Award-winning author of science and fiction
Ten years ago, I was working full time in Femina. Ten years later, someone from Femina did an interview about me. It’s a moment of a kind. Femina has shaped the earlier me. I worked three years there, three years full of travel and meeting the most fabulous people I could imagine. So, I’m a bit stumped. And wowed. Here’s a okay photo that someone sent me of the interview.
Isn’t this simply the most jiggle-worthy thing? Here’s the original interview, in case you’re the reading type.
‘You’re everywhere,’ cried a guy who came to three of my Meetups in Delhi over the same weekend. Yes, I was. Two weeks in Delhi and I wanted to meet, chat and listen in to what the crowd in the capital city was reading. What kind of book was it buying and what kind of writing was it pondering on. And I wanted to tell them about my book, my writing experiences and the crazies I’d learnt.
So I met four different book clubs, did a lecture at Jesus and Mary College and at National Institute of Fashion Technology and mostly met all ages of people and had a ball. Plus discovered that I’m sticking to running for fitness on my own. (Thanks Kay, for that!) But it was fun, to meet all kinds of people in Delhi. The kinds who read books, the kinds who write them, the ones who sell them or publish or market them and the ones who love to talk about books without really sitting cozily with one. Here are the kind of people I met in Delhi’s book clubs.
They are the ones that come to meetings/gatherings to listen in. They’re usually open to ideas, exchanging information, helpful, impressionable and actually hear things you might be saying (reason you have to stop saying vague things you’ve been saying all your life). They want to know you, your book, as well as how you wrote it. They have a lot of questions and are open to ideas.
The whole reason they’re there at the meeting or gathering or panel or even your own book launch is to come up to you and give you their own work. A signed copy of their work or an excerpt. That’s it. They’re not there to listen or even to talk or to read, but to promote their own written work. Well, I appreciate gifts in any form, especially books!
Oh yeah, they’ve attacked the book clubs too. They won’t buy your book (probably don’t buy any books really), but would want to get a photo of themselves with you to post online and boast and who knows what else?
They feel slightly guilty at coming at a do without picking up the author’s book. (Perfectly okay, since you might not actually like the said book) But the excuse-breed, gives you reasons why they’re not picking up your book. Reasons like ‘I don’t have money today. I will order it online.’ or ‘It’s cheaper online. I’ll order it there.’ Or they’ll just smile, and sneak out without saying bye. Even though they had the most questions in the session.
They are the kings and queens of the world. They already know everything, even though they’re attending a writers’ session. They come loaded with preconceived notions about the writing, publishing and marketing process (having not gone through it). Their questions are usually hidden assumptions, pandering to a need to be proven right. ‘You put the ‘Mature readers’ cover to sell the book, right?’ ‘You have a connection in the industry right?’ ‘It must be easier to sell a book if you’re a girl/boy/drag queen/naked.’ Oh, and they never buy the book.
The ones who feel nothing is right in the industry of writing and publishing. No one buys books, no one publishes the right kind of books. No one is sensible out there. Someone should buy Indian author books, someone should publish amazing books, someone should. And no, they don’t buy the book either.
Oh, well. It’s Delhi after all. 🙂 Here are a few photos of the various thingummies I did.
Know of any other Delhi book-reading kinds? Type away below.
First of all, congratulations of writing down your dream work! That’s a huge achievement. Now you’ve to do something that might be much more difficult. You have to summarise your book, which can be anywhere between 50,000 to more than a lakh of words, into a little, nightmarish thing called a ‘pitch’. A cover letter or email which you will send across to editors across the country. That one pager which will make all the difference on whether the editor will even pick up the first chapter of your manuscript.
Focus it well
We authors might be great at long form but when it comes to creating the right pitch, many of us fail miserably. In this scenario, the concept of an elevator pitch is quite helpful. If you meet a stranger in an elevator (the speedy ones), what will you say your book is about? You have five seconds. Do this exercise again and again till you cut all the vague meat off your book and know EXACTLY what to say about your book. Then write the email you’re going to send a publisher.
Be brief and precise
Any good publishing house gets a whopping number of book pitches a day. They call it the slush pile, because a lot of them are badly written emails, unclear and confused. Editors don’t have time to wade through each of them. They go by instinct and a well-written, focused email will always turn them on. It helps to know what each editor is looking for. So instead of a generic email to all, try and send a personalized one to up your chance.
