Self-published novels, self-help ebooks, and Coronavirusthemed short stories-the world of publishing is embracing new ideas, with authors having used the quarantine period to write ferociously
Veteran columnist and author Shobhaa De says her collection of short stories was spurred by what shed like to term as the "lockdown syndrome". "During this churn and turmoil, I felt a strong need to express what I was going through. It was my way of chron
In the last three weeks, columnist and author Shobhaa De has released four e-books. And though, by her own admission, she works "like a beast, writing at a manic pace… often 2,000 words a day," it-s possibly the quickest she has churned out fiction, since she turned author.
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De-s books, which are part of the Lockdown Liaisons series by Simon & Schuster, are a collection of short stories that deal with human relationships, their breaking and unbreaking, during the forced period of isolation brought upon us by the pandemic. In a way, the books symbolise the opening of floodgates to a slowly growing repository of lockdown-themed literature, which might soon become a genre in itself.
But De-s new exploits are also remarkable, because they come at a time, when bookstores are barely managing to sustain, some even shuttering. But the veteran argues, "Writers will continue to write. And, readers will continue to read."
The lockdown, if anything, has given writers the luxury of time, and the much-needed impetus to focus on their work. De-s own short stories were spurred by what she-d like to term, as the "lockdown syndrome". "[It] triggered off all sorts of responses in people across the world. We were collectively confused at first, and soon the confusion turned into insecurity. During this churn and turmoil, I felt a strong need to express what I was going through. It was my way of chronicling a unique period, an unprecedented calamity that had shaken the world, and turned it upside down, almost overnight. I am essentially a storyteller. I listen attentively, observe a lot. My intuitions are pretty strong—the stories started to pour out of me in a crazy gush. They just had to be written in the here and now, while we were all coming to terms with dramatic, cataclysmic changes brought on by a microbe," she shares. The result is only more and more books. Not just by De, but other authors too, and an interesting future for the world of publishing.
When De-s publishers decided to experiment with the format of releasing a new short story collection online, once every week on a Saturday, she felt it was a "gamble well worth taking". In fact, her first book in the series, Leaving and other Stories, made it to the number one spot on Amazon, the day after it was launched on May 30. "Digital is the future. e-books are going to transform publishing," she feels.
Her sentiments are shared by Commonwealth Prize winning author Siddhartha Gigoo, who self-published his book, Love in the Time of Quarantine, in three weeks flat. When the Delhi-based writer first announced that he was attempting this feat on social media on March 25, the driving force was his favourite writer Kazuo Ishiguro: "If he could write The Remains of the Day in four weeks, why couldn-t I write a book in 21 days?" However, Gigoo who has published his earlier five books traditionally, was also wary of the medium. He wasn-t sure if such a risk, would augur well. "Typically, people look down upon self-publishing. But given the kind of person I am, I like my creative space. When you send your manuscript out [to publishers], you have to deal with the inevitability of having to take their inputs, right from editorial to the cover, pricing and promotions. Also, often, the author has to literally beg for visibility," says Gigoo.
Author Siddhartha Gigoo, who self-published his novel, says, it helped him cut back on the time that would have been lost in looking at his manuscript, and picking it up for editing and proofing, before typesetting it for print
His book, which evolved from an exercise in writing a tercet, a three-line poem, eventually became a love story between two people, separated during the lockdown. Simultaneously, a moving experience of witnessing a migrant family leaving the city on their feet, with a dog following closely, had a profound impact on him. This also, became part of his narrative. "The book allowed me to have this existential debate about life, triggered by the pandemic. I wasn-t sure if this was the right time to pitch a book of this nature to my publisher, or my agent. So, I decided to self-publish on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. It made me the master of my own destiny." His 15-year-old daughter designed the cover of the book, while his wife, a professional editor, took on editing duties. For the next 21 days, his entire family was involved in the "mini project". "It was quite exciting."
Gigoo says this also helped him cut back on the time that would have been lost in looking at his manuscript, and picking it up for editing and proofing, before typesetting it for print. "All of that can take around 18 months." Gigoo had done it in a matter of days.
