Marketing Tip: Finding Influencers

Once you’ve written the book, you need the help of influencers or your fans to push the book sales. Influencers could be fellow authors, bloggers, reviewers, teachers, celebrities, fans and so many others. If other social media users tap your book into their social networks, it does help get the word out.

How do you find influencers? They could be your own friends or friends of friends. They could be people you look up to, other authors or readers who believe in your work.

booksales-01Gaining the support of influencers is a hard-won process and doesn’t happen overnight. You can’t flood someone’s inbox with emails and demand that they tweet about your book. It has to be on the basis of trust and this will take time plus you’ll have to return the favor as well.

How do you feel about promoting your book when you go out for book meets? Do you think that you are pushing the sell too hard? Do you feel better when someone recommends your book, instead of you having to do it? In the beginning, it will be hard and also pointless, considering the number of voices involved in self-promotion but if you connect with the right people, your book may just be known.

This is an excellent post by Jane Friedman about how to find and reach influencers to promote your book. Read it.

Another post on how to establish a fan base.

 

 

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Creative Writing Courses and Workshops for Indian Writers- 2021

Now updated for 2021

There are many opinions about creative writing courses. Does a real writer need a course at all? The argument goes that if engineering students can study engineering and artists can study art, then why not writing? A course in writing could open a student’s eyes to the fundamentals of plot, dialog, characterization and themes. Talking to fellow writers expands horizons and critiques can help your work at times. Though the final judgment of the work is yours and your editor’s, talking about writing can put you in a zone that will help nurture your writerly instincts.

Given the enormous interest, we have updated this post and provided a
revised version of what creative writing courses you can join in 2021!
Considering that the world has moved online since 2020, we will be looking at courses available on the internet as well.

What should you take into account before going ahead with a course?

  • The University/Mentor offering the course: Know where it is that you are applying. Find out more about the university or the credentials of the mentor who is running the program you want to participate in.
  • Recommendations by students who have done the course: Previous users of the course will mostly share their opinions of the course, either as reviews or on social media. Going through these will give you an idea about what you can expect.
  • Familiarity with the Coursework: Writing has many facets. You may want to learn more about how to write a good narrative or you may have trouble with genre writing. You may want to improve the pace of your writing or the momentum of your plot. You may want to understand more about book marketing. See if the course you choose can offer you exactly what you need at this point in your writing journey.
  • Group work or one-on-one: Now that most courses are online, you can also opt for courses that are live and those that you can retrieve videos of and work on at your own pace. Some courses offer interactive forums where you can discuss with your peers and some offer one-on-one feedback.
  • Certification: Does the course you are opting for provide certification? Is that essential for your writing skills to progress? Many MOOCs offer certificates once the payment is made; otherwise, the content on offer is free.

Writing Courses in India

  • Ashoka University: For those of you who want to study creative writing, there is a B.A. course in English and Creative writing at Ashoka University.

Writing Workshops in India

  • Bound: At Bound, there are plenty of online writing workshops held throughout the year, with top-notch mentors in fiction writing, screenplay writing, essay writing, etc.  
  • Anita’s Attic: Anita Nair runs Anita’s Attic in conjunction with Penguin. The program is structured over 12 weeks and is limited to 12 students. Admission for 2021 is closed.
  • Dum Pukht Writers’ Workshop: This is a two-week, in-residence workshop for fiction writers headed by Anil Menon, Parvin Saket and Akshat Nigam. The workshop was canceled in 2020 but will resume this year.
  • Bangalore Writers Workshop (BWW): This is a critique based workshop in Bangalore. Bangalore Writers Workshop (BWW) was founded by Bhumika Anand and Rheea Mukherjee in December 2011. Courses range from the literary to the journalistic.
  • Young Author Program (YAP): The Young Author Program is a creative writing workshop for young writers. The work of selected young writers will be published in an anthology.