Edit it well
There’s a reason why editors are called ‘editors’. They are worshippers of grammar and spelling and the rules of language. They crave for great books, but one thing that completely alienates them is a badly written cover note. So once you’ve prepared your pitch, read it, edit it. Keep it there for a day or two, look at it with fresh eyes and edit it again. Make sure there are no spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes or badly structured sentences.
Be professional
You might be emotional about your book, but most editors will look at it with the possibility of its salability. Any kind of emotion, overconfidence, pleading, moral stance completely turns off most editors. Editors represent a business which wants to make money off the books they publish. So it’s best to be professional about it. Make a level headed, clear pitch, put in exactly which genres the book belongs to, who is the target audience (no, the whole wide world is not going to read your book) and how it can be sold and marketed. Your pitch should be creative but also focused and professional.
Do take advice
Know of an industry professional? Ask for help. Discuss the pitch with your initial readers, see what they say about your book. You’re just going to get a few seconds of attention from every publisher that you’re going to send your book to. So make sure the pitch is the best you can prepare. Spend some time over it now so that the chances of your book being accepted increases.
Here’s wishing you success! For more tips on writing, head to this section.
(Also posted at: HuffingtonPost, JaipurWomenBlog)
More than a decade ago, when author Terry Pratchett won the Carnegie Medal award for The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, he talked about fantasy and how it was so important as a genre to explore society. I’ve been heavily inspired by this fabulous author’s work and everything he says is gospel truth for me. So when I found this delightful speech by him on the Carnegie website, I just had to share it with you (and remind me too). Take each line seriously and incorporate into your work. Now.
Over to you Terry. (Wow, never thought I will say that!)
I’m pretty sure that the publicists for this award would be quite happy if I said something controversial, but it seems to me that giving me the Carnegie medal is controversial enough. This was my third attempt. Well, I say my third attempt, but in fact I just sat there in ignorance and someone else attempted it on my behalf, somewhat to my initial dismay.
The Amazing Maurice is a fantasy book. Of course, everyone knows that fantasy is ‘all about’ wizards, but by now, I hope, everyone with any intelligence knows that, er, what everyone knows…is wrong.
Come 14 February, these apps may be able to help men and women find a date, while offering women some sense of privacy and security
A new crop of dating apps is building in features that are women-friendly and hopes to protect them from fakes, trolls and potential harassment. Some offer only friends of friends as possible date options, most try to protect the identity of women. Here are a few that could help both men and women find a date this Valentine’s Day.
An Indian app, Woo claims to understand middle-class sensibilities, and places itself between a matchmaking and dating app. It says it wants to build an “exclusive community for educated, single professionals looking for meaningful relationships”. Once you’ve filled in the information for your profile, the algorithms automatically screen everything, from gender to relationship status and professional information, going through the user’s social networks, to try and identify dubious profiles. “We reject about 30% sign-ups because they aren’t in the right age group, or don’t have a profile photograph, or clash with their Facebook relationship status,” says Gurgaon-based Sumesh Menon, CEO and co-founder of U2opia Mobile, the developers of the app. Adding your LinkedIn profile gets you extra brownie points. Once you’re in, Woo automatically matches you with people you’re likely to click with, using the swipe “yes” or “no” feature. Other than this, it also allows you to record a 7-second audio pitch called Voice Intro for your possible mate. The app was launched in July and updated in January.
Free for a trial period, with in-app purchases, on iOS and Google Play, starting from Rs.250. www.getwoo.at
Geolocation apps are best avoided if you fear stalkers. Indian-made TrulyMadly tries to ensure the profiles are authentic and only singles (checked by screening their Facebook profiles) make it to the app. In case someone tries to create a fake Facebook profile (required for sign-on), the algorithms in the dating app also check the profile to see how old it is, how many friends you have, your activity or news feed. Other security measures include asking for ID proof, checking online social profiles like LinkedIn and phone number verification. “Each of this increases your trust score,” says Delhi-based Sachin Bhatia, CEO, TrulyMadly. “Once you’re in, we do compatibility quizzes to ensure that people get relevant matches,” he says. The profile includes your profession, educational background and interests. You can swipe to show interest or reject. The app was launched in August.
