BBF is on

The Bangalore Book Festival is on since November 6th and will be open until 15th Nov 09. My self-published book, enabled and powered by Pothi.com has been put up in their Stall No. 288 there as I have already announced in my previous post.

Pothi.com has begun posting all the happenings and pics in their blog “Booknomics” here.

Jean, blogger and author of “Tales from the Garden City” has posted some pictures and written about her visit to the Pothi stall in her blog, which can be read here.

Jean also left a comment on my blog that she has bought a copy of my book! Thanks, Jean! Do write a review on the Pothi.com website and/or your blog, once you’ve finished reading it.

All a writer wants, once he completes writing his book, is that his book reaches as many readers as possible. Though some of us have opted for self-publishing our books at Pothi, this does not prevent us from trying to approach established publishers for buying the rights of the book. I forwarded copies of my books to 4-5 publishers till date and they were quick enough to revert with a standard reply, “At the moment, our hands are full, you may try some other publisher”.

Just wondering why Goddess Saraswati did not bless our publishers with a dozen hands instead of just 2 – in which case, wouldn’t they have some hands free for handling my book? Anyway, just take it that this message is just an accepted publishing industry norm for a “rejection slip” to the author. Having collected several such rejection slips from newspapers and magazines, these just add to the tally, I thought.

However, according to this piece, even some best-sellers in the market today have been rejected several times before publishers see the potential in them, citing 14 best-sellers which were rejected more than 15 times (some more than 30 times) before acceptance!

Who would guess that “Gone with the wind” by Margaret Mitchell would have been rejected 38 times, “Carrie” by Stephen King was rejected 30 times, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach was rejected 18 times, “Chicken Soup for the Soul” by Jack Canfield was rejected 140 times, “The Peter Principle” by Laurence Peter was rejected 16 times? So you now know how wrong publishers were to reject the book submissions! Chicken Soup for the Soul ended up selling over 80 million copies and was translated in 37 languages once published.

I wonder how so many publishers didn’t find such remarkable books worth the print paper? So authors should not get disappointed by rejections by established publishing houses who can print many copies of our book and place them in the bookstores all around the world, and who knows they may be the best-sellers in the days to come!

So, guys, we have a new platform of self-publishing to get started, but we need to keep trying our luck with established publishers and distributors and of course keep improving on the work in terms of presentation and details – that’s what successful authors have been doing all along.

My first ArTicKles Book!

The announcement
To begin with, I would like to make an announcement :-
“Hey, my first book, a compilation of my “ArTicKles”, is available on the net!”

How did I get this outrageous idea?
Some of my friends seem to be weirder than me! They believed, sooner or later, I could have a compilation of my ArTicKles published as a book! “It could be a nice book to read on a flight, if you could publish a compilation”, said one, when I handed him some printouts of my blog posts on a business trip on a flight back from a meeting with customers. I could tickle people even when the net was inaccessible!

Then there was my aged uncle, who asked his son (my cousin) to get printouts home for him, as reading from the PC monitor was not a workable option for his aging self. Maybe some others, who did not have access to the internet but did read newspapers, magazines and books could be tickled by my compilation of books!

Well, but why did I publish a collection of my ArTicKles on the net?
Simple! For one, I thought people would like to buy it!
How stupid can one get?

Well, I am only looking to reach out to newer recipients of my ’Tickles through this book.

But who would publish my book?
To find out how some others, who were writing for MSN Contribute, an amateur writers forum, had managed to successfully publish their own work in books, I got in touch with them by email. From their response, it was evident that publishers had their own yardstick to measure up your work – Would the subject appeal to readers? Would they buy this book? Would they make money? Does their marketing department think this book will sell?

It was evident from their response that it would be quite an ordeal. I would have to go from pillar to post to find a publisher for my book - only to collect rejection slips or perhaps embarrassing silence as a reply.

About Self-Publishing
When I met the founder of Wordsmith.org, Anu Garg, who has already published some books already, I had an opportunity to get deeper insights into aspects of publishing – about latest trends, about newer possibilities opening up!

For one, Anu explained the concept of self-publishing. He recommended me to visit Lulu.com, which is a popular website, which has popularized this concept lately. So I found the publisher of my book – myself! The idea appealed to me immensely, however I wondered whether an Indian firm could offer me this concept right here in India? I am so very thankful to Anu Garg for the insights he shared with me!

A quick google search “self publishing website India” threw up just the site I was looking out for:
Pothi.com!

About Print on demand and Pothi.com
If there is anything that appealed to me about Pothi.com, it was the simple way in which all my doubts were answered so lucidly through their features and if there still was a nagging doubt left, their FAQ, cost calculator, ISBN, services for writers... everything a writer needing to publish a book would need to know.

One other doubt that had been bothering me was the minimum order size. Surely, I would have to order some minimum quantity of books, wouldn’t I? Would it be 300…or 100? Would they agree for an order size of 12? That is when I was pleased to learn that with Print on Demand technology, one can even buy ONE BOOK at a time! No unnecessarily printed copies lying around. Though offset printing does cost lower per copy, the cost of unsold copies could very well prove to be costlier, unless of course you are a best seller author right away.

About my First ArTicKles book
Select artickles have been chosen from my blog posts and some further editing and improvements have been made, wherever possible, in this book. This book is for light reading for those of your family members, friends, senior citizens – just about anyone, who may have limited or have no access to internet and my blog, but enjoy reading all the same. This book will prove to be a good gift for them, with whom you have not been able to share my blog posts from time to time.
[If they have been escaping my tickles – here they come!]

If the idea appeals to you,
do buy it at Pothi.com here!

About this long post
Finally, why did I share all this with you in so much detail? Wasn’t a short post announcing my book enough? Is this a case of “over-share” with my readers? Well, I have dwelt it in greater details, because, each one of you may have your own poems, short stories, articles, analytical write-ups, novellas to share with a larger audience, to reach out to a wider circle of readers. Maybe this post could show you the way to get there!
I can see several talented writers around who would soon publish their own work, in some way or the other and perhaps become best-selling authors, even before I take my next small step!

Next step? Would you write another?
Of course! Why else would I call it the First ArTicKles Book here in this post?