Every aspiring writer’s biggest dream is to see his or her book in print. Given the rising number of wannabe writers in India, this may sound impossible. But many famous writers were not lucky enough to dig gold in their very first attempt. They persevered and then they hit the limelight!
How can you publish your book in India?
You should be aware that the agent and the publisher play a crucial role in publishing. An agent is somebody who has contacts with publishing houses and tries to sell your work to them. An agent may also negotiate your contract terms and conditions with your publisher and works on commission. A publisher or a publishing house works on various tasks like acquiring manuscripts, planning, editing, designing, copyediting, selling, promoting the book and a hoard of other tasks.
Before you decide to publish a book, you should first decide your genre of writing. Does your writing fall under drama, romance, short story, romance, or any other genre? Once you have identified the genre, then you should search for those publishers. Most publishing houses adhere to a fixed submission format that is most of the time available on their website. A good way to start is by submitting a synopsis of your work along with the first few chapters. The synopsis should contain the highlights of your work. It is a good idea to include author background information as a few publishers prefer that. One crucial thing to keep in mind is to proofread your writing thoroughly for grammatical errors before you send it to the publisher. Another thing to do is you should send your work to as many publishers as possible as not everybody would evince interest in your work. Once after you send your work, the waiting period may seem like an eternity. The general time period for a publisher to respond is two to five weeks. But this may vary.
The biggest challenge a newbie writer may face is getting a publisher to approve their work. While it is tempting to say yes to the first publisher who has approached you, it is always wiser to weigh the deal and wait. A publisher decides the pricing, the number of books and the publicity strategies. Royalty for newbie authors is around 5-7.5%. One thing you should check is if royalty is on the net price of the book or MRP. This can be paid as a one-time payment or as a signing amount.
To market your book, you need to build your social presence on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or even Instagram. Once you have a solid social presence for your writing, then you can approach a publisher as they can see that you have some voice or presence among readers. If you are not too tech-savvy, then you can hire a public relations company. Their cost can vary between 50,000 and 1 lakh INR.
If you do not wish to go through the whole rigmarole of approaching agents and publishers, then you can consider self-publishing. Organizations such as Penguin Random House and Partridge Publishing offer fee-based self-publishing opportunities. Be selective when considering these services, as they can be expensive and you may not even need some of them. Remember, one advantage that self-publishing offers writers is complete control. As a writer, you have your control over content, publishing and marketing as the onus of money and other risks lies with you. So take a call and decide how to publish your first book!
Image credit: Arian Zwegers on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0