After quitting her teaching job at the age of 24 and walking out on the education system with a file full of children's stories, Anna Emm was in need of an income. She met up with then musician, Stefan van der Vyver, and her college friend, Therene Nel, and together they recorded the first 7 of her children's stories onto CD. The idea was to have something to sell … but it turned out there was such a big need in the market for good quality children's stories, that this first CD was a hit. So, they recorded another … and another. After the first 10 CDs with Anna's stories were released, she registered her company, Anna Emm Pty Ltd, with the sole purpose of creating quality stories for children. Little did she know how big this venture would grow...
When Anna Emm Publishers closed its doors at the beginning of 2020 (after 15 years), Anna had written and produced more than 3000 original audio stories for children. Local celebrities like Anna-Mart van der Merwe, Chris Chameleon, Koos Kombuis, Anrich Herbst, Diaan Lawrenson, Anel Alexander, Gys de Villiers and Deon Lotz were only some of the voices that have recorded these stories. Anna Emm had made name for herself as the biggest children's story writer in South Africa, and her stories were loved and adored in millions of households all over the world.
Unfortunately, due to the strained economy in South Africa, the ongoing loadshedding, rising costs and, finally, the Covid lockdown, many small companies did not survive. Anna Emm Pty was one of them. The company was liquidated in Feb 2020.
Fortunately this was not the end of the audio stories.
Since Anna is the owner of Anna Emm trademark in her personal capacity and throughout the years had kept the copyright to all her children's stories, she was able to 'rescue' these stories from the failing company. In 2019 her collection of children's stories were discontinued for CD production through Anna Emm Pty Ltd, and Anna and her husband created the Anna Emm Pod – a personal digital platform for all her audio stories. These stories – more than 1000 – remain available to the public to stream or download, and will continue to live on for future generations of children to enjoy.
Register at www.AnnaEmmPod.co.za and click on the
GRATIS-link to sample some of these stories for free.
