You know how us Indians, almost all of us universally, have been brought up on the funda that life is a constant grind? And that all we can do is struggle and hope for the best? And as a corollary, the oft repeated verse from the Gita – Karmanyevadhikaraste Maphaleshu Kadachan is quoted? (Methinks it’s the only thing people have read in the Gita. Certainly, it’s the only one I’ve read. I tried to read the whole book, though. Honestly I did. Many times. I gave it up every time. Almost all Hindu texts, to me, appear to be misogynistic rants.)
It’s a whole load of crap. Let me tell you where I’m coming from:
Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions: When I first started writing, I just wrote because I had a story that excited me. And I knew I was writing it well. That’s it. I just wanted it published. I knew it was good enough to be published. More importantly, I believed it was going to get published. And lo! Within three days of submitting the MS I got a contract. The second one followed. And now there, are expectations that I’ll churn out a third one before the year is out. My life is harder now than when I first began writing! Which brings me to an unrelated but important observation – getting success is easy, maintaining it is hard.
Blog: I started blogging because I write a journal-like entry every morning anyway. So I figured, why not put it on the Net? And let’s face it, it gives me a platform to voice my opinions, pontificate and popularize my book (soon to be books). As an added advantage, it allows me to put up favorable reviews and edit bad ones. Other than that, I’m the laziest blogger in the whole world.
Therefore, it came as pleasant surprise when I did a search for my blog and found it tops in many directories! I don’t know how and when that happened (Certainly, my blog doesn’t inform me when someone links me). It’s not that I consciously cultivate readership. I don’t go that many other blogs. Or comment on them. I just don’t have the time. When I’m not writing my novel, I’m writing for TV. And when I’m not doing that, I’m writing film screenplays. Then there are newspapers and magazines who want my ‘expert’ opinion on something.
Sales of Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions: I’ve never harangued my publishers for better publicity and promotion for the book, knowing their efforts are inadequate and lots more could be done. I don’t do that because I believe the product is good enough to do well without it. And it is in the bestsellers list every time. More importantly, it’s not dead stock. Every book store I ask tells me the book is a ‘fast moving item.’
There was this one books store in Powai which didn’t have the book in its display. When I asked a salesman about it, he helpfully got up and tried to locate it for me. While he was searching, I asked him why it wasn’t on prominent display. He stopped, shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “It wasn’t a moving.” My heart sank. Anyway, after a few minutes of fruitless searching, he went back to his desk and checked in the computer. And looked up, dazed. “We had fifteen copies. It’s sold out! We’ve placed an order for more.”
Which brings me to another unrelated important observation – in things like books, movies and almost anything to do with popular culture, it is word of mouth publicity that counts. Sure, splashy campaigns in traditional media help in generating visibility, but they don’t always translate into sales. I read many reviews and author interviews in newspapers but I don’t rush out to buy their books. I wait for an opinion from a friend I trust before I fork out the money.
Anyway, to come back to point of this rambling and long winded post, new age stuff with its emphasis on ‘abundance’ and ‘getting what you want is easy’ really works! All you have to do is believe.
Hey,
have just started reading the book and the first chapter itself made me search about you in google and guess what I found as the first result? Your Blog 🙂 . The book surely looks exciting and your blog too.. Keep them coming 🙂
@Harish Krishnan, thank you for your kind words. I hope you enjoy the rest of the book as much as I enjoyed writing it 🙂
Hey.
I had read about your book last year in a TOI article which featured it alongwith ‘Almost Single’ and ‘The Zoya Factor’. Off I dashed to X-wrd to get my copies, but before I bought them, I thought of giving the back page a ‘glance’, and I saw there was a murder in this one. I believe one has to face a lot of ‘dark truths’ in life, so at least, my escape, my fiction should be set in lala-land. So, anyway, this was the one book I dropped, though it continued to linger in my head like unfinished business, you know. So last week, I went and bought it. And Oh My God. This was the Best. Not only out of those 3, but one of the best book I have EVER read. And thank you so much, because it was such a delight to read.
