Every young mind has a story worth publishing.

Founded 2024Bengaluru · IndiaFor young authors 7 – 16

Bukmuk Publishing was born from a simple frustration. Children's books written *by* children — not for them — are almost impossible to find. We thought: what if we changed that?

Today we're India's only publishing house dedicated to young authors. We work with kids aged 7 to 16, pair them with experienced editors and illustrators, and help them publish books that real readers buy and love.

No vanity press. No gimmicks. Real books, on real shelves, by young authors who took their stories seriously — and so did we.

— The Bukmuk team

II.What we believe

Our values.

Value 01

Their voice, not ours

We edit for clarity, not to make a child's writing sound like an adult wrote it.

Value 02

Books that actually sell

ISBN, distribution, Amazon, bookstores. Not just a printed PDF in a drawer.

Value 03

Built for parents

Transparent pricing, clear timelines, and a single point of contact through the whole process.

III.Who's behind the press

The people who mentor the authors.

Bukmuk is run by two people who spend their days with young writers, not at arm's length from them.

Shefali Malhotra and Abhinav Girotra, who run Bukmuk.

Founder · Curriculum Lead

Shefali Malhotra

An engineer who became a storyteller, Shefali started Bukmuk to give children the literary life she wished she had had: real books, real readers, and the simple belief that a child's story is worth publishing. She designs and runs the mentoring curriculum that carries a young writer from a first spark of an idea to a finished book, and has personally guided children aged 7 to 16 through writing, editing, and seeing their name in print. Her one rule for every mentor is the rule the whole company runs on: keep the child's voice, never rewrite them to sound like an adult.

Founder, BukmukChildren's literatureCurriculum & mentoring

Co-founder & CTO · Program Curator

Abhinav Girotra

An engineer turned children's-literature advocate with more than 25 years across product and technology, Abhinav curates the Bukmuk programme and built the publishing pipeline that turns a child's manuscript into a real, ISBN-listed book on Amazon and in bookstores. He works directly with young authors and their families through the writing and launch of each book, and his doctoral research in generative AI shapes how Bukmuk puts technology in the service of reading rather than screens.

25+ years in techCo-founder & CTOPublishing & mentoring

Now accepting submissions

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