Online Writing Courses

  • Udemy: All learners are familiar with Udemy. There are over 200, 000 students studying creative writing alone at this venue. You can check out their moderately priced creative writing courses on writing books, characterization, plotting, poetry, etc.
  • Coursera:  This American massive open online course provider has many free writing courses such as:Creative Writing: A course that teaches short story, narrative essay, and memoir. Techniques provided include characterization, plotting, etc. You learn to analyze and constructively evaluate peer writing. You draft, rewrite, and complete a substantial original story in the genre of your choosing.
    Write Your First Novel: This is a course provided by the Michigan State University. You will learn how to write and complete a full-length novel of 50,000 words from start to finish. You will have a finished manuscript in hand at the end of the course.
    Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest: This course offers video lectures, exercises, online readings, peer reviews, and guest appearances from world-renowned children’s authors. 
  • Masterclass: It’s worth the investment to do MasterClass with world-class writers. So for the fast-paced writing of thrillers, listen to James Patterson, to understand the nuances of sci-fi and fantasy think Neil Gaiman, for plotting think Dan Brown…you get the picture. You will have to shell out an annual cost; there is no monthly subscription.
  • Skillshare:  Want to learn how to write character-driven stories from famous authors? You can sign up for a free trial at Skillshare before you decide to take the available courses.
These are some courses that can help you jumpstart your writing journey. Tell us if there any other creative writing courses that you recommend!

 

Disclaimer:  The above-mentioned courses should not be treated as recommendations, but only information. The reader should verify the quality and suitability of the courses before enrolling in one.

The Art of Rewriting

You may have written a book. That is hard enough, but what do you think about rewriting? The very idea of rewriting a manuscript that you may have spent months or even years on daunting. But the truth of the matter is that writing is sometimes synonymous with rewriting.

Let’s look at what some great writers have had to say about rewriting:

Hemingway: The only kind of writing is rewriting.

Toni Morrison: I rewrite a lot, over and over again, so that it looks like I never did. I try to make it look like I never touched it, and that it takes a lot of time and lot of sweat.

Vladimir Nabokov: I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.

There are many ways you can make that manuscript shine. You could write the first draft and then rewrite it. Or you could work on detailed character and plot outlines. Another way of rewriting is to write bits and pieces of the story and then go back to those sections and rewrite it until the pieces gel.

What you could do is maybe hand in a chapter or two of your manuscript to a trusted beta reader or preferably an expert- a writing teacher or a knowledgeable reader- and get their feedback. This helps you when you are trying to find a direction for your first or second draft. Many times, we think our story is complete but it takes a fresh pair of eyes to catch a character mismatch or inconsistency in plotting. This helps for a smoother and more meaningful rewrite.

When you rewrite, make sure that you keep the overall plot idea consistent. If you go way off tangent, then you may end up writing a different book altogether. Keep targets. No amount of polishing is going to be enough but there has to be a time to stop.

What’s your experience rewriting? Tell us.

Links about Rewriting:

How to Rewrite

http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/the-art-of-writing-is-in-the-rewriting

Six Rules for Rewriting

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India Public Domain 2017: 18 Indian authors whose works entered public domain in 2017

In keeping with our tradition (2012,20132014, 2015, 2016), we have compiled a list of Indian authors whose work has entered the public domain at the beginning of this year. The criteria for a particular work to enter public domain this year is for the author to have died in the calendar year 1956 and the work to have been published before his death. If the work has been published after the author’s death, it will only come out of copyright after 60 years from the date of publication.

We collected the data from various sources including Wikipedia, books on the history of Indian literature (brought out by the Sahitya Akademi) and other online sources. While the sources for individual photos and pieces of information have not been attributed, we would like to acknowledge all these sources here. Many of the sources are linked below.

There are bound to be mistakes in this data. So please point out anything you notice. If you know of more Indian authors who died in 1955 and hence have entered public domain this year, do let us know and we will add it to the list for your reference.