Free on Android. App for iOS and Windows Phone to be launched by March. www.trulymadly.com
Chat, deliver statuses, scroll through people in your area and find the ones you like. With this app, women can request a one-way video chat with a man, where her camera is off, to try and assess if he is genuine. Women can also use audio verification to speak to a potential date without disclosing their private number. “In Thrill (app), women have the power,” says Delhi-based Josh Israel, co-founder of Thrill. The Mumbai-based People Group, which owns the online matrimonial portal Shaadi.com, has recently bought a 25% stake in the company. “They can chat with anyone whereas guys can only express interest,” says Israel. Next on their list is video verification. The app was last updated in January.
Free on Android and iOS. www.thrillapp.com
This one lets Facebook be your gatekeeper. It only shows up profiles of friends and friends of friends on your wall, so you hopefully stay away from the creeps. It also pulls in all the public information from a person’s Facebook profile—education, occupation and profile picture—so you can take a quick decision. “You are two times likely to like someone you’re socially connected to, you’ll feel more comfortable, and it’s the best way to meet common friends,” says Samir Kapadia…..
….Read the complete list over at Livemint.com
Early morning, you open your email box and out pops yet another rejection from a publisher you had your heart on. You fume, you wither, you get depressed and angry and want to hit someone. Everyone is against your voice. And you feel one of these things:
A publisher is a commercial business. Every year, they have a boardroom meeting where they try and figure the trends worldwide, genres and book kinds they think will do well in the market. So each editor already has a list of sorts beginning of their commercial year: Tags in mind like #MetroRead #HighFantasy, #ParanormalRomance, #WarStories, #CelebrityExpose. In comes your book. It doesn’t fit into the boxes they’ve figured. The list they’ve prepared. Only if the editor really, really likes the pitch and then the manuscript will they veer from the list. So if you happen to write the ‘fashionable’ genre of the moment, you’re more likely to be noticed. For example, when Twilight series did well, suddenly all publishers started to take in more fantasy romances. It didn’t mean there weren’t romances being written before, it just meant they started to get a yes from the listmakers.
Finding the right editor to pitch your work to is essential in getting it published. There are two things to look out for. First of all, what section is the editor handling? Big publishing houses in India have segregated editors in their editorial team. There’s a Young Adult editor, a Children’s editor, an Adult Fiction editor and a non-Fiction one. So your first step is to find the right genre editor within each publishing house you are targeting. Secondly, editors are hardworking people who are deeply passionate about the books they pick up for their list. Each editor across the industry, loves a particular genre. Do your research for each publishing house, find the right editor and try and connect with them and pitch to them directly. Some of them are open to it. I’ve done is successfully two times in the past.
The decision to publish a book is not of an editor’s alone or even of the editorial team overall. They do sort of a round table conference with their sales and marketing team. The book rights are bought only if the sales team feels confident that it can sell it in the market. Yes, if you’ve got the right editor to vouch for your book and he/she is willing to fight it out in that discussion, your book has a better chance. Which is why the point above is so important. Getting a voice in the publishing house which vouches for you. It helped me get my Anantya Tantrist three-book deal.
We might be great at long form but when it comes to creating the right pitch, many of us fail miserably. In this scenario, the concept of an elevator pitch is quite helpful. If you meet a stranger in an elevator (the speedy ones), what will you say your book is about? You have five seconds. Do this exercise again and again till you cut all the vague meat off your book and know EXACTLY what to say about your book. Then write the email you’re going to send to a publisher. Any good publishing house gets a whopping number of book pitches a day. They call it the slush pile, because a lot of them are badly written emails, unclear and confused. Editors don’t have time to wade through each of them. They go by instinct and a well-written, focused email will always turn them on. It helps to know what each editor is looking for. So instead of a generic email to all, try and send a personalized one to up your chances.
There’s a lot of luck involved in the process and I wish you all the best. If you know of any other reasons of rejections, put them down in the comment box below.
