DIVERSE BUSINESS. Paper Boat tests the waters in publishing

Paper Boat markets its range of traditional drinks on the strength of warm and fuzzy feelings evoked by childhood memories. And now it has made a foray into publishing a book that aligns with its positioning.

Half Pants Full Pants by Anand Suspi, co-founder of an ad agency called AndAnd Brand Partners, is a collection of real-life tales about growing up in Shimoga. It costs ₹195 and is listed on Flipkart.

This is Paper Boat’s first new book. Since 2015, it had published reprints of a few books including

Three Men in a Boat and Jungle Book which were given away as part of sales offers. Parvesh Debuka, Head (Marketing), says the idea came up during a discussion on what next at Paper Boat. “A lot of us at the office are readers. Reading is the best way to learn and grow and we hit upon the idea of publishing old classics. Then we thought, what about a new book? We could be a quasi-publishing house, and the author gets encouragement as well.”

The search for a suitable author led Paper Boat to Suspi through its ad agency, Lowe. Suspi had worked there for many years.

Debuka believes Paper Boat can commit to this venture, even though it’s not thinking about the next book right now. “We are treating it as our little project,” says Debuka. It wants to gauge the response to the first book before going ahead.