(Photo: Lajwanti D’souza)
Indiaink Empowering IIM Authors, an event at a five-star hotel in Mumbai was supposed to begin registrations at about 6.30 pm on Saturday, March 31, 2012. But even by 7.15 pm, there was barely a soul inside the auditorium. The crowd was there alright, but it was outside the auditorium sipping tea and the people were chatting away like long lost buddies. And it took author and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) graduate Rashmi Bansal to make an announcement to get people into the auditorium. She said, This looks like a PGP class 2 which no one attended. That got everyone in within minutes and the programme started.
Rashmi was the moderator of the event and also the host, being the head of the IIM-A Mumbai Alumni Association. Her reason for holding an event for authors with IIM backgrounds? MBAs usually attend events where investment bankers and corporates speak. For a change, why not hear what IIM authors speak and also have budding authors take some tips. According to Rashmi, books by authors from IIM graduates had dominated bestseller lists for the last five years, and their kind only seemed to be increasing going by the number of ‘budding’ IIM authors — there were 25 of them in the audience.
Excluding Rashmi, there were three other authors on the podium. Amish Tripathi of IIM Calcutta (Immortals of Meluha), Santosh Desai of IIM-A (Mother Pious Lady) and Ravi Subramanian of IIM Bangalore (If God was a Banker). Some of the authors had written more than one book and all the books had raked in the moolah for the writers.
Why did you become an author?
Amish said that he had never ever written fiction in his life. Unless you consider insurance banking plans as fiction, he quipped. Amish went on to add that he did write some poetry when in college but no one ever gave it an ear and instead ran away whenever he wanted to recite it, except of course for his then girlfriend and now wife. I wanted to write but did not know where to start and so did what all IIM grads do when they dont know what to do. I made a strategic plan on what I should do to go ahead.
Amish read up self-help books on how to become an author. The books said that I needed to make a summary of the plan and so I put it down on an Excel sheet. But as all strategic plans turn out, this was a disaster too. Amish recalled that at that point his wife gave him some sound advice. She said, Stop doing stupid MBA things like trying to control everything. Look at your work like how a witness does and not like how a creator does. Those lines got Amish to where he is today.
Ravi Subramanian started talking on the subject by attempting to burst a popular myth: that a banker’s life was drab. Since Ravi had derived much of his inspiration from the banking field, he told the audience that a banker had, in fact “a very sexy life” and that gave his books an edge. “Once a whole group of bankers went offsite to the sea. The ship sank but the sharks did not touch a single banker, they only ate the captain of the ship. And that is because the sharks displayed professional courtesy, he said.
Ravi said that he took to writing because he always wanted to be remembered for something as all middle class Indians do. And no better way to be remembered than by a book that will be there in some library somewhere in the world. Ravi too made a strategic MBA-style plan and got started. His first book was about the banking sector because that is where he had spent 15 years.
Santosh Desai said that he had got into writing quite by accident. He recalled that he had been speaking at a seminar when a financial daily asked him to write a column for the newspaper. He did for a while, and that caught the interest of the publishing company Penguin. Years later, another newspaper asked him to revive the column. I was asked to write some eight to nine columns and that worked well for me. Now it is some nine years that the columns have been on since.” As for columns being collated into books, Santosh was honest enough to admit that he always looked at such kinds of books with suspicion. In that sense even my book is not like a real book. Today I only write 1,000 words, no less no more. I am just accustomed to writing 1,000 words whenever I have to write, thanks to the column’s demand, said Santosh.
Rashmi told the crowd that unlike the others, she had always wanted to write and did her MBA only because it meant two years of hostel life. But I was too lazy to write a book. Post the MBA I joined a newspaper and started writing only when I was asked to do a project for IIM-A. That became my first book Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.
How did the publishers treat them?
