Dear Reader, Permit me to share a personal message as well as my deep feelings of gratitude, through this network today.
The alternative book publishing venture Goa,1556 (named after the arrival of the first movable type printing press in Asia in this region sometime in that year) enters its tenth anniversary year today. It is perhaps not a coincidence that for quite some time before it was set up, we on Goanet had been off and on discussing Goa books, feting authors who had recently published titles, and generally grumbling here as to how difficult it was to get published or buy Goa-related books at that time. On a monsoon-struck July 1 in 2007, Goa,1556 took the hint and got going. Though one hardly expected it then, it kept growing. We just completed our 100th title in the past few months. Thanks to the support of our readers, authors, artist, editors, printers, partner organisations, supporters, reviewers, collaborative bookshops, even volunteers who took it on themselves to take up the tough job of lugging across heavy paper and hawk our books in distant parts of the globe (hard work for little returns), and so many others. With the active involvement of bibliophiles, in Goa and also elsewhere, the Goa-Book-Club [http://groups.google.com/group/goa-book-club] was launched. Both online and with real-world meetings. Its aim has been focussing specially on Goa-related (including diaspora) books. Overall, thanks to everyone's support and efforts, I think Goa,1556 has, or will in time, earn its place at least as a footnote in the history of publishing of Goa. Specially if we can keep on keeping on. Experiments such as these, in my (not unbiased) view, help to make publishing accessible in 'small markets' like Goa. It perhaps also to make books affordable by holding down prices of our printed books. Of course we have our shortcomings too, and are painfully aware about that. For instance, delays, or our inability to manage to bring out a few books that come our way because of limitations on our part.) This year, 2016-2017, is being observed as Goa,1556's tenth anniversary year. As a small thank you to everyone out there, we would like to re/create and share with anyone interested maybe around ten ebooks during the coming year. To get your copies of the ebooks as and when released -- two to three should be out in the next few days -- please send an email to goa1...@gmail.com with GOA,1556 EBOOKS as your subjectline. I'd be grateful if you could let me know, in the email, what kind of Goa-related books you'd like to see happen. All these ebooks will be made available free and unpriced, to whoever asks for them. But if you want to complete the cycle of giving, then I request you to buy or gift to someone else, any Goa-related book (even if it is not one published by Goa,1556) and promote this sector which needs your support. Thanks and good wishes, Frederick Noronha Goa,1556 http://goa1556.in [Currently under maintenance though] -- _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ Frederick Noronha | http://about.me/noronhafrederick | http://goa1556.in _/ P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter @fn Facebook: fredericknoronha _/ Goa,1556 CC shared audio content https://archive.org/details/goa1556 _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/