The Book Launch - Preparation

While the books are getting printed, we can use the time to prepare for the book launch. It is entirely up to you whether you wish to launch the book with a big splash or quietly make an entry in the book stores and let them worm their way into the reader's hearts. Both ways work, the first one costs money and effort while the second route may see you lose out on some initial sales. But finally, the book must have something to sell itself over a period of time.

I believe that a splash must be made especially since I am a new author and not many know about me. A book launch will draw some press, get some sales going and spreads the buzz which sets off the book on its way. This time the World Book Fair at New Delhi is being held at Pragati Maidan during January 30 - February 7, 2010. So we decided to launch the book during this Fair.

Now typically, all book launches involve the publisher, the author and maybe a bookstore where the launch can be held. A PR firm is necessary (because the whole idea of doing an event is that there is some press coverage). Invites, maybe chief guests who draw in the crowd and the press, refreshments and other stuff are costs that need to be taken care of. Normally authors, especially well known ones become the chief guests themselves, as they tend to draw the crowd and the media. The publisher normally sets up the event with the bookstore and makes the books available as well as the invites and other promotional material such as posters etc. The bookstore (especially big chains like Crossword, Landmark and Odyssey) normally take care of the event - from the compere, to the PA system, the PR, the backdrop, refreshments etc. The author needs to be present and share his views. It involves time and effort, and may be, the returns are not commensurate one feels but I think the launches have their benefits. The metros - Mumbai for sure, because it is the hub of all activity and you are certainly on national tv, Chennai and Bengaluru for their reading public. Delhi and Kolkata, I have not had the experience, though I will surely have something to report soon on Delhi.

Once the event has been decided by my publisher and me, we decided to invite a successful woman who can speak on 'women empowerment' which is a strain that the book touches upon. So the search began from actors to politicians and still goes on until we find someone who agrees. We have meanwhile booked the venue, the time and we are all set to go ahead on the evening of the 4th of February 2010. The first copies should roll out today and we are waiting with bated breath.
More of this later as it unfolds!

Writing of the 2nd novel - Proof read, Final edit, Name etc

Now that we are getting closer to the deadline - we need to get things all worked out. My version left me and it was a huge relief to just send it off. I do one version while reading aloud which gives me a fair idea which sentences do not sound right, one with a printed version to see which parts can be edited out etc. And trust me each version takes longer than you expect, each time you are looking at something almost anew. But you do decide to let go at one stage and send it off.
The publisher sends it to his editor ideally but since my book has been edited by Keerthi, we had a quick proof reading/editing job by Gita Rajan who did a wonderful job of it and at such quick time. Keerthi told me she trusts Gita completely with all her work and so did Basant and I had no problems with her at all. I spoke to her and we hit it off well and even more so when she said she liked what she read of it! Wow!

Blurb, Acknowledgements, About the Author
The proofing job took about 3 days by which time I wrote down the 'About the Author', 'Acknowledgements, 'Dedication' and the 'blurb' parts which are the most difficult parts of writing a novel. I sent them off too by which time our publisher sent me the proofed version which I had discussed with Gita anyways. I went over it again and made a few changes and sent them back. And again they come back with the changes and back and forth until we are finally ready!

Cover design
Meanwhile the cover design also has been worked on, an indicative cover design, based on pictures that Satish had taken while we were at Shrivardhan and we sent it off. I normally work with Shiva, my designer friend who also designed the cover for 'The Men Within'. The publisher was happy with it and we decided to go ahead with some changes at their end. The final printable version of the novel and the cover design normally are to be ready at around the same time so they can be sent off to the printers. I guess we were ready with all these by around the 10th of January and we were looking at a book launch on February 2, 2010.

Title
Not so fast! My original title of 'The Tryst' was already taken. I googled the name and it was showing up as a novel written by a western author. I asked our core committee for some alternate names in Shrivardhan and though we came up with a few, we finally decided that Shobha's contribution of 'If you love someone..' was the most apt. So we asked the publisher to make the changes into the cover design and in other places and the cover is ready to be printed.

Now, its off to the printers. Ah, take a deep breath and get ready to make the marketing plan, the book launch etc.

