Anuja Chandramouli
Author - Kartikeya, Padmavati, and Prithviraj Chauhan
The next step is to take your heart in your hands and approach the publishers, assuring yourself that they will love the book nearly as much as you do. A list of publishing houses is compiled in order of preference and over the course of what feels like forever, you work your way through the list, as dejection follows on the heels of relentless rejection. During dark moments, you curse yourself for not listening to your teachers, getting an engineering degree and securing a ‘safe job’ where they work you into the ground but at least make sure you are richly compensated. What madness compelled you to take up a career in such an uncertain field where the only surety is heartache and exacerbated suicidal tendencies?
Then when hope is at its lowest ebb and you are seriously considering those stupid emails and ads which urge you to take up data processing (whatever that means) so that you can rake in the moolah from the comfort of your home, a blessed publisher agrees to take a chance on your baby book. For the next few months, you wallow in ecstasy, dream of super stardom and make prudent plans not to piss away the fortune that has your name on it.
Months of waiting on tenterhooks take the edge off the vulgar joy and arduous editing coupled with even more waiting blunts it some more. Finally, your book hits the stands and to your pleasant surprise becomes one of the top 5 sellers for that year! You are over the moon with joy but not surprisingly make a crash landing when you come to the sobering conclusion that you are not yet in Chetan Bhagat’s league let alone J.K. Rowling’s. When reality bites, it really does take a chunk out of your heart and soul!
The next step is to take your heart in your hands and approach the publishers, assuring yourself that they will love the book nearly as much as you do. A list of publishing houses is compiled in order of preference and over the course of what feels like forever, you work your way through the list, as dejection follows on the heels of relentless rejection. During dark moments, you curse yourself for not listening to your teachers, getting an engineering degree and securing a ‘safe job’ where they work you into the ground but at least make sure you are richly compensated. What madness compelled you to take up a career in such an uncertain field where the only surety is heartache and exacerbated suicidal tendencies?
Then when hope is at its lowest ebb and you are seriously considering those stupid emails and ads which urge you to take up data processing (whatever that means) so that you can rake in the moolah from the comfort of your home, a blessed publisher agrees to take a chance on your baby book. For the next few months, you wallow in ecstasy, dream of super stardom and make prudent plans not to piss away the fortune that has your name on it.
However, thanks to your moral science teachers who assured you repeatedly that winner don’t quit and quitters don’t win, you gather all your resources and start work on your next book. You take the plunge, and do it again and again, 8 times at the last count. Fortunately, despite everything you are still a dreamer but a pragmatic one. Now tempered with fantasies of fame and fortune are some hard truths. There will be good days when you feel on top of the world because a reader has sent a heartfelt email asserting that your words have changed his life and Amazon recommends your book as one of the best reads of the month. Invitations to lit fests will be extended, there will be beautiful journeys and interesting people by the wayside and even the occasional award that will make you feel it is all worth it.
These will be followed by really bad days when you want to jump off a cliff after following through on a secret urge to punch Amish Tripathi in the gut.
But ultimately, there is the awareness that reading and writing is your life for better or worse, even when you are tempted to chuck it all out the window and take up data – processing (whatever that means).