Stories come alive

The 44th National Book Fair begins today. We take a look at some of the highlights and development in the local publishing scene

Rayrai, the seven-year-old writer

Since July last year, seven-year-old Rayrai Suveeranont has been keeping a journal every day without fail. With her mum always nearby, she sits down to write the most memorable incident or people she meets each day, whether it’s her twin siblings, the fun in her father’s home studio, her mum’s delicious steak, her maths class at school, etc. Soon, her mother began posting these refreshingly fun and naive accounts online, and what began as a Facebook page “Rayrai Raiwan” (Daily Rayrai) for close family and friends turned into a social media sensation, garnering almost 90,000 likes, and now into a recently published 447-page book, featuring a collection of her daily writings from the beginning up to February this year.

“I just write whatever I’m thinking,” said Rayrai. “Mostly, the stories are about my grandparents, my parents, my younger twin siblings and everybody I have met.”

The beginning of Daily Rayrai was when she signed up for the “Children Notebooks” project, a campaign by the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture of the Ministry of Culture, which was initiated by National Artist Makut Onrudee of Butterfly Book. Soon an empty notebook was sent to her home and she made a pact to write every day.

“It took me a long time to write each entry because I also talked to my mum while doing it,” said Rayrai. “When I can’t think of anything to write, I just go play and run around and come back to it later.”

Each page of the book is exactly the same as posted online, with her wiggly-yet-easy-to-read handwriting, which is sometimes accompanied by simple drawings on the opposite page. Rayrai realises that some of her spellings are wrong yet they are kept as they are. Her mother’s teaching method is that Rayrai should at first spell the words according to how she hears them and then she will tell Rayrai the correct spelling later.

“I have always told her that writing is like thinking,” said Rayrai’s mother Chanida Suveeranont. “I told her to just start by telling me a story and write it down like that. She’s only seven years old so I don’t worry about the spelling. Sometimes I tell her the correct spelling later. If it’s too difficult I just leave it for later.”

Each entry by Rayrai is short yet they are widely loved and shared online for her sense of humour, intended or otherwise, and her refreshingly honest and naive viewpoints of the people and incidents surrounding her.

Chanida said writing has made her daughter interact with people more, and not keeping to herself. Chanida chose to publish the book herself because she reckons her daughter is too young to be associated with the publishing business. She stresses that the book is ultimately for her daughter’s fans to get to finally read on paper rather than on the computer screen. She said she isn’t worried about the negative views involving her daughter due to the commercial side of things.

“We know what we’re doing,” said Chanida. “This is good fun for her and it’s good for her development. We never forced her to do it and we always tell her that she can quit any time if she doesn’t feel like doing it anymore.”

Asked if she wanted to be a writer when she grows up, Rayrai said no.

“I want to be an interior designer,” said Rayrai. “Writers have to work every day but interiors designers don’t. They don’t have to if people don’t call for them.”

— Kaona Pongpipat

Chaleampon 'Oates' Ritthichai.

Journalist’s journal

In between the hundreds of A-list Hollywood stars, American celebrities, designers and politicians that Chaleampon “Oates” Ritthichai has interviewed, there are barely 20 Thai personalities that the New York-based multimedia journalist has really grilled for any stories. A large chunk of the big local names the 40-year-old did talk to are all compiled into his first book, which is being launched at the National Book Fair: New York Bok Tor (New York Tells All: A Collection Of Conversations In A Concrete Jungle).

Far from being a gossip rag or a guide book, this fully-colour 200-pager is a deep conversation with 10 different leaders in their respective industries that Chaleampon met during their time working in New York. 

“The setting really offers a different feel,” the author describes of the time when asking Getsunova frontman Name Raiva to compare life in NYC and London. “If you ask stuff like that in Bangkok it just sounds pretentious, but I asked that because it was the right setting. New York [as seen from Thailand] sounds glamorous but there are also people who don’t have it glamorous. Honestly, I think everyone struggles because everything is so expensive. I really wanted to know whether people in other cities struggle too.”

Besides a long career of working at a print publication, online website, radio and television in the Big Apple, the twice Emmy-nominated reporter also writes for the newspaper Thai Good News, where these articles were first published. Out of the 10 interviewees, we have the ones obviously there to feed the frenzies of fan girls like entertainers James Jirayu and Bie Sukrit, but the book also shifts to heavyweights like Broadway authority Boy Takonkiet or V. Vajiramedhi, where the author discusses how Buddhism and science are actually intertwined with the new-gen monk while strolling through Central Park.
It’s an insightful but light read, accompanied by an array of lively photos of each person at iconic locations from Carnegie Hall to East Village. Acknowledging his journalistic mores to the demanding stint at political website Gotham Gazette, Chaleampon focuses on the craft and work of each figure, but also gives way occasionally to slightly tabloid-esque questions. He recalls seeing two beautiful black women and pointing to James Jirayu while asking: “Is that your type?” 

On a more frenetic pace, Chaleampon’s job requires him to make instant decisions between making a beeline towards Tommy Hilfiger or Siwon Choi at the Met Gala — a complete change from the world of politics he reported on for over half-a-decade. It was boredom that caused him to change lanes, but he advises: “If there is an opportunity to interview the A-list people of the world, you really have to do it, even if they aren’t from a field you are interested in. When people like Adam Levine or Keira Knightley come by, it’s not an opportunity you can deny.”

