AUTHOR'S JOURNEY
Path to get published
I am (yet) an unknown name in the industry. But thanks for turning up to this page. Now that you are here, you shall realize the might of a drop in the ocean. I began writing when I was in my college in Delhi, pursuing a bachelor degree in journalism. I wanted to help my fellow classmates, juniors, and seniors who did not manage to pass in some initial subjects of the curriculum. I came up with my first book in 2011 when I was 19. Then, another one in 2013, and the third and last textbook in 2014. The last one was launched by NDTV’s journalist Abhigyan Prakash in New Delhi World Book Fair 2014.
For me, it’s one of the good memories associated with writing books. It was in the last semester of my bachelor’s when I decided not to write textbooks anymore. The reason was simple, most of the students in my college were interested in smoking, clubbing and ‘chilling out’ and not in understanding the concepts.
The only thing that mattered was getting good grades in the test, and many even didn’t get that. I was frustrated seeing my efforts made in good faith going wasted and never wrote any textbook after that. In December 2014, I came to Canada to pursue higher studies. I began writing my first semiautobiographical novel, Gone are the Days and finished it in 10 months. It came out in 2016 and served as a lab rat for me as I wanted to know what fiction
If the world book market is an ocean, I am one tiny drop in it
writing feels like. And it’s a more robust process than writing textbooks, I realize now. I have completed my second novel (and fifth book overall), God of the Sullied which is commercial, historical fiction. I am hoping it to get published by a more prominent brand this time. Also, I am currently working on Long Live the Sullied, a sequel to God of the Sullied. Yes, it’s a duology, rare to find these days!
That was enough about my journey so far as an author.
Besides, I also write articles and blogs here and there on a random basis. But knowing what I am doing or have done is probably of no use to you as a potential (book) writer. However, keep reading further, and you will get something out of it for sure.
My most specific suggestion to the newcomers would be about the intention they have for writing. It is essential to introspect whether one wants to write because they like it or they purely want to write to get famous and wealthy. There’s nothing wrong with having these intentions. However, getting it clear in mind would help you approach your goal efficiently.
If you like or love (really? That’s good!) to write, then you will keep producing content for an extended period, if not forever. Creating content is of grave importance in today’s content-driven world. You will keep learning from your mistakes.
Your work would ultimately get noticed, and you’d be able to get good publishing deals. Also, you wouldn’t get demotivated by the rejections you might (you will, in all likelihood) face as you love what you do irrespective of the outcome as per publishing point of view.
On the contrary, if your sole intention behind writing is to get famous and rich, chances are you will get easily frustrated by rejections and then drop your idea of writing again or improving your writing. Because the central motive is to get rich and famous, you will try to find other ways apart from writing to get famous and rich. Hope you get the point.
Another big thing is approaching publishing houses. Many newbies or even some experienced ones send emails to the publisher which are not even looked upon. Big publishing houses get a lot of emails and manuscripts daily. It is impossible for them to look at each of them. Chances are, your email will be swamped and snowed under the ‘slush pile’, as they call it.
The best idea is to research them on LinkedIn. Don’t approach via
Facebook or Twitter as some people don’t like strangers breaching their private space. You will find many of the employees working in the capacity of an intern to the CEO of the respective publishing company