Why should you as a writer or someone who loves books care? An author entering public domain means that most of his works are now free to be republished, translated, and converted to different formats and introduced to a new audience in any way you can imagine. It is possible to digitize these works and conserve them forever. So dig into the list and find some gems. And when you find one, let the whole world know.

Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder  (1877–1956)

He was a celebrated Indian writer in Bengali of fairy tales and children’s literature. His major contribution to Bengali literature was the collection and compilation of Bengali folk and fairy tales in four volumes – Thakurmar Jhuli (Grandmother’s Bag of Tales), Thakurdadar Jhuli (Grandfather’s Bag of Tales), Thandidir Thale (Maternal-Grandmother’s Bag of Tales) and Dadamashayer Thale (Maternal-Grandfather’s Bag of Tales).

Amarlal Hingorani (1907-1956)

A Sindh short story writer known for his realistic portrayal of characters. His famous story is ‘Ado Abdul Rehman’ which was included by the UNESCO on one of its publications.

Anantram Kandukuri (Karuna Kumara) (1901-1956)

A famous Telugu writer of short stories, first to treat rural life as themes. He was also an actor of mythological roles.

Bal Sitaram Mardhekar (1909 – 1956)

B.S. Mardhekar was a writer-poet, critic and novelist who is also known as the Father of Modernism in Marathi poetry. Born in Maharashtra, he studied in Pune and London, and worked at All India Radio. His earlier collection of poems, Shishiragam, was a product of Ravi Kiran Mandal poetry which was sentimental and lyrical. But his later avant-garde poetry altered his reputation. Works by him include Anakhi Kahi Kavita, and novels like Pani and Ratrica Divas. Mardhekar was influenced by Marathi bhakti poetry, the poetry of T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden.

Baishnaba Pani (1882–1956)

He was an Odia jatra writer and arranger. He incorporated mythology and contemporaray issues in his fiction. He is credited with writing 600 works, including 150 yatras, 19 farces, 65 anthologies of lyrics, etc.

 Har Datt Sharma (1890-1956)

A Dogri poet, author of Dogri Bhajanmala (1936).

Makhmur Dihlavi, Fazl-I Ilahi (1900-1956)

A well-known Urdu poet, his famous work is Kulliyat-I Makhmur.

manik_bandopadhyayManik Bandyopadhyay (1908-1956)

One of the major Bengali novelists and short story writers, he produced 36 novels and 177 short stories in his short lifespan. His earliest works reflect the impact of Freudian ideology. When he became a Communist, the sentiment reflected in his writing. His works include Putul Nacer Itikatha (1936), Padmanadir Majhi (1936), Jiyanta(1950), and Sahartali.

 

Mohammad Mobin (pseudonym Kaifi Chiryakoti) (1890-1956)

His important work is Jayahiri-I sukhan, va’ni, Urdu shu’ara ke kalam ka intikhab (4 volumes-1935-1939), a selection of poems by various poets. His own poems were collected in Parah hai Jigar and Nashter-i-gham (1927).

Munsif Nachiket Drupadlal (pseudonym Ketan Munsi) (1930-1956)

A Gujarati short story writer, some of whose works are Andhari Rate (1952) and Svapnano Bhangar (1953).

Pandit Godavarish Misra (1886-1956)

A major Oriya poet, dramatist and novelist, he wrote a number of ballads and lyrical poems. Although he belonged to a conservative Brahmin family, Mishra was a socialist. He was also a competent editor. He published magazine Lokamukha from Banapur in 1924. He also used to write for the Eastcoast (An English paper) published by Shashi Bhusan Rath. He was awarded a doctorate in literature from Utkal University. He used literature as a weapon to promote patriotism. His works include Alekhika, Kalika, Kisalaya, Gitayana, Purusottama Deva, Mukunda Deva, 1817 and Arddha Satabdira Odisa O Tahinre Mo Sthana.

