In 2009, a Singaporean-Malaysian couple opened a small magazine shop called BookXcess in Kuala Lumpur.

Trying to draw in more customers, they started selling English books.

This was a huge risk–only 3% of Malaysians were reading books, and 2% of those books were in English.

Today, they’ve toured 37 cities in 14 countries. They get 3M visitors a year buying over 15 million books.

And by 2024, they made $4M in profits.

This is the story of Big Bad Wolf Books, the global book sale that’s brought the joy of reading to people of all ages.

‍

👀 A whole new world

Ng grew up in Singapore. Her Chinese immigrant parents worked hard to feed their family.

But they didn’t encourage her or her siblings to read or spend money on books.

“I was one of the very few among all my classmates to not have a library card,” she recalls. “The only thing I used to read were Chinese newspapers and my school textbooks.”

At 14, Ng invited a friend to come over, but her friend refused to put down her book.

Ng saw how much her friend was enjoying the story, and wanted to see what the fuss was all about!

Once she started, she got hooked on reading right away.

‍

📚 Trying something new

Eventually, Ng met and married her husband, Andrew Yap. Together, the couple moved to Malaysia and opened up a magazine store in 2009.

Across their store was a book rental shop. Ng became their best customer, reading every book they offered.

One day, the book rental shop’s owner asked them to sell remaindered English books.

International publishers like HarperCollins and Penguin Books sold 80% of their books to traditional bookstores. The 20% that was left were sold at discounted prices to places like the book rental shop.

Ng and Yap agreed to sell the remaindered English books under the name BookXcess.

‍

🤔 Getting a foot in the door    

The couple saw that Malaysian families really wanted their children to learn English. But they had a hard time knowing where to start.  

“A lot of Malaysians are not fluent in English,” Ng said. “We were one small stall, and we were on a mission to change an entire country. It was a very daunting task. It was one book at a time.”

To encourage customers to buy their books, BookXcess kept their prices low. They also offered free gift-wrapping services!

‍

🐺 One book at a time

But they knew they could reach more readers.

So instead of keeping their selection small, the BookXcess team decided to run a giant book sale. Their first one was in an office building in Selangor, Malaysia.

They named their company Big Bad Wolf. “Coming with a name and a character children can relate to is very important. We have to start them young,” said Yap.

They sold books from different genres like sci-fi, art, cooking, and business. But their bestselling books were children’s books.

By 2011, they had their first book sale in Kuala Lumpur. They had 1.5M books on display for readers, 24 hours a day.

Over the next few years, they traveled to Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Dubai.

Now, they get 3M visitors buying over 15M books a year. They’re especially busy on weekends, with up to 25,000 visitors a day!

‍

😵‍💫 Challenges along the way

But it’s been far from an easy journey.

In Malaysia, people said their books were too cheap. Venues didn’t want to store and display the 300,000 books that they wanted to sell.

They also had to adapt to different markets. Some markets, like Thailand, barely read books. Others, like the Philippines, had people who wanted to read books but couldn’t afford to.

“We hit roadblocks every step of the way,” Ng said. “But we turned those challenges into victories.”

‍

🤩 Here and now

Ng and Yap still run the BookXcess bookstore. Their biggest project is still the Big Bad Wolf book sale, which runs in 15 different countries. Even if sales slow down in one country, 14 other countries can help cover the costs.

In each country, they find ways to make reading seem fun. “It’s a price point that you don’t mind trying,” Yap said. “That’s how you discover your new favorite author and your new genre. And that only happens during a physical sale.”  

The founders of Big Bad Wolf held onto their dreams no matter what. Now, they’re changing the world, one book at a time.

‍