Indian authors in their 30s clearly helming the publishing arena
AN INTERESTING TREND HAS HIT THE INDIAN PUBLISHING INDUSTRY WHERE AUTHORS ( WHO HAVE CROSSED THEIR 20S) ARE CHURNING OUT BEST- SELLERS THAT ARE SELLING LIKE HOT CAKES. THE WISDOM AND MATURITY THAT COMES WITH ENTERING THE 30S IS WELL- DOCUMENTED THROUGH TH
And for heaven’s sake, publish nothing before you are thirty.” — Virginia Woolf, Letter to a Young Poet. Turns out, the poignant modernist 20thcentury author’s words of wisdom had a great deal of prophecy to it! Albeit there is no right age to pen a tale which ought to be told, the Indian publishing market is witnessing a rather interesting influx. Indian authors in their 30s are clearly helming the publishing arena — rustling up best- sellers, that sell as hot cakes ( well, almost) the minute it hits the shelves. Here’s looking at some of the most eminent references: 36- year- old Indian author Judy Balan, who struck gold with her debut read with the bestselling novel Two Fates: The Story of My Divorce, a parody of Chetan Bhagat’s Two States: The Story of My Marriage. A similar success story is that of best seller Meghna Pant. One and a Half
Wife — her bestselling debut novel — won the national Muse India Young Writer Award, alongside several other awards including the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Her other offering, The Trouble with women is considered a landmark in feminist writing.
Well, having your debut novel become a bestseller has its perks and that whole phase was just... surreal. But big picture wise, if you don't know much about what you're getting into, and you happened to get lucky with your first novel, it just might set you up for all the wrong expectations — Judy Balan, author
There is no mantra. Write the book you want to read. That’s the only thing I would say. I have tried to stick to formulas some time or the other and it hasn’t worked for me. — Durjoy Datta, author It’s the perfect decade because you still have the energy and wonder to undertake the heavy task of writing, but you have seen so much of life that you understand the role that you— and therefore your characters— play in this mad and beautiful world, — Meghna Pant author
At 34, author Meena Kandaswamy stands as the poster girl for feminism and real writings that shed light on prevalent topics, that have always struck a chord.
Not too far behind is the hugely popular 31- year- old Durjoy Datta, who’s quite the IT boy with a flair for churning out mushy reads that rake in good numbers and even better moolah for the publishers. Datta has gone on record to state that he believes his works in his 20s were too raw that on publishing it, he invited a lot of embarrassment for himself ! Ira Trivedi, Avalok Langer, Novoneel Chakraborty... the list of authors who got it right in their thirties, indeed is endless. What makes wading through the 30s an ideal phase to pen down one’s musings? We chronicle the train of thought of some of India’s trending 30something authors...
“It’s the perfect decade because you still have the energy and wonder to undertake the heavy task of writing, but you’ve seen so much of life that you understand the role that you — and therefore your characters — play in this mad and beautiful world,” writes author Meghna Pant, a multiple award- winning author, journalist, feminist and speaker. She goes on to add, “I was first published at 32 with One & A Half Wife and I knew that I’d found my calling and purpose in life. The best part about being in your 30s is that you don’t care what anyone else thinks about you or your writing. Everyone has an opinion, so I’ve only listened to constructive criticism, which has been — fortunately — little. I write to fill a wound that doesn’t heal. Writing to me is like breathing; I can’t stop even if I try.” She has recently published Feminist Rani, and has two forthcoming
books How to get published and Holy 100.
Quite like her writings, her success mantra is lucid too. “Write the story that you want to tell. Don’t get caught up with who will read it, who will love it, or who will buy it. A popular story is in the now, a good story is forever.” Sharing a similar streak of good luck is author Judy Balan of the best selling Two Fates: The Story
of My Divorce states, “My first novel was an experiment — I had always been writing but I had never seen myself as a novelist. I was writing a blog at the time and happened to make a joke about parodying Chetan Bhagat. I woke up to a barrage of emails asking me to do it. My writer friend, Andaleeb Wajid, who at the time was the only published author I knew, also pushed me to write and I thought why not. My life had derailed spectacularly after a series of bad decisions — I was divorced in my mid 20s, had a young child I had no idea how to raise, pretty lost career wise, and broke. So I figured it’s not like I had anything to lose. So I wrote it and I got extremely lucky, or so it seems.” While your 30s offers a streak of freedom and the courage to laugh at yourself and life’s idiosyncrasies, the luck factor works only for a bit, asserts Balan, “Well, having your debut novel become a bestseller has its perks and that whole phase was just... surreal. But big picture wise, if you don’t know much about what you’re getting into, and you happened to get lucky with your first novel, it just might set you up for all the wrong expectations. I don’t think I have a message but the creative life - any kind of creative life — is a roller coaster and I wish I had balanced my somewhat audacious, risk- andexperimentloving nature with a healthy respect for the tried and tested method as well.”
Best- selling novelist and entrepreneur Durjoy
Datta’s who’s cemented his position feels looking back in retrospect, quite like wine, writing gets better with age. “I started writing in my late teens and got published when I was 21. And that’s too early for anyone to get published. But now when I go back and read my book, it feels awful. Most writers are quite raw when they start out and it’s only in their 30s, when they have read enough, they have the skills to write a good book. I think that’s why most writers get published or first taste success in their 30s.”
Despite being massively popular, Durjoy reveals that there weren’t a dearth in trolls and criticisms. “My first five books were quite repetitive and derivative of each other ( protagonists were the same). It was correctly pointed out that I had started using the same characters as a crutch to tell similar stories. There was also this thing of only writing stories set in college. So, in my seventh book I moved away from that and thankfully that book got a lot of acceptance.”