Royards Publishing—
Royards Publishing Company was founded in 1984 and this year is celebrating a proud 40 years in the publishing industry. It was founded by Clifford Narinesingh who also assumes the current role of company director. A former educator, having taught at various secondary schools in Trinidad, including Marabella and Carapichaima Senior Comprehensives, Narinesingh switched gears in the early Eighties giving up the chalk and blackboard for the pen and paper. Clifford Narinesingh has authored more than 50 textbooks under his Royards Publishing banner.
In the 1980’s he was approached to write curricular texts for the British publishers Thomas Nelson and Cassell. He also served as editorial advisor to Cassell Limited. Narinesingh later ventured into forming his own company and authoring his own textbooks for primary and secondary schools in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean region. Some of the authors attached to Royards are his family members. Narinesingh’s sisters, Roma Sinanan and Uriel Narinesingh, have written long standing series for the company. The youngest author and content creator to join the company is his niece and secondary school teacher, Charlene Sinanan-Hansraj.
“The major thrust when we were starting out, was to prepare curriculum material appropriate to the needs of the students in the curriculum, indigenous material. In those days there was more English content and the purpose of our company was to have more culturally relevant material in our textbooks,” says Clifford Narinesingh. He notes that the company has produced over 200 textbooks in the past 40 years.
After many years of building the Royards brand in Trinidad, Clifford Narinesingh sought to make alliances with various agents throughout the English-speaking Caribbean in an effort to gain market share in the region. The Royards name began to spread as his textbooks became more popular with teachers and students in Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Belize, St Vincent, St Lucia and Grenada. Today, the brand has been accepted as far as Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, British Virgin Island, St Kitts, Dominica and many more English-speaking territories.
The company has always set its sights on providing quality products that can withstand the test of time, while remaining affordable for parents and students. After such a strong history of producing sound curricular content, it was time to ensure that the brand withstands the test of time in an in an industry in its infancy and one that is niche on the publishing landscape.
Enter Dwight Narinesingh (The Next Generation)
Dwight Narinesingh is the son of Clifford and Lucianna Narinesingh. Dwight’s exposure to Royards began during his childhood. During his teenaged years, he would spend his summer vacation working alongside his brother, Dafod, packaging and shipping textbooks for export, all the while exploring all other aspects of the business.
Dwight’s tertiary education saw him concentrate his studies on media and print which would later lend to his experience in publishing. Having graduated in 2000, after attending university in the United States and subsequently achieving accreditation from the Stanford Publishing Courses at Stanford University in California, Dwight returned to Trinidad to co-manage Royards alongside his father. Today, the pair are at the forefront of publishing in the Caribbean, meshing years of experience with new ideas, and utilising modern technology.
After joining the company in 2000, Dwight has now gained 24 years of experience working at Royards Publishing. He credits his experience and successes to his father who he describes as having “vision beyond compare”.
“My father relinquished the reins early on in my experience and has left decisions with me that have revolutionised our business,” Dwight says.
In looking for alternate means of keeping products affordable, Dwight has sought out printing options in various markets throughout the world. Royards has kept strong alliances with local printers but because of various economic circumstances the company has been forced to look for printing outside of Trinidad.
Dwight notes, “We would love to support our local printing industry with one hundred percent of our printed requirement as it gives us better quality control, but because the cost of local printing has escalated over the years, we are just not able to achieve this at this time.”
The Publishing landscape
According to both father and son, the local publishing landscape does not lend for a vibrant publishing industry primarily because the interest in reading has declined. Books simply are not in demand. The company believes that authors from the Caribbean are among the most talented in the world. However, their art suffers mainly because the audience is simply not there. As a result, most of the work is self-published.
Publishers such as Royards, in order to be profitable, must publish material that can attract an audience. In order to capture that audience, Royards Publishing has sought to publish primarily, curricular content as it appeals to a wider audience.
At present Royards publishes over 140 titles in various subjects such as English Language, Literature, Mathematics, Science, Theatre Arts, Spanish, Social Studies and Penmanship.
The management at Royards also sees the need for certain important work to be published, work that contributes to the society and helps to tell the national story. They see it as a civic duty to explore and bring to fruition publications that are important to TT’s historical and national identity.
This is why Royards’ recent publications have focused on many prominent national personalities whose stories must be told. Publications such as John Humphrey: The Ideology of Partnership; Mr. Solo: The Legendary Ken Charles by Clifford Narinesingh; Adrian Cola Rienzi: The Life and Times of an Indo-Caribbean Progressive by Dr Brinsley Samaroo; After Fifty Years in the Legal Profession by Dr Claude H Denbow SC; From Los Bajos to the World by Andy Johnson; Matters Arising by Kenneth Ramchand; Basic Practical Gynecology by Samuel Ramsewak; Oil, Gas and The Economy by Rampersad Motilal, to name a few. These and other works contribute to the identity of our great country.