Qazi Mohammad Abdul Ghaffar (1888-1956)

He was a journalist and a political activist. His publications include Ajib and Tin paise ki chokri.

Sitaramacandra Rao, Oddiraju (1887-1956)

Along with his brother, these scholars have made a substantial contribution to the Telugu language in the Nizam state.

Sobharaj Fani (1883-1956)

A poet and essayist in Sindhi, especially known for his historical essays on about eighty towns and cities of Sindh. Some of his write-ups include Khyali Jhalka, Chita Phulawari, Roohani Tijala, Tarjuma-e-Gulistan (translation of Gulistan from Persian).

Vavilla Venkateswara Shastri (1885-1956)

He rendered many services for the development of Telugu studies by bringing out innumerable journals and publications.

Virumal Begraj (1874-1956)

This Deshbhakta was one of the first nationalist authors in Sindhi to go to jail during the freedom struggle. His famous work is Munhinji Jail Yatra (1923).

Yaganah Changezi (1883-1956)

He was an Urdu poet who published several volumes of poems with Mirza Yas. Yagana has four collections of poems to his credit: Nishtar-i- Yaas (1914), Tarana (1933), Aayat-i-Wijdani (1927) and Ganjina (1948), besides his works in prose, which include Ghalib-Shikan.

Zafar Ali Khan, Maulvi (1873-1956)

He was an Urdu poet and prose writer; founder and publisher of the Zamindar of Lahore, he wrote satirized poetry. His publications include Khayaban-I Faris, poems like Chamanistan and Nigaristan, and novels like Haqiqatva afsanah and Tilismi hur.

Online Marketing with Twitter

If you want to market your book using twitter, start by creating an adequate profile, with preferably using your own name so that people can find you. Also write an intriguing bio so that people who spot you want to follow you.

Interact with other writers of the genre you are about to write in or already have written in. People have to know you exist, so tweet, RT, and message. Also twitter etiquette requires that you follow those who follow you and no trolling please!

Follow the greats and learn from them. Neil Gaiman and J.K.Rowling know how to keep the twitter buzz alive, and have followers in the millions.

Tweet often as internet memory is zilch. You can use tools like Bufferapp or Hootsuite to schedule your posts in advance. If you’ve written a book, don’t hesitate to tweet about it. Tweet your blog posts and whatever it is that you are writing. Also you can offer discounts for your book on twitter. Post pictures of what reflects your book or your personality. But remember that all your posts should not be about your book. That becomes boring.

Retweeting is good and Favoriting is better! Use the hashtag approach if you want to get noticed. But your tweet shouldn’t be all hashtags either.

More links about online marketing in 140 characters here:

http://www.cio.com/article/2380667/twitter/14-ways-to-use-twitter-to-market-your-business.html

http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/online-marketing/social-media-and-online-networking/twenty-top-twitter-tips

http://www.makealivingwriting.com/writers-win-social-media/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/may/27/10-authors-who-are-brilliant-at-twitter

 twitter GIF

 

 

Online Marketing with Facebook

You have written your book and you want to tell your friends about it. That’s great! You can talk about it on your facebook personal page but how many times can you talk about it? This makes having an author facebook page a good idea.
This page can be dedicated to you the author so you can continuously post about your book, talk about giveaways, book launch, etc.

However, don’t think that a facebook page is a great substitute for a website. With facebook, remember that you are always dependent on an external platform.

Getting likes is only one possible way of setting objectives. You can set different objectives for an advertising campaign. It is best to setup something that drives traffic to your sites, or direct sale or email newsletter signups. If using paid advertising, make sure to target the audience very narrowly, ideally to the people who have interest in that very specific genre.

Also post across groups. Don’t spam groups with your book as that can become a bit annoying and actually prevent people from buying the book. Create posts that are interesting to read and in accordance to the rules of the group, rather than just cutting and pasting links to your book.

