Book Launch – Invite

Dear All,

Piggies on the Railway is officially being launched on the 24th at the Park Hotel, Parliament Street, New Delhi at 5 p.m. and once again on the 27th at Landmark bookstore, Gurgaon at 7 p.m.

Do try and make it for one or both events. If you are planning on coming, do drop a little RSVP (as an email on the id given on the sidebar) so that the catering guys can provide for you 🙂

Landmark Invite

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Piggies in Bookstores

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Piggies in Indian Express

In 1929 British crime writer Ronald Knox codiefied a set of 10 commandments, a decalogue for all crime writers. The rules included that no Chinamen should feature in the plot, only one hidden passage or room was allowed and that the friend of the detective, the Watson, must not hide any thoughts from the reader.

Mumbai-based Smita Jain cares nothing for these rules: her detectives are smart, stylish, urban women who will fix their make up while chasing a lead. Her first offering, Kkrishnaa’s Konfessions sold well and Jain decided to pen another titled Piggies on the Railway (Tranquebar-Westland).

But with her new private investigator Kasthuri Kumar, Jain is creating a detective series for her readers. “You can call it chicklit-cum-crime. There is a mystery, a ditzy detective more in tune with glamour and celebrity, dishy dudes, bitchy women and smart repartee,” says Jain.

Read the full article.

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Some more covers

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I know I haven’t been posting, but it’s been an insanely crazy week. Anyhow, some more cover options arrived. I like. Especially the last four ones. Methinks, we’re getting there. What do you think?

PS: Bear in mind, it is a breezy chicklit-cum-murder mystery.

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Written your Novel or Screenplay? Congratulations, your work has just begun.

Your job is by no means over once you’ve written your book or your screenplay. In fact, it has just begun. After that you have to get it produced. which means writing several query letters and endless rounds of submissions and rejection letters.

Say, you manage to get your baby produced, then you have to promote it. One word of caution to wannabe screenwriters. There are several production houses which are routinely on the lookout for scripts. Resist the temptation to drop your screenplay in an anonymous drop box or leave it at the reception. Chances are it will never be read and after two years or so you’ll get a call to come and collect it. Try and meet someone and narrate the story to him/her. If the story grabs him/her then get into the screenplay.

Meanwhile, coming back to publishing, once your book is published, the onus of marketing is on you. Publishers in india, especially English language publishers operate on wafer thin margins and their keenness to control expenses on the marketing front is understandable. So learn the art of marketing yourself.

When I was just starting out in my career and contemplating which field to take up, a senior colleague advised me to get into sales – the door to door kind. His theory being that once you’ve learnt to take door being slammed in your face gamely, you develop either a thick skin or a winsome personality. Both are handy. And you are ready for anything in life.

Moreover, it’s all about selling. Think about it. Whether you’re in a job interview, a sales call, matrimonial interview, you’re always selling something.

Some authors are the retiring sort who would rather die than ask journalists to write about them. They are horrifed at the thought of tomtomming themselves. Well, if you are that sort, you can do two things here. One, you can lose that cloak of modesty and pick up the phone. Or two, hire a publicist to do it for you. Of the two, I prefer the former. It’s cheaper and it builds relationships.

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