Writing of the 2nd Novel - The Memorandum of Agreement

The all important MoA is the document where the publisher wants to enter into a contract with you. The salient stuff in this are the points given below (at least form the agreements I have seen) apart from names, addresses and stuff saying that you really wrote this book and did not copy it or plagiarise it and all:

Royalty: Varies, I believe, between 7%-12%, first timers have no option but to take what is offered which is normally 7-7.5%. Take it. Second novel, I consider it an affront if you get nothing less than 10%. Otherwise self-publish it, you'll make more money. And the percentage is on jacket price not on net sale. Royalty is normally paid at the end of the year or some mutually agreed time.

Copyright: Remains with the author (else reject the offer)

Rights: Publisher retains the rights to everything - from movie, to television, to translation, to hardcover, to overseas rights etc. Unless the chap is going to do something by himself about it, you can always ask him to remove the clauses, so you can deal with movie houses directly.

I had an experience when I concluded the movie deal by myself but since my contract bound me to pay the publisher 50% I was in a fix. Thankfully my publisher is a fair man and he said that since I had done all the hard work he will relinquish the rights, I had no problem. I paid the publisher some amount as goodwill which we used to promote the same book!

So, either delete the movie, tv clause or modify it to say that if you get the rights through your efforts, the publisher is not entitled to the % he demands.

Rights: The rights to the publisher are given for a specific region (normally India, South Asia etc), for paperback, for a certain number of copies (upward of 1000 normally because that is normally the minimum print run)
Other rights that the publisher may wish to retain are:
- Hardcover rights licnsed to another publisher
- Translation rights
- Reprint rights
- Mechanical, electromagnetic and electronic, facsimilie and reproduction rights
Of these, the author gets a % (I get 50% in my agreeement)

E- book rights: On this again a % is paid to the author on sale of these e-books (I get 35%)

Complimentary copies: Depends. My publisher gives me ten and I can buy them from him at a 40% discount which he gives everyone anyway!

Nominee: In case of death of the author.

Review of contract: Will be reviewed mutually at the time of reprint of the work and in case of any co-publication venture.

Reversal of rights from publisher to author: When books printed are sold out and publisher does not wish to go for subsequent print runs, rights given to publisher revert back to author. Publisher undertakes that a minimum stock of 100 copies is maintained failing which the book shall be considered to be out of print.

Time frame: Publisher will take a maximum of 8 months on the work till the date of publication from the time when the final work is received in a shape with all editorial inputs and ready for layout and designing.
This timeframe can get quite dicey sometimes, like it did for me.

These then are the general clauses one should look at in the agreement. As one of the parties signing it, you have every right to negotiate each and every clause, so just think ahead and be aware of what you may want to retain and what you wish to delete. Do sign with awareness (trust yourself to take care of your interests) and with trust (trust the publisher to do the best he can).
Good luck!

Writing of the 2nd Novel - Step 2

Keerthi and Ramesh Ramachandra
Having finished the novel at its first draft stage, I decided to polish it a bit before sending it off to some readers for some reactions. However much I tried I could not find a way of increasing the word count - 45000 I knew was kind of short - it fell in no man's land. But I was convinced that this was the only way the story would work.

I got a few reader responses. I was not sure if the time gap was credible, if their romance had anything that people identified with - the responses put my fears to rest. The women loved it, the men hated it (which was surprising, but then I realised then identified with the other character. But the publishers were the ones who needed convincing and they were not. Tough bunch they are and I don't know when I will ever know what they want or look for in a book.

Finally, when 'The Men Within' got taken for publishing by Indialog in 2005, I put The Tryst' on the backburner and focused on 'The Men Within'. I met Indialog's editor Keerthi Ramachandra, now my good friend, at Bangalore, where she had relocated to and was now working as a freelance editor, and we worked extensively on the book. After it was all done after a ten day job, and we had sent it off to the publisher, I gave Keerthi a copy of 'The Tryst' and asked her if she would evaluate it and tell me if it had a case to get published.

Keerthi and I got busy with our own lives and it was not until April 2008 that we got back together. I told Keerthi that I would like to hire her editing services before I approach the publishers with 'The Tryst' (which is not a common practice because the publisher normally has his own editors to work on the book). This also adds to the cost for the writer but I was okay with that because Keerthi adds great value with her insights and it would give me a better chance with the publishers.

Okay, this is how editors work. Either they take a lump sum, say one round of editing or evaluation would cost between Rs. 2500 to Rs. 5000 depending on how big the book is in terms of pages (Rs. 15 per page for level one corrections), or if you want to be hand held till the end, it could just go up to anything between Rs. 10000 to Rs. 25000. Sometimes the editors can get you some publishers as well. But the pricing does depend on the level of difficulty - i.e. how well or how badly you have written the draft!