Apart from page, consider creating a group. It doesn’t have the same features as a page and will need to be treated differently. But if suitably managed, it can help build long-term relationships with readers and also keep them engaged.
Promotion is not a one-day wonder. It takes a lot of effort. Be in it for long term and work on strategies to direct people to your own platform outside facebook as well. Facebook’s policies keep changing and you might work hard on building a following and then not able to reach it. Building an email list could be life saver.

To understand more about advertising on facebook, go through this link: https://www.facebook.com/business/learn

How to Write Characters

If you have a single good character that could be the driving force of your story. So how do you create a good character?

First think of the characters you admire. They could be characters you have watched on TV or read about in books.  They could be characters in novels you have read or epics and folklore you have read and heard as a child. They could be the people you have met in your life time or people you have invented from scratch.

A character has certain physical traits. You must have learned how to write a character sketch in school when you had to learn how to use your adjectives. So you already know that your character has physical traits, facial expression, specific voice, etc. Some writers create a list of characters and outline all their characteristics before they begin writing.

Before you design your character, you have to know the genre of the book you are writing. If the book is a fantasy, you can be more adventurous about your characters- they could fly or change shape, but if your book is set in a middle class suburb in Bangalore, the characters need to look like contemporary Bangaloreans.

There is no limit on the number of characters you can have, though it is sensible to have as many characters as you can be true to. The Mahabharata is successful inspire of the enormous number of characters that take the stage. If you know how to bring out specific traits for each character successfully and if your character has an important role, not to mention a nice-sounding name, he will steal the show. Even after so many centuries Shakuni is a character that every Indian who has some knowledge of the Mahabharata can talk about.

So why do we remember Shakuni? Because of his wily ways and fondness of deception and trickery. We know this about Shakuni more by what he does than what he says. When you write a character, you do not say that the man was deceptive and fraudulent; you show how he makes fools of others and this action becomes part of the plot as well.

Who is your favorite character of all time?

Some more links on how to write characters effectively:

http://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/create-characters.htmlhttp://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/10/01/characters/http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapter-get-started/hooked-on-a-feeling

How to Write Dialogue

Good fiction is 30% dialogue. So how do write good dialogue?

Listen

To write a good dialogue, you need to be a good listener. Haven’t you seen the artist with his sketch pad who sits at a café and sketches people as they come and go? A writer can also jot down interesting conversations in her notebook when she is at a café or at a park. Eavesdropping is good! Watch plays and watch movies to understand contemporary lingo and how dialogues can sound natural.

Punctuate

Dialogues need punctuation. You start and end the dialogue with double inverted commas.

So, the dialogue can be,

“Stop eating my brains, Mom!” she said in a feverish voice.

or

“The fish jumped out of the glass bowl,” the child said with tears in his eyes.

Note that the comma is placed inside the inverted commas.

When you use an em-dash, it means that the conversation has been cut off.

“I swear I saw her yesterday night but—”

Be Honest

Dialogue is not so polite and well-trimmed. So a good writer would use profanities without hesitation and if the situation requires it.

Tag your dialogue

Who is saying what? If you have multiple dialogues in your story, it makes sense to mention who said what, each time; otherwise the reader could get confused and lose track.

Read Aloud

Read your dialogues aloud. That’s the best way to test if they work or not.

Avoid Dialect

Unless you have the proficiency of a writer like Alice Walker or Manohar Shyam Joshi, avoid dialects as far as possible. To be able to write in dialect, you have to know it very well yourself. In his Hindi book, Kuru Kuru Swaha, Joshi writes in as many as six dialects of Hindi. You can pull off such a feat only if you know what you are doing.

Some links to help you write good dialogues:

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/keep-it-simple-keys-to-realistic-dialogue-part-i

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-to-write-dialogue

http://www.sfwriter.com/ow08.htm

 

 

How to Write a Good Plot

The plot is the masterpiece of a novel. It’s the hidden scaffolding on which a writer builds his palce. So how do you make a good one?

