Anup Jerajani

The Bhatia community has been witnessed works of some prolific authors from time to time. And in recent times, team Global Bhatia also observed authoring to be a on a rising trend across the Bhatia community. With subjects ranging from economics to vedic maths and culinary interests to travel, the range is quite vast.

But publishing a book comes with its own challenges. There are traits that distinguish an author from a writer. So we thought why not hear it from an expert who has been in the publishing space for over a decade. We caught up with Anup Jerajani, a third-generation bookseller who has been with Crossword Bookstores Ltd. for the last 13 years. Below is a simple guide to “self-publishing” from Anup in his own words and we hope it will give young writers some much needed understanding into the art of authoring a book.

Someone once said, “words are our most inexhaustible source of magic”. I think he was absolutely right!

We are all storytellers. We all have ideas that we want to share with the world. What’s better than penning our thoughts into a book, to be read by present and future generations?

As a book buyer for Crossword Bookstores, I used to come across people expressing their desire to be writers or to sell their books well. Some came with published books which they wished to sell from our stores. Others expressed a desire to get their books published with a traditional publisher. Some needed guidance on how to start writing a book.

As booksellers all we could do was guide these people to approach the publishers we knew. However, most of these unpublished authors would end up disappointed since none of the mainstream publishers showed interest in their work. This was even though some of the raw manuscripts we came across were genuinely well-written.

A few years ago with the digital and e-commerce advent, a lot of online self-publishing companies took birth. These same set of authors started getting in touch with these companies to get their books published. However, self-publishing online came with limitations. There was no guarantee that the book published by these companies would go through a proper pre-press process (edit, design, typeset etc.), which is crucial for a well-published book. Many authors would end up with poor quality books, both in terms of content and printing. Since these books were print-on-demand they were only available online. Most of the books would hardly sell as they’d get lost in the plethora of books listed on online sites.

The same set of authors would approach us again wanting their books to be placed in Crossword stores. However, like any industry, we have our own ecosystem and distribution channel in the book trade, making it impossible to start dealing with authors directly. Authors do not understand this and become dejected when they don’t see their books in bookstores.

On seeing these trends, we realised an opportunity to help authors get their books published professionally in terms of prepress, production, and distribution across our 90 stores and in major online bookstores. After much research and study, in 2014 we launched our in-house publishing platform: The Write Place Publishing. This publishing initiative by Crossword Bookstores Ltd. began with the aim to enable aspiring authors convert their stories into a finished book, and to connect them to the right audience. So far, we’ve published 70-plus books in different genres and have more than 33 books in different stages of publishing.

If you’re looking to self-publish, then here are some tips:

DECIDE WHEN TO SELF-PUBLISH: Self-publishing is not only for authors who are rejected by traditional publishers. There are many reasons that authors choose to self-publish. Some authors want books available to a niche audience, like their community. Some want their books to come out quickly, which traditional publishing does not offer. . Some like the transparency of the process. Some like the fact that there is revenue-sharing model versus a royalties model, which can leave the author with more money if the book crosses a certain sale number. Some published authors also self-publish as they want to publish their book on their own and have control over the rights and process. While it is widely believed that every author wants to publish traditionally, this is not true at all.

FIND THE RIGHT SELF-PUBLISHING PLATFORM: Look out for self-publishing companies with a good publishing record. Have a look at their past catalog. See their track record to see the quality of their work. Check the editing and print quality of their published books. It’s important to know their distribution network in physical stores. Honestly, a new author is only discovered in a physical store.

SEND A GOOD QUERY LETTER: Publishers get scores of queries and manuscripts on a daily basis. It’s important that the query sent by an author is short, crisp and yet covers everything. You should send at least 4 chapters of the manuscript, a table of contents, a short synopsis of the book, the number of words of the complete manuscript, and – most important of all – a short bio. The publisher wants to know who the author is.

SEND GOOD SAMPLE CHAPTERS: If the publisher finds the initial query and chapters interesting, they may ask for the complete manuscript or more sample chapters. Send your best ones.

MEET: If the author and publisher are based in the same city and if it is possible to meet, I would suggest a brief meeting with the publisher/editor, as it is sometimes easier to express your thoughts in person. Do this only if the publisher/editor is interested. Don’t badger them if they’re not. You’ll be blacklisted.

FIND A EDITOR, DESIGNER AND PRINTER: It’s always better to let the publisher take care of all things pertaining to the publishing of the book. All good publishers have a decent pool of editors, designers as well as printers.

PUBLISH Your Book Well: Spell check. Make sure that your book has no grammatical mistakes. Make sure the typeset is done. Make sure the book is properly converted to an e-book format. Make sure you own the copyright as with traditional publishing (the ISBN is something that the publisher applies for). Go to specialists, as many online self-publishing platforms are not good at providing these services. A self-published book should look as professional as a traditionally published book.

MARKET YOUR BOOK WELL: Every author wants to be the next Amish or Chetan Bhagat. Your book will not sell like an FMCG product. You will not be called to all the lit fests. Remove such assumptions. Be proactive in selling your book. A publisher’s job is to print and distribute your book. It is your job to sell and promote your book. Build your brand patiently over years. Be aware that book selling is a lengthy and tedious process.

WHAT MAKES A BESTSELLER: There are no exact industry figures or definite quantity to what makes a book a bestseller. It also depends on the genre. If you’re writing commercial fiction then make sure you sell 10,000 copies within one year. If you’re writing literary fiction then make sure you sell 5,000 copies within one year. It also depends on the author If only 50,000 copies of a Chetan Bhagat book sell then it’s considered a flop book. But if a literary fiction book sells so much it will be considered a mega-bestseller. A bestseller also depends on the time. Some books don’t sell for 15-16 years, like Moby-Dick, which sold 500 copies initially and now sells in millions. A self-published book should sell 2000-3000 copies to be considered a bestselling book and for the author to recover the money they’ve invested.

HOW DO PAYMENTS WORK: Payments in self-publishing work somewhat like they do in traditional publishing. Traditional distributors get a 50-60% discount from publishers, and give a 35-40% discount to booksellers. The publisher gets 40% in profits, but has to account for costs incurred in publishing that book. Since an author is also the publisher in self-publishing, expect to get 40-45% in royalties on MRP or between 50-60% in royalties on net receipts. Don’t expect an advance as the author needs to pay to get the book self-published. The payment is scheduled every month or quarter depending on the publisher, versus traditional publishing where the cycle is bi-annually or annually due to the four-month credit cycle in book selling. If your self-published book sells well, you will get to make more money than in traditional publishing.

WHAT NOT TO DO IN SELF-PUBLISHING: Don’t delve too much into editing. Don’t show your work to many different people with different viewpoints, especially husbands, in-laws, cousins, friends. Too many cooks do spoil the broth and you’ll end up confused. Trust one or two people. Trust the editor. Don’t make the editor miserable. Have a clear viewpoint on your book. Ultimately, listen to all but do what you want. Don’t expect your book to be at every airport, railway station or bookstore as retail stores have very specific spaces.

(About the author of this article : Anup Jerajani is a third-generation bookseller who has been with Crossword Bookstores Ltd. for the last 13 years. As the deputy general manager of the books buying and merchandising team, he has vast experience in book selling and publishing. Anup conceptualized and spearheaded ‘The Write Place Publishing’, Crossword’s in-house publishing program.)