Writing a Coronavirus or lockdown-themed book, was but an extension of the lived experiences and reality. "Authenticity is always key, whatever the medium," says De, while speaking about the themes she explored in her book. "Intimacy, love, sex and emotional bonds have taken a huge hit during the lockdown. People are questioning and rejecting so much of what they imagined was true and permanent. Even the strongest bonds got tested during this difficult period. The lockdown has taught us one lesson—nothing and nobody can be taken for granted. Loneliness has become the leitmotif of the lockdown, as Sushant Singh Rajput-s tragic death has underlined. Mental health will dominate future conversations when this ends," she adds.
During the lockdown, journalist Ziya Us Salam got down to writing about a subject that he had been meaning to work on since 2009
Where many authors chose the digital route, author Ziya Us Salam, who wrote his non-fiction title, Inside the Tablighi Jamaat HarperCollins India, in four weeks, at the beginning of the lockdown in April, chose to go the traditional way. "A book is a book. You can-t really compare the joy of having a book in your hand," says Salam, who declined an offer to write an e-book on racism during the lockdown. The book will be out in paperback in July, and though currently on pre-order, it is already at number one in the political ideologies section on Amazon.
Salam says writing about the 93-year-old Islamic organisation, which is "arguably the world-s, and certainly India-s, largest", was at the back of his mind since 2009. "I had seen their various jamaats, one of which used to happen at a mosque right opposite my house. I had also personally interacted with some of the volunteers of the Tablighi Jamaat. I realised that the organisation was treating Islam as a path to spiritual upliftment, rather than a lived experience. I gave up the idea then," he says. But the Corona outbreak, and the subsequent Tablighi Jamaat congregation, which took place in Nizamuddin Markaz between March 10-13, and was held responsible for a severe spread of infection, compelled him to take up the project, when approached by HarperCollins. "There wasn-t even an iota of truth in what was being said about them, especially in the electronic media. Everyone was out to malign them. Somebody had to set the record straight," says Salam.
The challenges of writing a book during the lockdown, were plenty. For starters, he had to restrict himself to email or telephonic interactions with the volunteers, most of whom are difficult to trace, as the Jamaat doesn-t keep a record on its members. He also had to give up an opportunity for a personal interaction with Maulana Saad, the chief of the organisation, who is based out of Uttarakhand and was at the centre of the controversy. "Yet, what the lockdown did, was give me ample time to focus on the book. I have written books in less than a month before. But here, I had to work with fewer resources."
Actor and former national-level swimmer Shray Rai Tiwari says he was able to pen his memoir, and finally express why he quit swimming, because of the time he had at his disposal due to the lockdown
For some, writing a book during the lockdown, also became a medium to help introspect about their own journey. Like literary agent Anish Chandy of Labyrinth Literary Agency, says, "People are sitting at home and fretting about ways to reinvent themselves, so they are giving writing a shot." Thirty-year-old Mumbai-based actor Shray Rai Tiwari, who wrote and published his book, Almost A Swimmer: Excerpts from my Childhood Diary Notion Press, is one of them. Tiwari, who originally hails from Jaipur, and used to be a national level swimmer, says, "I left the sport very abruptly, and somewhere, had come to regret it and had become remorseful. A lot of family and friends asked me, why I had left swimming, and I didn-t have an answer." Tiwari says that the lockdown allowed him time to reflect on the life he could have had, and what could have been. "I kept my phone aside for three days, and started thinking about this. That-s when I realised that there was a lot that I had to say, or was left unsaid." The e-book, available on Amazon, helped him translate this remorse to gratitude. "There were lessons I learnt, and they were worth sharing."
Chandy says that the lockdown saw some new publishing trends, especially in the digital and self-publishing space. "Once the lockdown hit, a number of publishers decided to experiment with digital-only books. This led to some market buzz, but no significant sales in absolute numbers. Most publishers reported doubling their e-book sales, but that-s on a small base," he says, adding, "Since people have more time on their hands, submissions from writers have [also] gone up exponentially. The quality of all these submissions are more or less the same as before; 10 per cent good, about two per cent publishable. The one thing that-s changed is the turnaround time from authors to incorporate editorial comments; that has reduced drastically. I think the lockdown has had a positive effect on self-publishing companies because they don-t deal with the hard bits of marketing."
21
Number of days it took Siddhartha Gigoo to write his novel
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