‘Now is not the time to
make profits’
Rajib Noor, executive publisher of Pathsutro, the dynamic publishing house that turns a year old today, talks to Sanam Amin about how a little faith and friendship made this organisation an award-winning success and what new initiatives they will be taking this year
photo by Andrew Biraj
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The Pathsutro office is small but well-lit and accentuated with touches of bright colour and folksy art, one wall dominated by a 3D collage. It was designed entirely by the team at the year-old publishing house, which first opened its doors on February 8, 2006 with four new books — one of them being Ahmed Mustafa Kamal’s Ghor Bhorthi Manush Othoba Nirshobdo. The first 3,000 copies printed sold out at an unprecedented rate. A year on, Pathsutro is printing 50,000 copies and has branched out to different genres including children’s literature as well.
The secret of their success, executive publisher Rajib Noor says, is that they do not take a business-like approach to promoting and selling books. ‘Over the years, while covering the Ekushey Boi Mela, I’ve seen friends of mine, good writers, who repeatedly approached publishers at the book fair and were repeatedly refused. Other publishing houses tend to look for the market value, how much of a sale they can make. We want to break down that approach.’
Witnessing so many undeserved refusals triggered the idea to starting their own publishing house. Till now, Noor and his partners are unsure who first voiced the idea or when. At first, Arifur Rahman Nayeem offered the support to create a new wing of Oitijhya for the project they had in mind. But, as Noor puts it, a big fish can’t grow in a small pond. The seven decided to open up their own publishing house with their own standards. Each of them contributed what little capital they could and managed to raise enough to follow their dream. Even now, whatever profit they make is reinvested into the publishing house. ‘Now is not the time for making profits,’ Noor says. ‘If we try to do that, we won’t be able to make this publishing house the place we had envisioned. All of us have committed ourselves to this for at least five more years.’
‘It isn’t a business, and Pathsutro isn’t for profit,’ Noor says. The group of seven founders — Dhruba Eash, Oitijhya’s Arifur Rahman Nayeem, Shahed Kayes, Abdullah Juberee, Tanuja Akbar, Atanu Tias and Noor — had a vision of an organisation where publishers and writers can work together and negotiate better. Considering that some of them are already acclaimed writers and poets, they are not too far off from their goal.
‘In Bangladesh, it really isn’t possible for a publishing house to be sophisticated and make a grand success. Sales don’t come out to very much. Many publishers manage to sell 500 copies of a book at most, and sometimes it takes a few years to sell that amount.’
Pathsutro’s focus is on creative writing and they welcome new writers of all genres. ‘I was a young writer once, and I won the first prize in a young writers’ competition. I can realise their emotions and difficulties. We are never reluctant to take a look at a newcomer’s work, we are ready to go through the content and judge if it is worth publishing.’
Noor says their objective is to promote readership and has quite a few future projects in mind. To their growing children’s books section, which is mostly illustrated by children, they want to add a new experimental kind of children’s literature. ‘Children can write stories too,’ Noor says. ‘And children write about things that adults don’t write for them, they write about love and about family, about families breaking up. Their themes are completely different and their writing is absolutely unique. If children write children’s literature, they create an altogether separate genre, because it is poles apart from the stories adult writers tell for children, like “Mim’s Birthday Party”.’
‘We also want to reach out to young Bangladeshis writing in English,’ Noor adds. ‘If we held a competition, out of ten thousand participants, if we get ten good writers we can make a compilation of their works. There are many young writers out there; Indian writers have made their mark in English and over here, Tahmima Anam has managed to make her place. But there are many who have the potential but have not been able to find a platform. We can do that.’
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