Today, he’s accomplished in his own right and hopes New York Tells All will offer solace and inspiration to others who want to make it internationally, as well. “I want people who want to make it internationally to see and get inspired by these figures. I want them to see it in a sense that if all these 10 people could do it, I can do it too. When everything falls into place, you can be standing at that point too.” 

— Parisa Pichitmarn

Minimore rolls out more e-content

Of late, one of the most crowded booths at every book fair is that of Salmon Books, a new-generation publishing house and an experimenter in the electronic-paper hybrid platform. With a hip and cool team looking over its online arm Minimore, the website is slowly but steadily gaining momentum in becoming a go-to platform for young adults looking for quality content. 
So what do “The success of extremist politicians” and “Nine Doraemon gadgets available in real life” have in common? Besides the fact that both have an upbeat and cheeky collage of photographs and graphics to accompany it, the two phrases are actually headlines for some of the articles that show up on Minimore’s recently launched Feed. 

Previously, the youth-culture website was mainly known as the gateway to hidden online content; a combination of paper book and e-content where readers can access this mine of “extras” by typing in the code found at the back of books published by Minimore’s sister outfits, Salmon Books or Bun Books. The site also offered a space for aspiring writers to make micro-transactions with readers, where they could sell their writing by chapters or even pages.

“We felt that there wasn’t a bridge between the offline and online readers,” says Minimore’s founder Teepagorn Wuttipitayamongkol. “When offline readers are done with their books it just ends there, but we wanted to turn a book into an idea or community that continues even after you are done reading. It doesn’t just help the sales and author, but also keeps readers loyal to us.” 

The progressive model that no other local site uses makes Minimore a content institution of its own kind. Two months ago, the young site also ventured into publishing online entertainment articles — the BuzzFeed-like sort that plague our second screens today.

Despite the dizzying and uncalled-for number of players that flood the online field, Teepagorn insists that new sites do have a possibility to shine, despite a saturated market with many competitors. “People don’t go to their homepages anymore,” he reasons. “Instead, they go to read shared stories on social media and everything is about social distribution. When it becomes like that, it allows new pages to gain momentum because that’s how they begin — when people share your link on their Facebook.”

According to the 31-year-old founder, today, a large name does not necessarily guarantee web popularity. “Magazines that start a website may have a strong fan-base that starts them off with more Likes on Facebook. But this doesn’t mean all of their stories will be a hit,” says Teepagorn. “On the internet, it’s not websites that become hits, but links to certain stories — which can be compared to one item. It’s about how to make all those items a hit.”   

The 2 million views that Minimore Feed garnered last month may seem like a mere scrap of attention, when compared to the 30-40 million views Teepagorn used to monitor back at teen blog service Ex-teen.com, which he also founded. Still, the young director says it’s not a bad number, especially for a site that has just started out. 

Comparable to the side boxes one would find in magazines, the type of articles you find on Minimore are part analytical, part titbits of facts and part sheer fun to read. With no reporter in the field to cover news real-time, what Minimore hopes to be instead is a conversation-fueller. “We’re not the web people read the most because what people read the most is still drama and news that is happening at the moment,” Teepagorn, who is also an author, understandingly admits. “We feel that by exploring other layers of a story in the mainstream, we instead offer bullet points where readers still have something to talk about with people who read the mass type of articles. We offer another angle of looking at things.”

To date, one of their most popular articles — with over 100,000 reads — is about the prime minister’s usage of (horrible-looking) infographics. “We step away from the fact that it doesn’t look nice. Instead, we discuss what the basics of a good infographic is and if Prayut’s were the standard, how would it change the face of infographics that were released in the country.”

In a market that is clearly divided between short form and long form, the founder has discovered that mid-length stories are something that don’t work online. “People just want to read Facebook or Twitter statuses when they’re waiting for the bus or killing time,” he explains. “But on days that they’re serious and want to be intellectual, they’ll want to read something long. Mid-length stories don’t really work — nor do stories where one paragraph contains too many ideas. If they have to make the effort to read things and the article doesn’t turn out to give them information they want to know, they won’t be keen to read anything else from that site.” 

Retaining the attention of easily-bored and fickle Gen-Ys is the biggest challenge yet for websites today. It’s a big problem for Teepagorn and although he feels that a website can survive by being consistent in its writing style and how it picks issues to cover, consistency itself can be a curse in the online world. “When people know what you’re going to do, they get bored. On the internet, you’ve probably seen everything already. Nothing is funny anymore and it’s hard to make readers laugh. To have a site that can last for a long time means we have to be consistent in our tone and way of presenting, but to continuously improve and have a fresh outlook on things.”

It’s not an easy road for digital content producers, but it sure looks hunky-dory for people on the consuming side. On the current state and future of online articles, Teepagorn concludes: “Readers can tell if some celebrity got hired for this one post and because they can, it means they’re more conscious in what they’re consuming.

"When they are more conscious, the people who produce content need to be even more clever in saying what they want to say. The smarter the consumer becomes, the smarter content producers must be. I feel that the quality of online content is only going to improve.”  

— Parisa Pichitmarn

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To read stories from their feed, visit www.minimore.com.