‘YOU HAVE TO BE THE CEO OF YOUR BOOK’

Indian author Amish Tripathi, whose most recent book Sita: Warrior of Mithila is a bestseller, tells Anand Raj OK why he enjoys giving Indian mythological tales a fresh perspective and how marketing is crucial for a book’s success

Biscuits. ‘If there’s one thing I must have by my side before I sit down to write, it’s several packets of cream biscuits.’ Amish Tripathi – household name in India, award-winning author of five books on Hindu mythology, consumer of snack foods – pauses for a moment. ‘Actually there are two things that aid my writing,’ he says. ‘Cream biscuits and music. It could be any genre of music – pop, reggae, metal, Indian classical, Bollywood, regional; it only has to suit the mood of my day’s writing.’

The 43-year-old, who hasn’t looked back since his first book, 2010’s The Immortals of Meluha, made him a literary star almost overnight – thanks in large measure to some clever marketing tactics (but more about that later) – is basking in the success of his latest book, Sita: Warrior of Mithila.

The second in his five-part Ramachandra series, Sita was published earlier this year. ‘It tells the story of Sita, a main character in the Indian epic Ramayan, from her birth until she was abducted by Ravan, another leading character in the epic,’ says Amish.

Four years ago, in 2013, publishing house Westland gave Amish a $1m advance for his next series after his third book, the mythological fantasy The Oath of the Vayuputras, sold more than 500,000 copies within a day of its release. It was said to be the largest payout by an Indian publisher at the time.

Ask him about the advance and he says, ‘honestly, I don’t really enjoy talking a lot about money’. But ask Amish, whose works have been translated into 19 languages, with over four million copies of his works in print, what the best lessons he has learnt over the years are since he picked up the pen, and he’s far more open: They all have to do with marketing. ‘The most important lessons I’ve learnt are how to market a book,’ he says, in a telephone interview from his home in Mumbai.

That’s no surprise, though. A graduate from the venerable Indian Institute of Management Kolkata, Amish worked in the financial sector for 14 years before trying his hand at writing something other than project reports.

‘My first book, The Immortals of Meluha, was a result of a conversation I had with my family while watching the televised historical series Ramayan,’ says the soft-spoken writer. The TV series led to a debate on what would ensue if two groups with radically opposite views on mythology met. ‘My family must have found my arguments interesting because they suggested I write them down,’ says Amish.

He did, then bounced the manuscript past a