Ele Books
Company Details:
Ele Books is the publisher of The Elephant and The Tree, a children’s book that combines the story of a friendship between an elephant and a tree with the powerful message of environmental conservation. Lee Jin Pyn is both the founder and the author.
Ele Books enjoys entertaining its readers and reminding them of the simplest joys in life. It wants to give a voice to the vulnerable – children, animals and the underprivileged.
Challenges:
As a start-up, Ele Books had little knowledge of the publishing world. In order to make its debut, it had to start from ground zero and learn everything from scratch – from doing research to getting industry contacts.
With MDA's Support:
Ele Books published The Elephant and The Tree in 2006. This was supported through MDA’s First-Time Writers & Illustrators Publishing Initiative (FTWIPI), an initiative targeted at assisting the publication of new works by unpublished local writers and illustrators.
Apart from providing the grant to publish The Elephant and The Tree, the initiative also gave Jin Pyn, a first-time author, the chance to ask many questions and get feedback on her drafts from industry experts.
After the book was published, MDA continued to give exposure to the book and to the company in industry trade and licensing shows.
Now, Ele Books has entered into a mentorship programme initiated by MDA to develop The Elephant and The Tree further into a global brand.
Outcome:
The Elephant and The Tree is going places. The US edition – to be published by one of America’s largest independent publishers, The Running Press – is due out in 2009. The book is also expected to travel to Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and UK.
A Japanese version of book, released by Japanese company Media Factory Inc, is also breaking into the Japanese-print markets.
Moving from just publishing, Ele Books will soon be merged with Elemantree Media, another brainchild of Jin Pyn. Elemantree Media will offer a comprehensive multimedia approach to providing educational content for children, with a focus on Asian wildlife education. It aims to be the first on recall when Asian nature education for children is mentioned.