Anyway, my one week long stay in Bangalore with Keerthi, was supposed to get the book into a final stage after which I could approach the publishers straightaway but Keerthi had other ideas. The first was that she felt I was telling the story and not showing it enough which was true. I consciously chose that style because my level of investment in the book was rather low but when she pointed it out, I felt, I could work on it. Also she had some issues with the characters and how they shaped up which I heard out. When I headed back to Hyderabad, the manuscript was full of suggestions and corrections and to such an extent that I got put off from working on it. I put it away for six months almost.

In October I took it out and worked on a few aspects. And then a few more. And then some more research to make it more authentic. I worked for a month extensively on the book and it swelled into 72000 words. It was more fuller, the characters rounded and I did think some justice had been done. I sent the proposal out to the usual suspects and they all rejected it again!

I had spoken about the new novel to Indialog, my publisher, and Basant Pandey the Director, felt that they could do it. We were discussing the possibility of using a different marketing approach but we finally did nothing about it. In December, I shot off a mail to Basant Pandey and asked him if he was still interested because I was getting to a stage when I wanted more control over the process. He said he was game and we took off from there.

The good thing about this deal was that we agreed that we should target the Book Fair in Delhi which is normally held in February. I said that my manuscript was almost ready and we could target that. Next came the commercials, the royalty. Obviously, Indialog would not offer any advances but I was not going to settle for a 7% royalty like a first time writer. However Indialog offered me 7% to start with which was not acceptable to me. After some negotiations, they agreed to a royalty of 10% and I decided to keep the movie rights with me to which they agreed. The MOA was then sent to me with the changes. I will share the main points of the MOA in the next blog. Getting the MoA is the first concrete step to getting towards published but frankly, if my 'Men Within' experience was anything to go by, it does not mean anything, because they given themselves an eight month period during which it can get published else you are free to go. So they just might leave you in the lurch and this period is a very frustrating because they don't say anything and keep very quiet while you wait.

Luckily for me we have a deadline to work with so I asked Basant Pandey for time to work on the manuscript till the 31st of December 2009 after which he can take over the proofing and printing process. The Book Fair is from January 30 - February 7, so we had enough time.

Since we had originally talked about doing something about the marketing mix to increase sales, we started at the most important 'p' after the product - 'price'. We had originally decided to price the book at Rs. 95 because that is a wonderful price to enter the Indian pocket and that is what I felt Chetan Bhagat has cracked. However Basant pandey felt that Rs. 95 would not work and we should price the book at Rs. 145. To me Rs. 145 did not make sense at all because it was middle of the road. Anything over Rs. 100 fell into the 200 range so we decided to at least stick with a price that makes the book fall into a range where it is perceived as a book with some production value to it and some serious content.

The pricing works something like this. The cost of producing a paperback of about 250pages with decent production value rages from Rs. 30 - Rs. 45, if you are printing about 1000-1500 copies at one go. Now you need to figure out pricing this way. From the jacket price of the book, 50% goes to the distributor-retailer, so if it is Rs. 200, then Rs. 100 goes to the distributor-retailer margin. The publisher now has about Rs.60 to play with of which Rs. 14-Rs.20 goes as author's royalty. Of the balance Rs. 40 he has marketing costs and post that, is his profit on each book. Of course there are many direct sales which offset his distribution costs. These are rough costs but it is a fair approximation and the author need not feel that his 10% is too high because there is sufficient padding in the margin already.

Anyway I involve myself in the cover design as well as the marketing aspect with Indialog, knowing their constraints and limitations, so that adds to my cost. I do that for myself and my book of course and also knowing that this must work in a partnership mode. Alright, now we are all agreed, let us now get down to polishing the manuscript and sending it off. Then we can worry about the cover design, the marketing mix etc.

Writing of the 2nd Novel - Step One

Manuscript of 'The Tryst'

Some editing changes

Let me now go through the process of the writing of this novel. I wrote 'The Tryst' (which is what I had originally titled the book) in three months flat. I had a basic hook - that of two youngsters who share the perfect relationship (that goes beyond mouthing 'I love you's' and falling lustfully over one another) - who promise to meet after 30 years of their meeting. The idea seemed to hold much promise for an incurable romantic. I decided to tell the story from the heroine's point of view so I could bring in her own fears and doubts. I thought, could a woman in India, howeever modern in thought, just pack up one fine day and say, I am going off to meet my old friend and will be back in a few days. It was interesting to explore.

