Let’s call this post a continuation of the last. Indeed it is. When I finished writing the last chapter of my debut book with a full stop, I was all thrilled and excited that the very next thing I did was to blog about it. Little did I know then that the task was only partly accomplished. Writing my book was not half as much of a challenge as getting it published. These two months since my last post has enlightened me to the realities of Indian publishing industry and what do I do when I need an outlet for my insights? I blog.
As I write this post, my book is getting shaped and sculptured by Power Publishers to be out in the market by the end of this month. Meanwhile, I am experiencing withdrawal symptoms from not having anything more to do with the book from my side. Story writing - checked, proof-reading - checked, layout and formatting - checked, communicating with the publishers – checked, cover design – checked and started marketing - checked. Only unchecked pending item on the list is to wait patiently and that seems like the most difficult thing to do, more difficult than the last few days of my pregnancy when I wanted my son out so desperately. I am fighting my restlessness here through a continued blog post.
First and foremost, thanks to all my family, friends, blog readers, acquaintances and every single individual who ‘Liked’ or phoned or mailed or commented on my blog post or Facebook status, giving me that much needed encouragement to see it till the end. When self-confidence starts to shake a little, dependency on the confidence that others have in us suddenly becomes the most sought support. Trust me, if not for you guys, I was almost tempted to give up and let my manuscript rot inside my cupboard.
Why all the pessimism? Let me take you through a series of flashback swirls to rewind time by two months. I started sending my sample proposal to a couple of publishers whose contact I could get from the internet. There were acknowledgement receipts pouring in and within a week, I received an acceptance from Hindustan Records publication (renamed) that made me super ecstatic. Along with my son’s second birthday celebration, I personally celebrated the completion of my book with all the joy and cheer of a naïve debut writer. When the book was fully ready with endless notes on ‘Target Audience’ and ‘Marketing Strategy’ that also make up a part of a book submission, I tried to contact Hindustan Records through mails. No response. I searched for their contact number on the internet and after a zillion phone calls, managed to get the editor on the line. He asked for details on the book, acknowledged the acceptance and assured to get back. He never did. Taking time to accept or reject a proposal is fine. But why accept and then ignore without further communication, I don’t understand. I was surprised by the lack of professionalism from a traditional publisher. Instead of waiting around, I started sending out my proposal to other publications as well.
I received a couple of rejections; some from the ones whom I really believed would publish my book and got highly demotivated. Some were from publishers who have published a few books which have come out in the market as real crappy stories (sorry, for the frustrated language). “Is my book worse than those? Maybe it is. Maybe I should just drop the whole project and get back to my routine work”, I told myself. I took so many years to venture a novel attempt because I was afraid of rejection and now that was coming in, I felt so low that I wanted to stop blogging as well.
This is where I thank all my blog readers. Each compliment and expectation for my book was the tonic that entirely drove me to go ahead with it. “If there are a few people who believe in your writing, why don’t you believe in yourself?” I scolded myself every single day and continued sending my work to every publishing house that I could find on the internet. As I was on this surfing-the-net-for-publishing-info phase, I came across some hard facts about Indian publishing houses.
Every house hesitates to publish the work of a debut writer with no prior professional writing experience. If they do dare to launch a debut writer, they do so only if it is a commercial pulp fiction, trend started by Chetan Bhagat. I cannot blame them entirely. It’s true that a lot of budding authors have come up with books, blindly copy-catting Chetan Bhagat’s style but missing the magic that he created. Meaningless attempts for quick popularity, without the necessary contribution to the literature that they produced, recent authors have themselves been a reason to drive the publishing houses to prejudices. The renowned houses that do respect original writing are all booked for the next two years that unless I am willing to wait that long, I cannot see my book happen.
I am not trying to tell a ‘Fox and the Grapes’ story here. I am asserting with proof that Harry Potter series had been rejected 12 times and ‘Gone with the Wind’, 38 times!!!! Mine is no saga like those but if such books face rejections themselves, it only motivated me to try harder. I tried harder and after a few attempts, another publisher Deserving Read (renamed again) accepted my book with a condition that I should approach their literary agent. Literary agents are the ones who are supposed to get the author a publisher to publish the book. Why should a publishing house re-direct an accepted book to a literary agent? I understood why soon enough.
The referred literary agent charged a huge commission and even forced higher editing fees upon the author if he wants to see his book published by a publisher who pays poor royalties. The reason they claim to give is to re-write the book in a way that it sells. Well, if the book is re-written, it wouldn’t be my book anymore. Good or bad, I wanted my work to be my work, not tampered by anybody for anything. Editing the final draft for grammatical correctness and sentence formations is a publisher’s responsibility and that is why they get the major portion of the deal while authors get pennies at the end. If author has to pay for it all, he might as well self-publish his own book with that money and see the rewards of his work himself. Why pay some third party?
That was when I decided to self-publish the first edition of my book and depending upon the response from the readers and other traditional publishers, if any, I decided to sell the copyright to someone else later on. I did the editing myself, got it proof-read by learned people and got it in a format ready for publishing. As if time was just holding out till this decision was made, the moment I made up my mind, I came across Power Publishers who exactly did that. They screen the manuscript for basic filters and take care of publishing and distributing the book for a reasonable fee. Thanks to Print-on-demand technology that has brought down the publishing cost, in case authors choose to do it themselves. Thanks to Power Publishers for being the solution that I was in search of.
All said and done, I had to invest on my creativity to bring my book out to the world and it is not unfair to try and earn my investment back. As my blog reader for all these years, if you have faith in my writing, please do buy a copy of my book when it is out in the market by the end of this month. If you like it and find it a worthy read, don’t stop with liking it. Please spread the word to your friends, neighbours, colleagues or anyone whom you know might appreciate it. Even a master-piece fails without proper marketing. I’ve tried my best to get my little baby out and I seriously need all the help that I can get to make her sell. Well, factually, the content of the book would decide its fate for itself. All I am looking for is a kick start from the same enthusiastic readers who guided me to take this attempt this far. Like before, I am counting on you again.
P.S: Please watch My Book page of Archu’s Archive for information and updates on the book launch.