Cheers, and highest regard:)
Shuvi
PS: Another factor for the sales being low, could be a lot of people do their reading at book-stores itself, another lot borrows most of its reading material. But I don’t know how that can be checked! For instance, after my ‘highly recommended’ review of your book, a couple of my friends were quite interested, and turned out they are borrowing. You cant hate people for this, but I know its a large chunk of the money you people could have earned, but are not.
@shuvi, thank you so much for such an enthusiastic reaction. We writers live for that :-). Also, thank you for your concern about sales. But you misunderstood. What I said was, sales are fantastic in spite of relatively low promotion and publicity. About reading in bookstores and borrowing, I’m afraid that’s a reality we have to live with. But thanks once again 🙂
I agree with Shuvi. Knowing that Kr. Kon. is a murder mystery makes me skip reading it. But shuvi’s comments and other reviews on d book and the blog by the author do urge me to have a go at it. I have a month off now…so would consider borrowing it frm smone….hehehhe…. yeah this does affect the sales. I recently bought a Kahlil Gibran series, a Amartya Sen book and one about contemporary India…. so cant actually shell out money for Kr. Kon (still recession) …. but if i enjoy reading it…i will buy it later…. this is what i have done with many books like Fountainhead, Argumentative Indian, Kite runner etc…
I am hoping I find sumone to borrow from and that i enjoy it and that i do buy it eventually….. or else i would be reading the Book Two:-)
@aviral, thanks for the endorsement. I hope you find someone to borrow it from. And I hope you enjoy reading it 🙂
well.. if you could send me a free copy, that would be wnderful. i get a feeling that i will enjoy reading it. And the replies are coming in rather quickly, is that a concious effort:-)
Heyy Smita,
I read a few of your posts today and i like the earthinesss in them. I used to write extensively on the internal blogosphere of my company (cognizant), before i quit a year back for pursuing my mba. A fewweeks back i started an external blog but was quite disheartened since the comments din exactly overflow into my space, unlike my earlier tryst in Cognizant. But reading this post and a few others, I have now realized that we should write only for ourselves and not worry about the response. Keep posting 🙂
p.s Will look up for your book the next time i visit the bookstore. Hopefully, the stock wont have finished, and they wudnt be in the “order process” 😉
Coming her after a long time 🙂
Indians are wary of buying books (though the culture is changing) and when it comes to Indian authors scenario changes completely.
I have friends who read a lot but stay away from Indian Authors because they believe that they will get to read emotional stuff only or may be the plights of poor.
It is only word of mouth which works or may be the pricing (as in the case of Chetan Bhagat).
Guys, the same qualification here. I apologize for the delay. MTNL, broadband has been down for two days now and I haven’t been able to access the Internet.
@Neeraj, thank you once again. I’m glad I could help you out (in whatever small way). However, don’t take what i write as the gospel truth. There are people out there who blog for a living, so obviously, no comments are disheartening. But there are ways to rectify that. Keep blogging. And I hope you find Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions 🙂
@Smita, too true. Most Indian authors are bad. Period. Just yesterday I was talking to my editor and she said that by and large they get such bad manuscripts that when they stumble across a half decent one, they think they’ve stumbled onto a priceless gem. No wonder the readers are wary 🙂
After having read loads of Indian Authors I would say that I don’t agree that most Indian Authors are bad (excluding the rejected manuscripts) but the fact is that they are perceived to be bad.
The only thing that I hate about Indian authors is that they don’t try new things they want to follow the wave. Chetan Bhagat wrote a successful campus book and till date campus books are flowing in.
Last month I picked an utter crap book by an Indian author…my fault that even the title didn’t deter me. The title was “Oh! Shit Not Again” 😀
@smita, no, it’s not only that. The fact is that right now Indian Publshers are hungry for material so even stuff that would get rejected in the more competitive outside finds a way of getting published. Come on, you yourself said you read a completely crappy Oh! Shit Not Again. Would that book have been published elsewhere?
Hmmm thats true..many not so good books get published because these are best out of the worst. In fact there are quite a many very well advertised books which are just average reads like Keep Off the Grass, I am here, Almost Single etc…
As far as the book I talked about is concerned it hasn’t been published by a proper publishing house, it was some very small time publisher in Pune.
@Smita, at any rate, thanks for keeping Kkrishnaa’s konfessions out of ‘The List.’:-)