Other publications also include books based on the sport of cricket, as it is a passion of Clifford Narinesingh who authored the biography of Indian cricket legend, Sunil Gavaskar entitled The Portrait of a Hero. This has introduced the company and Clifford Narinesingh to an entire new audience in India and lead to a subsequent book based on Sachin Tendulkar entitled The Presence of Tendulkar.
Always chasing greatness and willing to document it, Clifford Narinesingh went on to write on our local batting hero Brian Lara, in the book, LARA: The Untamed Spirit. The most recent of the sporting commentaries is the life story and career of Guyana’s own hero, Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the book Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright: The Shivnarine Chanderpaul Story.
Royards has engaged in many varied projects over the years and has the desire to remain, first and foremost, in the field of education, where the paramount objective is producing quality tools for teachers and students. The company remains selective when choosing other mainstream projects as their commitment to publishing a body of work must live up to the standards that they have set for themselves.
Government and the Industry
According to the Narinesinghs, while publishing might still be in its infancy in the Trinidad and in the region, it is a vibrant space and is an industry that should be supported and encouraged. Sadly, this is not the case in Trinidad, they say, as local literary content creators have been marginalised, especially those who publish curricular work.
According to Dwight Narinesingh, “With respect to support from government, I hope to see more collaboration between publishers and the Ministry of Education. Publishers face much criticism, especially at the back-to-school period.
Royards—committed and focused
The finger is always pointed at the publisher for exorbitant book prices. Just as in any other industry raw materials are on the rise. The cost of ink and paper have increased, and we are constantly negotiating prices with our printers.”
Recently publishers both local and international have been accused of producing frequent revisions in order to escalate prices. Dwight notes that while there might be some who engage in these practices, the public can be assured that neither of these claims can be made about Royards branded textbooks.
“We at Royards are always conscious of the cost of textbooks and how it affects parents. This is why much of our time is spent looking for alternate printing options. Options which would keep pricing affordable and retain our quality,” he says.
When it comes to revisions, the company’s policy is to only revise when necessary.
“We seek to revise editions when there is a shift in curriculum or new requirement set by the Ministry of Education. Every publisher wants to be competitive and to do so must include in books the information that is required. A prime example is our Rainbow Reader Series. This series has been on the market for 20 or more years. The first revision of this series took place this year. From our perspective, if the content is sound, current and it appeals to teachers and students then there is no need to revise the text.
“One must also be aware that revision or new editions are expensive to produce. Previous editions must be recalled and replaced with new printed books. This is a very expensive exercise. While there is misinformation in the public sphere about these issues, our company has managed to steer clear of any of those practices and this is why we are able to celebrate 40 years in the publishing industry.”
Print or Digital
With the constantly changing technology now available to the industry, the company has made critical decisions that would place Royards on a trajectory for the future of publishing.
“We have produced printed books for the entire history of the company,” Dwight notes. “However, with COVID-19 that has changed. With many experiencing lockdowns and children being starved an education, the directors of Royards decided to make the leap and build a digital platform where all of Royards books can be accessed and used by students and teachers in the classroom through e books.”
This platform is called Digital Canopi. It is the first of its kind in Trinidad and is 100 percent conceptualised and built locally in Trinidad by Dwight Narinesingh. Digital Canopi is a product of Royards Publishing Company. It is a digital ebook/e-commerce platform that allows the reselling and distribution of ebooks to anyone and, because it is on the web, it is available everywhere in the world.
What is Digital Canopi? Creator, Dwight Narinesingh describes it
“We were thinking of building a simple site, easy to use for our textbooks. However, when we delved deeper, we decided, why not have other publishers and self-publishers join our site. Why not open it up to all content creators, so that we can all revolutionise publishing and make the leap into the future of publishing. That is just what we did. We created a website where you can purchase an ebook from anywhere in the world and read its content on your laptop, your phone or your tablet and you can access it anywhere at any time. You can read one of our textbooks in a classroom or read a novel at the beach on your device.
“The best thing about our platform, is that anyone with literary content wanting to have their work published can now do so on Digital Canopi and sell their content through our site. Through Digital Canopi we have developed a way to offer publishers who already have published books, the opportunity to sell ebook versions of their books on Digital Canopi. Similarly, we have given first time authors the opportunity to upload their content to our site and sell their books while removing the extraneous and expensive process of printing, logistics and promotion. This way your book is available immediately on the web for sale. Once a customer purchases your book, it is instantly downloadable to that customer’s account on Digital Canopi. There is no obligation to host your books on Digital Canopi. Authors are paid only when their ebooks are sold.”
