13 Jul 2016 | 05:06am IST
Goa,1556: Binding ideas and dreams
Alternative book publishing venture Goa,1556 has
entered its tenth year, making this a huge achievement for
Goa’s publishing sector, in particular, Frederick Noronha,
who has been spearheading the writing movement in
Goa. As a gesture of gratitude, Fredrick will share ten free
ebooks during the course of the year. Café speaks to him
about his journey as a publisher
Herald Café: How old is the Goa Book
Club and what motivated you to start
Frederick Noronha: Google helped
me remember that the Goa-Book-Club
(on Googlegroups) was launched in
November 2010. Leroy Veloso and
Augusto Pinto, incidentally both from
Moira, have separately been partners
in getting this going. Broadway, the
bookshop, has hosted us amidst their
lovely crowded bookshelves, tea and
warm samosas. As for Goa,1556, I set it
up because I had been long in journalism
and needed new challenges. I love
books, and, even ten years ago had a
collection of 1500 plus books on Goa
alone. Also, my view is that unless we
look beyond market-dependent only
solutions, smaller places like Goa will
not get a chance to express themselves
HC: This marks the beginning of the
tenth year of Goa, 1556; how has the
journey been over the past nine years?
FN: Hard work, sleepless nights, fun, a
few tense times (once, the plane carrying
our books from Mumbai was landing at
Dabolim, while the launch function was
already getting started at Benaulim!).
Lots of appreciation from readers, an
immensely satisfying experience, even
if books is a slow-earning field. It's
gratifying to know that Goa,1556 will
be at least a footnote when the literary
history of Goa gets to be written one day.
HC: Which was the first title and the
100th title published by Goa,1556?
FN: The first was 'Songs of the
Survivors', the story of Goan refugees
in Burma, by my co-villager Yvonne
Vaz-Ezdani. Our 100th title is 'Songs
of Praise', a book which seeks to
resuscitate the old Konkani hymns.
This title, unlike the first, is really
about songs! It including the laidinhas
and contains both lyrics and musical
notations. As a 'thank you' to our
readers, we priced this 280-page book
at just Rs 200. We are part of the efforts
to make quality books available at an
HC: How long does it take to publish
a book, right from the time an idea is
FN: This is a big challenge. While we
are proud of almost each one of our
books, sometimes delivering them has
taken time. It depends on how well the
manuscript is written, and how 'clean' it
is. Ideally, unless we're clogged up with
a lot of pending work, a book should
take say 6-8 months for completion. But
sometimes a book involves quite intense
re-writing. In my experience, editing and
proofreading can delay the process.
HC: How has the internet and social
media helped in getting the word about
FN: I've been a kind of cyberjunkie
for over 20 years now, and this helps.
The Net is an amazing place to build
awareness about new books, specially
for a small and scattered community
like Goa's. But more than that, I must
also give credit to the bookshops that
have helped us majorly (the Coutinhos
of Golden Heart Emporium in Margao
and Khalil Ahmed of Broadway), our overa-
hundred authors, readers, reviewers,
even members of the press.
Pamela D’Mello helped a lot in
stabilising Goa,1556's editorial operations
earlier on. Bina Nayak, our old faithful
designer, ever so enthusiastic and
supportive. Our printers, the Regos in
Bangalore and earlier, Rama Harmalkar.
This is a very collaborative venture; it
has to be, because I neither have deep
pockets nor a willingness to take loans.
HC: The new platform for readers are
ebooks. What, according to you, are the
pros and cons about ereading?
FN: Ironically, I initially thought of
starting out as an ebook publisher. Today,
I feel these books are not picking up as
fast as promised, specially in India. Their
licensing is too restrictive. By contrast,
paper is still inexpensive. Selling an
ebook is an enormously difficult job. For
our tenth anniversary year, we plan to
create and give away for free ten ebooks.
HC: What are the books Goa, 1556 is
FN: We're working on four
autobiographies set in 20th century Goa.
All are from such different perspectives
that you'd think the authors were talking
about different places! The ten free
ebooks mentioned above will attempt to
revive old works, and also works which
might find it difficult to otherwise make
it to print. We're co-publishing Anita
Pinto's children's book, after English and
Konkani editions now in Portuguese.
HC: What’s in store for Goa,1556?
FN: We don't have some grand plan. I just
want to psyche people into writing good
books, something we're all proud of. And,
at the end of the day, something worth
