New Publisher for Reo Pēpi
By Reo Pēpi | Posted:
We have HUGE news regarding Reo Pēpi; our books, our business model, our future and our brand new publishing partnership with Allen and Unwin NZ!
Ultimately, the journey towards making this decision began as we created a new series of pukapuka-the long awaited Toru: Series 3 (one of the illustrations is pictured above).
It is beautiful, it is exciting and we truly believe it is our best mahi so far. However, once the creative work was over and we began working towards publishing, something wasn't right. Despite the aroha we had poured into making the books in this series, the energy for the work to come; printing, publishing, marketing, distributing and promoting it...was not forthcoming.
We realised that the day to day demands of running ‘Reo Pēpi - the business’ was draining the energy and wairua we valued and needed for ‘Reo Pēpi - the artistic and creative project’.
Originally our idea for Reo Pēpi came from our desire to see more beautiful, bilingual books on shelves, in bookstores and libraries everywhere. Having achieved this goal, we wanted to keep them there for whānau, while developing further Reo Pēpi resources, for years to come. We needed to look for solutions that met our aspirations and nourished our creative energy.
And this brings us to our plan and exciting news! Our new whānau at Allen and Unwin are a powerhouse publisher (they were the original publishers of Lord of the Rings :0) and they will now take care of all our publishing and business mahi. They will publish Toru - our new series. But most importantly, their assistance will provide Kirsten and I with a wāhi whakaruru (a sheltered place) to continue our creative process.
Hūrei! Let's hear it for sustainable and whānau friendly business models!
We are excited to see what these changes bring and look forward to the future for Reo Pēpi within the Allen and Unwin whare!
Our grateful thanks to all our Reo Pēpi supporters it is an honour and a privilege to work on this kaupapa.
We hope you will continue to follow our journey and support our mahi-ā mua....