On A Loose End

Update: Please visit the website http://www.litagency.com/ for your publishing needs. The concept of literary agents in India has not really taken off so far even though there are now some well known agencies whose presence cannot be ignored. But frankly if the number of agencies is lesser than the number of publishing houses, it can be surmised that the slush pile at the literary agencies will be much bigger than that at the publishing houses. WritersNet gives a list of 50 Literary agents/agencies in India. However be informed that the list is created by self-submission and is not validated, therefore if you are going to pick from the list, you do it at your own risk. I am not saying that they are not legitimate, I am just cautioning that there may be scam artists in that list. As a general guideline, anyone who is charging a reading fee should best be ignored. Agents are not supposed to be charging money, they take a commission out of your royalties after they sell the book. But ot...

It was in 2005 that I started writing a book, fiction, every living person's desire. Everyone has a story or two to tell and if the want is there he/she can definitely pen a book out of the story, but more often than not the story remains untold because of their own mental blocks and sometimes because writing a book or a novel becomes an overwhelming task after the first ten pages. It requires a great deal of motivation, perseverence and hard work to write a book. Anyway, I, for one, had too many stories floating in my head and there was only one way to free up the memory, get it out of my system. In 2005 I took the plunge and two years later I had finished my masterpiece. I think everyone who writes his/ her first book thinks that it is a masterpiece. During the process of writing and then subsequently after finishing it I was always scouring the Internet for resources for the first time author. There are hoards of websites for the first time author to take cues from but somehow t...

Okay, You have written your masterpiece. Now, how do you go about selling it to a publisher? There are some pre-requisites that are must-haves before you start even approaching the publishers. They are Cover letter, Synopsis, Sample chapters and Chapter outline. Every publisher will ask you for at least two or more of the above, and it's best if you prepare these in advance to avoid wasting time later. A cover letter is self-explanatory. It should be short, crisp and to the point. Introduce yourself, introduce your book by way of a blurb on what it is about and pleasantly ask them to consider it for publication. Next comes the Synopsis. This is the most important marketing tool you have as an author when it comes to selling the book. The synopsis is what is the face of your book and will either the close or open the doors of the publishing house to you. Therefore pay utmost attention to the Synopsis. It is no easy task by any means. Especially for the author since he has done the p...

It was in 2005 that I started writing a book, fiction, every living person's desire. Everyone has a story or two to tell and if the want is there he/she can definitely pen a book out of the story, but more often than not the story remains untold because of their own mental blocks and sometimes because writing a book or a novel becomes an overwhelming task after the first ten pages. It requires a great deal of motivation, perseverence and hard work to write a book. Post shifted to new blog and rest of the post can be accessed at http://enemyintheranks.blogspot.com/2009/06/first-time-author-from-india.html