Writer and poet, Jorge Luis Borges said, “I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.” Priyanka Singhal too prescribes to this school of thought, having launched Castle of Books (COB) in March. As the name suggests, she rents and sells books and now, promotes emerging authors as well. Renting books is limited to her customers in Delhi and NCR, where she resides. But she sells books to people across India at huge discounts.
“COB is a child of keen observation,” says Singhal. She watched her bookworm friends who constantly headed to libraries and few others who wanted to read, but didn’t know where to start. Combining these two sensibilities, she began renting out books. Later, on realising the growing demand for, but low visibility of Indian authors, she decided to promote them. To name a couple, Kunal Bharadwaj and Rohit Gore have signed up with COB. Now she has around 500 titles, a number which keeps increasing.
Singhal also has a strong readership base that has enabled her to break even in four months, and now expect profits. “We have a membership-driven business model where we provide different plans for readers as per their reading speed,” she says. Cash on delivery and book suggestions are some of the features of COB.
Books are selected from various genres including classics, national and international bestsellers, self study materials, entertainment, management and business — titles by Paulo Coelho, Khaled Hosseini, Aravind Adiga and Cecilia Ahern, to name a few. “Our library currently has a base of more than 500 active readers. We connect with them through emails, monthly newsletters, Facebook and Twitter. Reading is a habit which is not restricted to any age group, and this was proved by our readers, who range between 11-60 years,” speaks Singhal with pride.
COB wasn’t a cakewalk. Singhal explains, “There were lots of challenges in the beginning. The biggest one was having faith in the business idea. The element of doubt always starts from the self. So that took the longest time. Once that was done, everything else seems to be manageable.”
This 24-year-old has been very busy since she graduated from Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida, in retail management. Singhal also founded Editors’ Delight, which is into communications and content, 3.5 years ago. “Belonging to a business family, I was always inspired by my father. I started working during my undergraduation itself — initially at Creation Overseas, a designer candle export firm,” she says. With multiple channels to order books, great discounts and good service, COB is the reader’s haven. For details, visit www.castleofbooks.in.
— preethi@newindianexpress.com