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The high of having your first book published is inimitable. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime feeling," says Bengaluru-based Smriti Dewan, whose debut title, Urmila: The Forgotten Princess (Bloomsbury India), released on April 18 this year, just a few days before Karnataka went into lockdown following a second wave of the Coronavirus infection. Dewan recalls how just before her book was published, she was indulging herself, thinking about the fancy book signings and readings she'd be doing. When her book released, India was neck-deep in the crisis and the devastation that followed, she says, robbed her of all the excitement.

"I wanted to be happy, but I just couldn't." This conundrum was only exacerbated by the imminent worry about the fate of her book. "I quit my job, and spent a year-and-a-half to write the novel. It was an investment of my time, art, and money. I was not sure how I could recover any of that."

Being a first-time novelist in India, where reading is still not the most popular hobby, comes with its own set of challenges. No matter how good a book is, a debut author would need a rigorous and foolproof marketing strategy to introduce themselves to readers. But, in the pandemic, which has now extended for over a year, opportunities for promotional events are shrinking. To make it worse, most bookstores are having to play the open and shut game between lockdowns. Many e-retail stores have also temporarily stopped delivering books in select states, due to restrictions on sale of non-essential items. Where does this leave the author?

Maithreyi Karnoor, Maharsh Shah, Meera Rajagopalan and Smriti Dewan

Mumbai-based Maharsh Shah, who has worked extensively with movie studios as part of their creative development and commissioning teams, managed to release his debut pulp fiction, Zoravar: Book One in the Bollywood Saga, after many a hurdle. The book was turned down by six literary agents and 16 publishers, before HarperCollins India picked it up in 2018. Though he submitted the draft in October 2018, the book took a year to edit, because he had surpassed the word limit by nearly 45,000 words. Zoravar was scheduled for a May 2020 release. "Since the month coincides with the summer holidays, I was told that book sales really pick up. But, the pandemic hit us in March. And May 2020 was as bleak as things are now. So, my publisher decided to delay the release further." The book finally released seven months later, during Christmas, but he realised that though he'd got his friends from Bollywood, including Arjun Kapoor and Emran Hashmi, to post about it on social media, none of it translated into sales or reviews on Goodreads or Amazon. "Right at the beginning, I was told that in India, authors sell, and not books," says Shah. "…And so, I'd have to be shameless when it came to promoting my work."

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Over the last few months, Shah says he has reached out to over 250 bookstagrammers and book clubs. "I even made cold calls to people, asking if they'd review my book." Just when things seemed to be picking up, India was hit by the second wave. "I remember this very heartbreaking moment recently, which is honestly nothing compared to what everyone is going through right now: I was checking some of the reviews of my book on Amazon, when I saw this disclaimer, ‘this item cannot be delivered to your city'."

Author-translator Maithreyi Karnoor's literary novel, Sylvia: Distant Avuncular Ends (Westland) released in February end this year. The experimental novel uses prose and poetry to tell the story of Cajetan Pereira of Goa, who yearns for his childhood home in Tanzania. Karnoor, currently in Pune, says the idea for the novel came to her, when she moved briefly to South Goa to complete a book she was translating. Finding a publisher was a smooth process, and though the book's release had been delayed due to the pandemic, she was hopeful that it would get its due, when it eventually hit the stores. "Unfortunately, things didn't work out as we had planned. I haven't been able to have a single event since the book's release. It did dampen my spirits, but my publisher has been pushing to promote it," she says.
That Karnoor is not social media savvy, and only recently created an Instagram account, made it more challenging. "Writing is such a beautiful and solitary process, and it feeds my inner introvert. But, once the manuscript becomes a book, it's like any other product. You have to make people look at it, and buy it. That transition for me was difficult. I really find it hard to talk to people in general, and so, I had to struggle with my own personality [to talk about my book]. I am also very new to this process."

Meera Rajagopalan whose debut novel The Eminently Forgettable Life Of Mrs Pankajam (Hachette India) released on April 25 this year, says books have become most "insignificant" at this point, when the larger conversation is about humanity and survival. "My book hasn't been able to reach bookstores, because it released when most cities started shutting down. Even if I do any promotion, where will people go and buy it?" she asks. Rajagopalan says she has taken things in her stride. "Having a book is like having a baby. But, I am very mindful about the tragedy that has befallen us. There is a lot of anger out there, and we can't ignore it." Dewan too, has temporarily pulled the plug on all promotions. "A few pre-release copies were supposed to be sent to some of my actor and director friends, so that they could share it on their social media, but none of them have received their books yet, because the copies are still stuck in the warehouse." Irrespective, she says, that talking about her book, "when people are dying, would be the most insensitive thing to do". "Nobody is in a state to listen to me." Shah says he hasn't posted anything related to Zoravar in over a month now. "And I am not going to, till the world is a slightly better place." This is no time to indulge in vanity.

Releasing a debut novel during a pandemic is a terrible idea, feels literary agent Kanishka Gupta of Writer's Side. "Unlike the last wave, this time around, people are genuinely scared for their lives. Even under normal circumstances, most publishers find it difficult to push their fiction writers, unless it's Amish Tripathi or Chetan Bhagat." He says that the only sort of titles being released are sure fire-sellers, those that are time-bound, or books that need to meet the awards deadlines. "Even the notoriously impatient first-time writers are dissuading their publishers from launching their books at a time like this."

For those who've ended up releasing their books now, the dreams of having that big launch or even visiting their favourite bookstore, and seeing their name on the shelf, may have to wait. Shah says, "The saddest part is - and I know I should get over this regret - that I'll never have another debut novel again."

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