As publishers accustomed to print, this new technology has the ability to revolutionise the way the industry does business. Everything occurs instantly. The payment process is instant and so is the delivery of the content. As opposed the printed product, where the book must be paid for through a bank and then physically delivered to the purchaser. With digital books there is no warehousing or logistics and of course no printing involved. All of these processes and costs are eliminated, ultimately reducing the cost of the e book content.
Royards currently operates with a hybrid system of printed books and also offers the ebook version on Digital Canopi. As technology continues to evolve, the company expects to change with it in order to offer customers the very best experience in receiving and utilising the content.
“We are proud to be the very first to have built this platform and take great pride in the fact that it is 100 percent locally developed.
“Times are changing and with it, so is our industry. We have noticed that this generation wants their information delivered through quick and seamless methods. We already see abridged versions of books being delivered through audio books. While at present, my preference might be the printed book, in the not so far off future there will be a demand for the digital book. Should that happen, Royards Publishing Company stands committed and focused.”
Royards Publishing Company is one of the leading Publishing companies for Educational material and in particular Literacy content in the Caribbean Region. Our catalogue of writing books makes the skill of writing fun and helps children learn to write clearly. Our catalogue is also designed to be utilised both in the classroom as well as practice in the home.
At both levels of the Primary and Secondary school system, our catalogue of books include:
• Reading Series Language
• Arts Series Creative
• Writing Series.
In addition, as part of our catalogue, we offer books on:
• Sports
• Poetry
• Story Time
It is our sincere hope that soon we can extend our curriculum base to other academic areas.
Digitisation of our Services
Like other creative industries, the book publishing industry is currently experiencing a shift from analogue to digital technologies and formats.
Our company is cognisant of the dynamic nature of the publishing industry with the rapid development of information and communication technologies that have impacted current and emerging business models.
The shift in existing business models in the industry has impelled us to re-examine our product portfolios and core competencies.
We have re-positioned our business model to a more hybrid approach which embodies traditional elements along with elements of technology that are consequent on the advent of digitisation.
To this end, our medium to long-term goal is the reconfiguration of a business model that offers all content within the Royards Publishing Company catalogue via a digital platform through options for e-books, partial access to our content our full download Integrated Catalogue to support education and learning depending on individual user requirements.
Royards Publishing Co has made a commitment to publishing books that are seen as necessary for enlightening and informing the public of Trinidad and Tobago and countries around the world.
Over the years the company has launched several major publications by and about prominent figures. Among these were publications such as John Humphrey: The Ideology of Partnership; Mr Solo: The Legendary Ken Charles by Clifford Narinesingh; Adrian Cola Rienzi: The Life and Times of an Indo-Caribbean Progressive by Dr Brinsley Samaroo; After Fifty Years in the Legal Profession by Dr Claude H Denbow SC; From Los Bajos to the World by Andy Johnson; Matters Arising by Kenneth Ramchand; Basic Practical Gynecology by Samuel Ramsewak; Oil, Gas and The Economy by Rampersad Motilal, and others.
Royards is committed to Presbyfest
For some 14 years preceding COVID-19, Royards Presbyfest— an annual festival of arts—was held among Presbyterian schools. This was a response to a call by PRESTA (Presbyterian Schools Board) to support a series of events in art, song, music, poetry and creative writing among Presbyterian primary schools. It is a venture in the performing arts which Royards has been supportive of for some time.
According to managing director Dwight Narinesingh, the company is committed to providing greater awareness, interest and involvement in the arts, as such ventures can serve as a recognition of the humanities and the profound effect it has on our lives—spiritual development, maturity, breadth of outlook, sense of self, its humanising influence and as a counter to the trivialising forces of society.
Celebrating Cricket
Cricket has fascinated the Caribbean for decades. It is well known that our region has produced some of the greatest cricketers to ever grace the pitch. At home, we have Sir Brian Charles Lara who holds some coveted world records including the highest individual score in both first-class cricket, 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994 and Test cricket, 400 not out for the West Indies against England in 2004. A record that still stands.
Another great batsman that West Indies cricket has produced is Shivnarine Chanderpaul whose unorthodox batting style captivated the cricketing world.
His stance, often described as crabby, proved to be a true testament to tenacity as he ended his career for the Men in Maroon with a test average of over 50. His prolific Test cricket career ended with him becoming the only the second West Indian to score 10,000 Test runs. These are just two of the cricketers whose careers we have explored and celebrated at Royards.
