A Message From Oyez!Books Chairman - Peter Duke

As we enter the last two weeks of 2016, all of us at Oyez!Books want to express our thanks to our supporters. We have a had a good year despite the many challenges facing the retail market for children's books. Of special note has been the strong support from libraries, in particular the National library, the Sutera Mall library in Johor and the Perak State library. We have been well supported by a number of retailers, including Silverfish in Bangsar, Kinokuniya in KLCC, IKA Books in Kuching, BACA reading room in Temerloh, and Precious Pages in Penang. And I would like to say thank you to the ladies who have acted as our agents selling our books, I say ladies because all of them without exception are ladies.

We have one agent in Muar who has been very active in supplying our books to kindergartens in Johor. We would welcome enquiries from anyone who might wish to promote and sell our books to schools and kindergartens.

Peter Duke, Oyez!Books Chairman

We want to add a special thank you to our authors and illustrators who have continued to produce excellent new material for us to publish. I am referring to Emila Yusof, Evi Shelvia, Heidi Shamsuddin, Lay Koon Lim, Rossiti Aishah Rashidi, Chooi Ling Keiong, Yusof Gajah, Nor Azhar Ishak, Mohd Khairul Azman Ismail. A special thank you to you all!

A specialist book publisher such as Oyez! Books cannot rely on the open market for success. We have to attract corporations and foreign publishers to licence our books or buy rights to publish our books. We have been fortunate in this field with McDonald choosing four of Yusof Gajah's books for their happy meals promotion. P&G in conjunction with Tesco's licensed two of Peter Worthington's Tipee Hipee Early Readers as promotional material for P&G products. We have been successful in selling foreign rights to publishers in China, Korea, Switzerland and Germany. We will continue to focus on this sector as it bring benefits to both us and to our authors and illustrators. It must feel great for an author or an illustrator to see one of their books published in a foreign language.

Grandma Lim's Persimmons Korean edition - written by Sunita Lad Bhamray, illustrated by Marjorie Van Heerden

2017 will bring new challenges as foreign books are being increasingly dumped in Malaysia at little more than the cost price to the publishers. However, at Oyez!Books we have a special niche in that all our books are quality publications, mostly in English, and mostly written and illustrated by Malaysians. I believe we are the only publisher to specialise in this field and many of those who come across our books express surprise and pleasure in finding such books. However, having said that we are constantly exploring the foreign markets to see if we can find picture books to publish that will bring pleasure to Malaysian children. Some of these will be available next year. 

On a personal note we will be welcoming Emila Yusof who will be joining us in January as our Creative Development Director.  Among her other roles she will be launching our new initiative ‘Books & Gifts’. Books make the best gifts - they last a long time and can be 'used' and treasured over and over again. They can also be passed down. They reflect the values and thoughtfulness of the giver in selecting just the right books that will bring pleasure to the receiver. 

Finally, I wish everyone Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!