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Have book, will publish! Self-publishing is a great way to get your book out. Learn more here on what to do when it comes to self publishing in India.
Have book, will publish! Self-publishing is a great way to get your book out to its readers. Learn more here on what to do when it comes to self publishing in India.
“The readers are fewer in number today than there were before.” A statement I heard at a recently concluded literature festival. I chose to politely disagree and mentioned that perhaps the number of readers we have today are far more as the number of writers has gone up as well.
So many new writers have emerged in the last 10 years and the material available to the reading audience is far more. One does not need to await a recommendation from someone or hear of a great piece being read by all and sundry to pick up a book. The options today are just a click away. And surprisingly, so is publishing a book.
Self-publishing today is a booming industry although still a new concept in India. Morvarid Fernandez, Author of ‘Seasoned’ For Family And Friends and Anjali Warhadpande, Author of The Innocuous Kiss And Other Short Stories, found success via this route. Self-publishing gave them the platform to have their books hit the bestselling mark in no time. Today, they are among the best-selling new authors at Notion Press, one of India’s fastest growing self-publishing companies with 1400+ books already published.
Harshika Daryanani, Author of Dream It. Live it says, “Self-publishing is a great platform for aspiring authors, especially women, who have a lot to say and often, to other women. One should not be discouraged when traditional publishers don’t respond to emails; to them, the bottom line is profitability. With self-publishing you enjoy creative control, especially if it’s a biography or a personal memoir. Though the popular belief is to go down the traditional publishing route, self-publishing is not that different.’’
Aspiring authors with ready works, can indeed consider self-publishing as a very viable option. Viji Hari, Author of BCC: Behind Closed Cubicles tells us more about her own journey. She says, “My author journey started with a 100 day challenge among a group of 5 friends to become an author. I took 60 days to finish the manuscript of the book and the next 40 days went in shortlisting the self publishing house, contracting, editing, typesetting and book cover design and printing of the books. Yes, self publishing helps achieve your dreams into reality in the shortest timespan!” She adds that her book is now going to be showcased at Delhi and Chennai book fair stalls in January this year. This also goes to show that the difference in promotional venues open to self-publishing and traditional publishing is diminishing.
1. Learn to let go. You have written the book, read it, reread it and read it again – you’re now actually ready for the next step – letting go of that manuscript for publishing. Send it out and don’t over-think it. Overthinking weakens your resolve!
2. Be open to suggestions but hold on to your ‘voice’. That is the main advantage of self-publishing, so it is best to take advantage of this.
3. Most marketing as far as self-publishing goes happens online on social media, which can handled by authors, depending on your knowledge, networks and time availability. However, if you do have a budget for it, you’re better off getting the book professionally edited. There is so much we miss when we write that a fresh eye always helps.
4. Your ‘job’ is not done with just publishing the book. The real work starts afterwards. Once the edits are done, marketing the book the right way is very important. Plan a ‘launch’ among family and friends. They will be your first readers. Don’t hesitate to ask for reviews and posts on social media. Most are more than willing to do it for you, especially if you make sure that you are asking people interested in your genre.
5. Be open to criticism, even if you don’t agree with a review – never delete it. Ever. It would only reiterate the fact that you’re insecure. Everyone has an opinion especially in the age we live in; by all means explain your stand point, but don’t try and create a negative backlash. Remember that sometimes no answer is the best answer. This is a success mantra shared by many authors.
6. Self-publishing gets you the ‘product’ but you cannot abdicate all responsibility for sales. If you also want to get your book into bookstores, you will need to find good agents who can handle that aspect.
7. If you have an extra budget over and above what you have spent, you could hire a PR agency for some press coverage. The book gets listed across various media platforms both online and in print. Else, use your connections – send the book out to other writers, editors, ‘influencers’ and ask them for a public review. This adds on to your credibility.
8. Get reviews on sites like Amazon. You will need to give out a few free copies via other sites but the book does get a boost in terms of visibility.
It is a ‘process’, for lack of a better word. You need to be patient. You may hit a jackpot with the first but if you don’t, there is always a next time. It isn’t over till you decide that it’s over. It is perseverance and dedication that got Prachi Joshi Johar, author of Of Desires, Dilemmas and Divinity to move from content creation and brand development to also being a successful author of several books to her credit.
Such musings also shared by Harshika Daryanani, an avid blogger and celebrated author help shed light on the nuances of self-publishing from an author’s point of view. And she sure knows the recipe to success – dance to your heart’s tunes and never ever give up!
Have a book shaping up on your computer and ready to consider self-publishing as an option? Take a minute to fill up this form, and you will hear more from the team over at Notion Press!
Post supported by Notion Press. Top image via Pixabay
Soul centric and free spirited all the while living life through travel and adrenaline junkie activities. Counselling Psychologist and Educator by vocation. And a life and laughter enthusiast by heart. Usually found daydreaming about her read more...
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I huffed, puffed and panted up the hill, taking many rest breaks along the way. My calf muscles pained, my heart protested, and my breathing became heavy at one stage.
“Let’s turn back,” my husband remarked. We stood at the foot of Shravanbelagola – one of the most revered Jain pilgrimage centres. “We will not climb the hill,” he continued.
My husband and I were vacationing in Karnataka. It was the month of May, and even at the early hour of 8 am in the morning, the sun scorched our backs. After visiting Bangalore and Mysore, we had made a planned stop at this holy site in the Southern part of the state en route to Hosur. Even while planning our vacation, my husband was very excited at the prospect of visiting this place and the 18 m high statue of Lord Gometeshwara, considered one of the world’s tallest free-standing monolithic statues.
What we hadn’t bargained for was there would be 1001 granite steps that needed to be climbed to have a close-up view of this colossal magic three thousand feet above sea level on a hilltop. It would be an understatement to term it as an arduous climb.
Why is the Social Media trend of young mothers of boys captioning their parenting video “Dear future Daughter-in-Law, you are welcome” deeply problematic and disturbing to me as a young mother of a girl?
I have recently come across a trend on social media started by young mothers of boys who share videos where they teach their sons to be sensitive and understanding and also make them actively participate in household chores.
However, the problematic part of this trend is that such reels or videos are almost always captioned, “To my future daughter-in-law, you are welcome.” I know your intentions are positive, but I would like to point out how you are failing the very purpose you wanted to accomplish by captioning the videos like this.
I know you are hurt—perhaps by a domestic household that lacks empathy, by a partner who either is emotionally unavailable, is a man-child adding to your burden of parenting instead of sharing it, or who is simply backed by overprotective and abusive in-laws who do not understand the tiring journey of a working woman left without any rest as doing the household chores timely is her responsibility only.
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