When G.V. Subba Rao decided to write a book, he came up
with a detailed plan of action. He got enrolled on a creative writing course in
the U.S., and chose self publishing, which would give him more control over his
book than what traditional publishing houses would offer.
“I would rather publish my own book than have someone else
dictate the amount of royalty I get. I also did not want to run after a number
of publishing houses trying to get my manuscript published,” Mr. Rao said. His
book, ‘No Murder Tonight’ – a murder mystery set in the city, was
launched here recently.
Like Mr. Rao, there are a number of authors in the city
who are looking to self publish. Naveen Valsakumar, co-founder of Notion Press,
a company which helps authors publish, says self publishing is a way to help
authors build their brand name.
“Several big-name authors such as Chetan Bhagat and Amish
Tripathi were rejected by a number of traditional publishing houses, so they
decided to self publish. Now, they are being offered huge deals by the same
publishers,” he said, adding that, earlier, self publishing was only seen as
vanity publishing, but that is changing rapidly.
The self-publishing industry itself is growing. On an
average, Notion Press gets around 40 manuscripts a day. “The most important
thing when it comes to self publishing is marketing. Unless the author markets
aggressively, it is very difficult for first-timers to be recognised,” he
said.
Writing as a business takes some time to show a return on
investment. Even with aggressive marketing, it can take around two or three
months after the launch to sell 1,000 copies. “There are a number of different
strategies we use, for example, No Murder Tonight has a viral short
story campaign on Facebook, where people can submit short stories and have
their friends vote for it,” he said. Now, they also have a Notion Press Academy
to help first-time authors understand the publishing industry before they start
writing.
It is important for authors to build and understand one’s
audience before writing. Yaagneshwaran Ganesh, a marketing consultant who has
published two books, says establishing one’s brand is very important. “I
started out by establishing an online presence through Twitter and my blog,” he
says. Both his books combined have sold 13,000 copies.
The success rate of self-published authors, however, is
minimal, experts say. Gautam Padmanabhan, chief executive officer, Westland,
says while self publishing gives authors a chance to get books out there, book
distribution is always a problem here. “Unlike in the U.S., where books like 50
Shades of Grey were discovered as self published e-books, in India, that kind
of distribution and marketing has not caught on yet,” he said.
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