participated in an educative process. I also derive creative joy.  ​

5.     You have translated / reviewed a handful of stories for us. Which one has been your favourite and why?

​I really enjoyed working with quite a few stories. One that I had particularly liked was about a cat in the Sahyadris - ‘Cat in the Ghat’.

6.     What is your key driver in taking this up? 

​Being a bookman all my working life​ - now over half a century - I love to work with words, in my own language as also in English. The kind of stuff that you create is purposeful and that attracts me even when I am hard pressed for time.

7.     How has your overall experience with StoryWeaver been? 

પ્રથમના

​બાલસાહિત્યના અનુવાદ અને સંપાદનનો મારો અનુભવ ખૂબ આનંદદાયક અને ઉત્સાહપ્રેરક રહ્યો. મને લાગ્યું કે જેમને જાણતો​ નથી એ તમે બધાં મિત્રો સમાન રસનાં છો, અને તમારી સાથે કામ કરવાનું મારા વ્યસ્ત નિવૃત્તિકાળમાં ઊંડો સંતોષ અને આનંદ આપનાર છે.

The experience of translation and editing with Pratham Books StoryWeaver has been delightful and stimulating. It is satisfying and joy-giving to work with you in this active dusk of life.

8. While reviewing stories, what are the top three things you keep in mind?

​Any material for wider consumption amongst children should be clean and correct ​in the matter of language, and aesthetically healthy and of good taste. Ultimately everything should boil down to creating a better human being. Stories should be entertaining no doubt, but the element of education is of paramount importance in our developing society.   

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