What the masters wrote: You must of heard of Joseph Campbell’s archetypes. Go through this link to understand more about typical protagonist situations that have been repeated for time immemorial. Any plot runs on these lines- whether the hero accepts the challenge or refuses to; whether he goes on an adventure; whether he succeeds or fails.

Plot Structure: Every conventional plot has a beginning, middle and end. So when you write your story you should have an idea about where your story begins and how it ends. If you know this in the beginning, you can move it around too. There are no hard and fast rules as long as you have control over your material. The Shakespearean drama followed a typical five act plan-

  • Exposition: The introduction to the tale and characters.
  • Rising action: Complications ( like death or a simple misunderstanding) arise for the characters.
  • Climax: The showdown. The characters face opposition.
  • Falling action: What happens after the climax.
  • Resolution: The end of the story where problems are resolved. If the story is a tragic one, it is called a catastrophe; there is no resolution in sight.

Plot outline/skeleton:   Using the plot structure described above,  you can write basic foundation of the story that you probably shouldn’t deviate too much from while writing. What made you want to write the book in the first place? The character faces some obstacle and must get out of it. How? This is what the plot describes. If you are clear with this, the rest of the writing becomes easier.

Filling the plot: You may have a one-line story but that’s not enough. You have to fill in the story with meaningful details. Here is where location, greater theme, characters and dialogue come in. They help flesh out the plot and bring it to life.

Subplots: You don’t create the narrative arc of just one character or situation. If you are writing a novel there will be additional characters and situations. You will need to create an arc for all of these. The arcs should meet somewhere so that they bring value to the primary plot in the book and hold all the layers together.

Some reference links:

http://thewritepractice.com/plot-structure/

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2016/06/02/the-key-to-creating-believable-plots/

http://www.nownovel.com/blog/plotter-even-youre-pantser/

 

5 Types of Books you can Self-Publish Apart from Fiction and Poetry

Despite the stereotypical image, a writer of books is not always a recluse or an eccentric person. Books give expression to many different kinds of talents and purposes.

Here are five types of books beyond fiction and poetry that people have been writing and self-publishing on Pothi.com.

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Exam Preparation Books

‘Competitive exams’ is a phrase Indians of all ages and regions are familiar with. If you are a teacher or a professional in the relevant field, you can write a book to help people with these competitive exams. We have seen books related to engineering, medicine or design entrance exams, CA/CS preparations, civil services exams and everything else you can think of. Solved question papers of previous years and interview preparation books are some attractive sub-genres.

 

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Professional Books

Whether you are a software engineer working on a niche technology, a manufacturing executive with a lifetime of learning in mechanical products, or a teacher who has figured out how to spark student interest in difficult subjects, you may have a book in you. Write that book to help others in your profession succeed!

Also common are short introductory books to fields that are in the news, but an average person has little information about.

 

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Family Cookbooks

People are more mobile these days and families are often spread not only all around the country but also across the globe. Nothing connects Indian families more than food. So how about creating a family cookbook with your own crazy, unique family’s special recipes that will help youngsters moving out recreate the food magic from back home? You can keep this book private to share only with family members, or let the world have a peek too by making it available for sale.

 

 

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Translations of Public Domain Books

Are you bilingual? Then you can make a great contribution to your mother tongue if you translated out of copyright books into or from that language. With out of copyright or public domain books you do not have to worry about rights and legal issues. Check out the yearly posts on Pothi.com blog about authors who entered public domain in last few years.

 

 

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Brand-building Books

Are you a consultant, a freelancer or a corporate trainer? Add a book on your subject of expertise to your professional armory. You can give it out to potential clients and it will help your business and brand.

Of course, all these suggestions don’t mean that fiction and poetry should stop rolling in. The human race has always loved stories and our hearts have always leapt with great poetry.

 

Bring out the book in you!