Amish said that all publishers rejected his book in the beginning. I stopped counting after 20 publishers said no, said Amish. One publisher told him that his book, which was about religion, would alienate every single reader. I was told that youngsters did not like to read about religion so they will not read. The middle-aged ones will not like it since I have put my own views on religion in it and the seniors will not like my views, Amish recounted. Thats when the IIM-A graduate decided to publish his own book and within one week of release, the book started vanishing from bookstore shelves. Amish said that earlier, Indian writers had been writing Indian exotica for Western readers but now books were being written for the Indian audience.
Ravi said that while his book was published in 2007, he had started searching for a publisher in 2006. Publishers were a lot more snobbish in the years gone by. Today they are more receptive to Indian books. If you told a publisher, that through your own network, you will sell some 4,000-5,000 copies, publishers are generally okay to publish your book, said Ravi.
Santosh said that publishers were arrogant and their editors had their ways of looking at books. I signed my book ten years ago and it got published only two years ago. The first publisher wanted me to do a satire for on everyday Indian life. Santosh told the audience that books cannot earn the author much. It can only help you buy a sandwich, he remarked.
Rashmi advised the younger to-be authors in the audience that they should never compromise with publishers. I have a habit of using Hindi phrases in my books. If my first book was published by a big group, am sure that would not have been allowed, she observed.
How did the IIM badge help?
Amish said that the old adage that a good book will sell by itself did not hold true anymore. He first published a sampler which was the first chapter of the book with the cover and took it to bookstores this was about three weeks before the launch. Then he made a Powerpoint presentation to bookstores which responded with shock to an author marketing himself in this way. Amish also made a small trailer of the book and uploaded it to Youtube and for display on LCD screens at bookstores.
Ravi said that his publisher decided to publish only 3,000 copies. Crossword decided to buy only 250 copies and all of them were kept at their Kemps Corner (Mumbai) outlet where I also launched the book. All the copies sold within no time there, said Ravi.
Ravi advised that writers should not be apologetic about their books. “Dont feel shy of selling your books to people and telling them to pick it up from the store. Harsha Bhogle never ended any speech before asking people to read his book. Taking that cue, Ravi urged the audience to pick up his book which was kept on display at the event.
Santosh said that writing was an escape from his work so he could not be marketing his book. I find it extremely difficult to tell people to pick up my book or ask bookstores to sell my book. I dont even ask bookstores how my book is doing, he said.
What else, besides being an author?
Rashmi said that her visiting card had ‘author’ printed on it and she often had people asking what else she did in life besides writing. Rashmi asked the other authors whether becoming a fulltime author was an option.
Amish said that writing books will not bring in the money but when Rasmhi asked him pointedly whether he was making more money from his books than he was as a banker, Amish admitted that books were helping him earn higher. Amish now plans to become a fulltime author. His advice to budding authors is that one should keep writing. Be on display as much as you can. Write a book every year and a half so that people know you. Every subsequent book helps sell the earlier one. And never cut the price of your book, he cautioned.
Ravi said that no way was he going to get into fulltime writing. Writing is my hobby. If I give up my job to become a writer I will write because I have to write, and not because I want to create. One is my bread but the other is my butter.
Santosh said that e-books will probably be the next big thing but questioned whether there were readers to read so much that was being written these days. There are blogs and tweets and there is the ubiquitous microphone who then is the receiver and the reader? he asked. Santosh added that new technology like e-books will not replace older technology but will change some things.
There was also a publisher on the event dias who admitted to most of the ‘accusations’ that the writers made about publishers being arrogant and snobbish. He also admitted that while e-books were making enough noise, marketing through social media and the Internet had also gained popularity. He cited the book ‘50 Shades of Grey‘, a self-published e-book which has done extremely well.
The event ended with some broad thoughts linking most authors present. They all agreed that books needed to be sold today, even if they were masterpieces in content and design. They will just sink off the horizon if not accompanied by deft marketing. IIM authors had an advantage there, not only because of their education and work experience but also because of their networks and contacts which help sell a few thousand copies anyway. It was noted that when Chetan Bhagat set out trying to publish his first book, he prepared an elaborate marketing plan along with it but the publisher outright rejected the plan. Those days were however gone now. Marketing was the way to go and if you bagged a movie deal, that was just icing on the cake, said one of the authors at the event.