More so since I noticed that women in India lived with an unspoken drag on them, of holding back and being held back, in marriage, to an extent that they largely lose themselves. Cases in point are all those women who do wonderfully well once they are liberated from marriage. The question came to me then, do they have to wait till they are divorced and widowed to find themselves? Obviously not. They could find themselves now, and find the strength and courage to be what they can be. The story of Meghna aims to do that without being escapist or without blaming.

While writing the story I wanted to remain true to the basic plot and 'told' the story quickly. The romance of the youngsters being the high point of the first part and the suspense of their meeting the high point of the second. It came to 45000 words and I decided that it was worth that much investment and not more since it had just about that must to say. I figured it might appeal to women readers as a romance - young women might like the youthful romance and older women might identify with the dilemma of the married woman who has to choose between her dreams and her husband's good!

I finished the story in April 2004 and approached a few publishers - the regular suspects. They rejected the proposal quickly!

At this stage I must tell you where exactly I was in terms of being a published writer. I had written 'The Misfit', my magnum opus in 1997 and finished it in one year. Since then it had been rejecetd by all publishers and agents in the world worth their salt and it still remains in my archives. I wrote 'Gulmohur Gang' a children's story collection which was rejected by several publishers and was finally taken up by Senu George of Dahlia Publishers in 2004, a deal which fell through in 2008 after no action from his side for four years. I wrote 'The Men Within - A Cricketing tale' in 2003 and just about completed it, which was also doing the rounds with no success. To add to all this, I had resigned my job at the bank in January 2004 and my last day at work was March 31, 2004 by which time I had decided to finish writing 'The Tryst'.

So that's where it all hung. No encouragement from the publishing world, no job soon, just a mad confidence that I will get published, that I have something worth getting published! What do I do next?
Onward ho...

YES - Finally The Novel Is Done

A huge YES factor for me my friend as I sit and punch away at this twilight hour! YES, YES! I have finally sent off the changes I made to the pdf version of the book - proofing it just to have a 'look' took me a good nine hours and I am still left feeling that maybe I should have tweaked it a bit more? Ah, Hari, let go! I sent off the changes to Sandeep, the publisher's production man, and that's out of my hair.
Got to say that Gita Rajan, editor-proof reader, has been a great source of encouragement. She really backed the story and that's huge for me. I liked the confidence she brings to this project. And she did such a wonderful job of proofing and final touching it. Thanks Gita, its huge. Looking forward to meet you in Delhi.
And then the cover. Shiva worked on it with our limited resources and he sent me a jpg file of the version we liked and it looks good. I am waiting for the final cdr version to send it off any moment now. And then off to Minerva coffee shop with Shobha and Anjali where we meet Vinod to celebrate with some mirchi bajjis and coffee!!
Hah! Will write a bit about the process tomorrow. What happened till now on the making of the manuscript, when the publisher gets involved and then the actual commercials, agreements, promotion etc. We can go through the process together!

And a promising director

Also met Chandra Siddharth, a promising young director, who has made a movie of great sensibility 'Aa Naluguru' which I liked immensely. Since I developed a liking for his sensibility I made it a point to see his next 'Vasantham' which had Sumanth and Sneha and another heroine and was rather disappointed at what came about. Somehow I could sense a subtle theme that he was trying to explore which was being subdued by a stronger track that got built in. Maybe I felt that other people prevailed over his original idea.
Which was what happened apparently. Chandra said that he read about Spielberg saying somewhere that one must stick to one's style of making movies, one's success mantra, so to say and move gradually over a period of time. Which is where he felt he moved into different kinds of movies too fast. The other two movies that he made, 'Inscrutable Americans, and another Telugu movie called 'Idi Sangathi' with Tabu in the lead - the first was critically acclaimed and the second did not fare well.
'Though it did not fare well,' he says, 'there was a German reseacher who came and interviewed me and complimented me on the subject and my viewpoint which was very satisfying.'
Now he is back to his genre. Two movies that are due to be released this year. Let me watch. I do believe he has what it takes. And he makes my kind of movies!