Singapore: A Thriving Arena for Publishing
Strategically located within the Asia Pacific, Singapore is the gateway to the fastest growing region for publishing. Well-known international publishers, together with homegrown companies, are contributing to the thriving publishing landscape in Singapore.
International publishers based here include:
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• Reed Elsevier
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• John Wiley & Songs (Asia)
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• McGraw-Hill Education (Asia)
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• Cambridge University Press
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• Blackwell Publishing
Local publishers include:
A Boost for Writers and Illustrators
To nurture talent in the publishing industry, MDA launched the First Time Writers and Illustrators Publishing Initiative (FTWIPI) with the National Book Development Council of Singapore. The initiative aims to help local authors and illustrators to publish their maiden works.
In 2009, a total of nine titles including Ah Kong’s Clockby Belinda Chan and Lynette Long as well as Morris Takes A Chanceby Amanda Teow were published by Straits Times Press, the official appointed publisher of the initiative for the children's books category.
In the same year, eight locally-produced graphic novels were launched under FTWIPI (Comic and Graphic Novel) by appointed publisher, Chuang Yi Publishing. These talents join a growing list of local writers and illustrators supported by the FTWIPI since its inception in 2005. Since then, MDA has helped support the publication of more than 50 new works by first-time writers and illustrators.
Success Stories
One of the success stories coming out from the FTWIPI is Lee Jin Pyn, the creator of The Elephant and The Tree. Jin Pyn is represented by US literary agent Sandra Dijsktra Agency and has sold the book’s English-language rights to one of the largest independent US publishers, The Running Press. At the same time, the book has been successfully published in Japan by Media Factory Inc.
Another writer who penned her way to success under the FTWIPI is Emily Lim. Her self-published book Prince Bear & Pauper Bear was honoured as one of the year’s best picture books in the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards, also known as the IPPY Awards. She is the first Singaporean to have won an IPPY prize – the world’s largest international book awards competition – since its inception in 1996. Emily’s later book, Just Teddy, went on to win another IPPY Award in 2009, making her the first in Asia to receive the award two years running