Here is the first look at the Virgins!
After a sabbatical of a decade, my new novel ‘The Five Foolish Virgins’, has again brought me in the market…
And I find a line from my friend Mahesh Bhatt’s film Daddy, yeh shahar bhoola mujhe main bhi ise bhool gaya. I don’t recognize the changing publishing scene today. But, like discovering a new exciting woman, I find it electrifying. The first sign of change was that within less than a week of registration of copyrights, I found myself hounded by a couple of US based agents! And when I mentioned my novel on facebook. I got some messages from the ‘agents’ who wanted to sell my novel. They would get me an advance that would run in six figures. A zero had been added to the advance I had received from my first publisher Magna Books! The added zero in the advance didn’t mean much to me and I had known about the ‘agents’.
I understand the presence of agents, most have a literary background, in USA. But why do we need agents in India? Well, the market was booming. There were more outlets, more publishers and more authors. The editorial staff of publishers needs someone to separate the wheat from the chaff and agents did it. Welcome, I said but didn’t take up the offer. Not yet, at least.
When I got my ‘Simply Scandalous: Meena Kumari’ published Manisha Koirala launched it. She spoke to the media. I spoke to media. The event was on the front pages of the newspaper and covered in the TV news. And there were controversies that kept the book in the news – like my book on ‘Madhubala’ – for over several months. ‘Eurekha’, the biography of Rekha, too was hugely covered in the media.
But all that just happened. The controversies were unexpected, unplanned!
Now, the promotion has to be planned meticulously. It is a part of the author’s functions. The thinking today is that the author must get involved in the product, quality, distribution and promotion of his book. Even the terminology and jargon, not to speak of the background of the some writers, is corporate.
And I remember an anecdote. A struggler came to Manmohan Desai (of Amar Akbar Anthony fame) and flexing his muscles told him: “Sir, I can fight with swords, wrestle, do boxing, do stunts on motorcycle, dance and drive…”
Manmohan Desai asked him, “Acting bhi jaante ho?”
Well, I can write. It is an enjoyable experience to write, to create characters, to live with them. I lived with Madhubala, Meena Kumari and Rekha…know more about them than anyone else including their families. Lovers would know only what they see, husbands would know only what they are told but a biographer who researches and investigates would know the unsaid, the untold stories. I lived with the characters of my first novel It’s My Life. When you are creating you are on a vacation and rest – quality control, distribution and promotion is work. This is where creativity turns corporate.
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