Amazon Top 100 Lists!

Good news! We've been featured in Amazon top 100 Lists for 2 topics.


First up, we are listed in the top 100 books under Designers (ranked at no. 72 globally).


And even better, under Dye, we are ranked no 32!


Truly a proud day for us, a publisher from Malaysia - on a topic that is niche as it can get: Batik... Malaysia :)

MPH Mid Valley - Raya

During the fasting month, MPH Mid Valley participated in the pre Raya celebrations.

Interestingly, they had our book displayed there as well - right in the middle of the other Malaysian based books.

This sure is a pleasant surprise especially after we've just replenished the books to the store. A big thank you for the people who helped in this :)

Frankfurt Bookfair 2009

Went to Frankfurt recently for the biggest book fair in the world. We actually went under the Malaysia trade mission.

Though it's been coming to 4 years that the book has been published now, but this is the first time we are in such an international fair. In fact, apart from the Singapore Book Fair, this is the first book fair the book is participating in.

We put the book on display together with the other Malaysian books.

However, I wasn't really manning the book... instead, I went to the other hall to try to talk to a few USA & UK distributors. Frankly, it's not easy (the questions of 1 title, niche topic, South East Asian topic, etc)... but still I managed to get some leads. Now to see if we can work something out with them.

Though my focus this year has not really been on this book at all, but I still believe strongly that there will come a day when this book will get its proper global recognition... and participation in the Frankfurt book fair is just one of the steps :)

Nyonya

With all the hype of the hit series, The Little Nyonya and all things Peranakan/ Nyonya/ Baba Nyonya now, it gets me thinking that the people who are interested in this Nyonya culture will be quite interested in this book too.

I'm actually saying this because when we participated with the Peranakan Association of Singapore during the Peranakan fair, there were so many people who were interested in our book photos.

And interestingly, the one segment they like most is none other than the segment where we had the location shoot in the authentic Nyonya/ Peranakan house in Malacca.

Though the batiks were an attraction, however, it was the location shoot that got their attention most.

People were interested in seeing the Nyonya antiques in the house from the old staircase to the big Nyonya beds and even the intricate Nyonya tiles (more photos in the book).

And many actually use the magnifying glass we provide to see these pieces better!

In fact, that Nyonya house was not the only hit in the book, as even the other house shoot, which has a mix of designs (Malay/ Chinese & Nyonya) was a big hit as well, especially this majestic stairway with its many intricate tiles and colours.

All these really makes us proud as through this book, we managed to actually bring out the Nyonya culture, despite batik as the main focus :)

*The only thing which we didn't bring out is maybe the Nyonya cuisine, though we actually have one picture where there was Nyonya cendol being served in a Nyonya-ware! :)