(Also posted over at storywala.blogspot.in as a guest post)
I know author and blogger Kiran Manral since the days when she was a freelancing writer based in Mumbai and me, a fulltimer in Femina, based in Delhi. We didn’t ever meet, we still haven’t but we interacted over email and kind of kept in touch for all those years. She’s a very popular blogger in India, one of the most popular ones and has moved on to become a novelist as well. So it happened that I offered a giveaway copy of Cult of Chaos on her blog which has a very, very strong following and she, like the sweetest woman that she is, agreed not only to the giveaway, but also on doing an interview with me.
Check out her books:
Once Upon a Crush (Flipkart // Amazon)
Read the complete interview here. My favourite bits of it:
What made you decide to write a book, what was that moment when you decided you must give it a shot?
I don’t remember any one instance really, but after a few years of chasing stories as a journalist and editor, I realized that I wanted to tell stories instead. I didn’t start immediately however, something that I perhaps should have. From the desire to write, it took me five years of a Master’s degree, two failed novels, millions of procrastinating moments, blogs on stuff, to get to actually writing. And once I did, I haven’t stopped! In the last five years, I’ve written six books, four of which are published and two lie at various edit levels. The longest of this, my latest Cult of Chaos, touched 1,20,000 words at manuscript stage.
How long did it take you to research and write this, and how do you see this evolving as a series perchance? Continue reading “Interview and giveaway @KiranManral’s site”
Writers are natural born procrastinators. We all know that feeling, the one which comes just before you actually start to write: Let me have another cup of tea, another day, another book, another little salty chip and then I will start. When I began my journalist career more than a decade ago, I was sure I couldn’t write an article. It took me five years of wanting to write fiction, a Master’s degree, two failed novels and millions of procrastinating moments to finally do something that all blogs, all writers keep suggesting: write.
After a year of stalling, I started to write fiction and once I did, I couldn’t stop. In the last five years, I’ve written six books, four of which are published and two lie at various edit levels. The longest of this, my latest Cult of Chaos, touched 1,20,000 words at manuscript stage. Here I list down a few of these lovely time-sinks and how to get rid of them.
I tried yesterday, I couldn’t write a word. I have writer’s block.
No, you don’t. A writer’s block is a myth, created by star-struck media or lazy writers. There’s nothing like it out there. Yes, there would be some days when you stare at the screen, your hands spread over the keyboard and nothing sensible will come. When you know you have to delete every single word you’ve written. But it’s these ‘blocked’ days that will lead to a glorious day when your fingers are flying over the keys. The day you can’t write always leads to the day you do. Keep writing nonsense if you can’t make it sensible, but write. Start by putting one word after the other.
I can’t write in this noise
Have you seen a baby pop off into dreamland in the middle of a party? Become that. Let nothing physical—noises, voices, areas, homes, cafes or offices—take you away from your writing. Don’t think you can write only in certain conditions. You can write all the time, everywhere. All you need is discipline and focus. Try and write everywhere you go for a month. That’s all it takes to develop the habit.
I need a better grasp at language
I was convinced about this for the longest time (the time spend in thinking about writing and not writing itself). Then one day, when I voiced this to a friend of mine, she told me to consult a thesaurus or a dictionary. You are not writing grammar, you are writing stories. Concentrate on expression the story you’ve decided to tell, through the limited language you have in your grasp. Writing in a language, improves your skill in that language, your spelling, your grammar. You will see the difference yourself. Another way to improve in the language is to read other authors, see how they express things, how they use mere words to touch a core in you. Read and learn.
I want to, but just don’t have time to write
Do you take a shower everyday? Eat everyday? If writing the story in your head is not as essential to you as sleep and food is, you will never write. It’s like the retirement dream of living on a beach that all of us have. If you want to live on the beach, why not start now? Why wait till you get old and tired? So write. Now. Take out time. Even 20 minutes everyday should do. People complete novels in that time.
I need a special software to plot my book
Nope, you need nothing but yourself, a pen and little bits of papers. Or a laptop and a clean document screen. Everything else, the iPad, the app which costs $25 and helps you figure your plot and characters, internet, everything else is a waste of time and keeps you away from writing. Don’t manage the tools of writing, but write.
First posted as a guest blog on my friend Vidya’s website. You should check it out for funny, useful blogs.
Missed any of those niggles? Add them to the comment below and I’ll figure out how to slash them for you.
Since last year, I’ve been interacting with author Sharath Komarraju who has become a guide and a friend over Google chat. He furiously pens down books and blogs on writing, mythology as well as money. Here’s his fab post on narrative. Take his advice, he’s good.
Fiction is made of two kinds of writing: narrative and dialogue. That is the most simple classification one could make; some would say narrative is different from description which is different from exposition and so on, but for me that ís splitting hairs. There is the stuff with speech, and there is the stuff without. Easy. In this post I am going to tell you some golden rules of writing narrative.
This is the first leap out of the comfort zone that a writer must take. It sounds redundant to mention that fiction should be full of action, but you will be surprised if you go back and read your work to find how many ‘inactive’ sentences you’ve written. The problem is that in our speech and in other forms of writing, the active voice is not mandatory and is rarely used, so we fall into this cozy world of weak verbs and passive sentences. This is the main reason why writers who begin writing fiction find that their work lacks strength. It is because they do not use the active voice enough.
One thing I always aim to do when I sit down to write a story is to make every sentence I write an active sentence. Every time I am tempted to write something blasphemous like ‘There was a row of trees on both sides of him’, I slap myself on the wrist and change it to ‘A row of trees stood on both sides of him’. Remember, active sentences use strong verbs, and the more of them you use, the more polished your narrative becomes.
Sight, sound, smell, touch and taste – these are the five means through which we perceive the world around us. When you go to a flower garden and sit down on a bed of roses, you don’t just feel the softness of the petals on your fingers. You hold it up to your nose and it reminds you of the first time you got tickled by the rose in your mother’s hair when she carried you to bed. The spotless white (or is it red?) for some reason makes you want to prick the ball of your thumbs with a needle and squeeze out a drop of fresh blood just to watch it fall on the petal and dissolve into a baby pink spot. When you snap the stem of the rose in two, it sounds very much like your arm did all those years ago when you got pushed down a flight of stairs.
This kind of detail is the lifeblood of fiction. Your characters are human beings like you, and like you they will sense things wherever they go and whatever they do. With each sensory input they will make associations that will link them to their pasts, and they will make decisions that will influence their futures. This is where as a writer you find your voice, in the details that you notice, in the things you show your readers, in the images you build for them.
This is another skill that can be developed with practice. One thing I like to do is think of an item in terms of senses that we generally don’t associate it with. For instance, can you describe the sound of a petal being plucked from a flower? Or the touch of a jalebi on your hand when you pick it up?
With adverbs the rule is simple: do not use them. As a beginning writer, tell yourself not to use adverbs at all in your writing. What this will do is force on you the responsibility of choosing the right verb. Also, what an adverb does is the opposite of what we think it does. We think it will make the meaning clearer and the writing tighter, but in practice it just makes your sentences longer without adding anything of value. The easiest way to make your writing tighter is to run through your first draft and cut out every adverb that you’ve used. (And by adverbs, I mean the words that end in ‘ly’, those things that claim to describe the verb.)
With adjectives it’s hard to be so autocratic, so I won’t say don’t use them at all. But do make your choice wisely. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, opt for the descriptive adjective over the emotive or judgmental one. So words like ’round’, ‘pale’, ‘thin’, ‘stocky’, ‘soft’ and ‘white’ are to be preferred over words like ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘good’, ‘selfish’and so on. Any adjective that builds the image youíre trying to plant in your readerís head is good. Any adjective that tells the reader what to think is bad.
I cannot emphasize this enough. As a story-teller, your most basic responsibility is to maintain the fictive dream, to make your reader lose himself in your world. I know the temptation to slip in a wisecrack here or an aphorism there, but by all means, whatever you do and however you do it, resist it. Accept that if you write fiction, you will be in the background most of the time. You’re writing about your characters; let them take center-stage. Focus on their experiences, their wants, their struggles. You’re just a story-teller. Stay out of sight. Don’t worry. Your readers wonít miss you.
If you’re thinking why I’ve not included the much-repeated adage, ‘Show, don’t tell’ here, it is because showing and not telling happens as a consequence of writing well. It’s not a technique by itself. If you follow the above four guidelines in your narrative; if you write sensually, if you write in strong, active sentences, if you write tightly, if you remember to be invisible and allow your story to take the spotlight, you wonít have to worry about showing and not telling. It will happen as if on its own. I guarantee it.
For more from Sharath, check out his site
Read the complete article on