I am the Executive Editor of India Today, Asia’s biggest English language weekly with a print run of 800,000 weekly.

Stumbled upon this while searching for “How to Publicise Your Debut Novel.”

Unfortunately, I am yet unpublished but I hope to be published one day. Yes, one day, but that is better than never, I guess.

Pl do read on because at the end, you might think it was worthwhile.

I wrote my 110,000-word Indian historical-reincarnation-romance, Heaven Can Wait, novel in 2006 and went shopping for an agent in London. I found one almost immediately in Sonia Land of Sheil Land Associates ( then one of the top 5 in the UK and agent of Prince Charles, Peter Ackroyd and Tom Sharpe).

She advised extensive revisions and I rewrote 60k words, yes, 60,000 words, but then Disaster Downturn happened last year and even Sonia couldn’t land a publisher.

I gave up a fortnight back and fired her.Nobody sacks Sonia Land, ex-CEO of Harpers, but I did.

In the last fortnight, a desperate me set about agent-hunting in the US and UK again, and surprise of all surprises, I got requests for 33 partials and fulls in just 10 days which, people in the industry tell me, and you can check out the Absolute Write Ask The Agent Thread, is a record of sorts.

Even as I write, I have rep offers from one UK top agent and two in the US while at least four others have asked me to parry these three before they read the MS and come up with an offer.

It is quite an interesting, almost historic, situation.

A rejected, unpublished author with a problem of plenty now.

I must also add that I made around 500 queries the world over which goes quite against the canons of agent querying as preached by the law books so to say.

I am almost sure as to who will rep me ( Patricia Moosbrugger …US…over Maggie McKernan…UK…in the last lap) but making that choice has been killing, more so after my experience with someone as big as Sonia whom I had chosen over a reputable agent in the US in 2006.

I was wondering whether you could tell me how to look forward. Patty is convinced she will get a buyer and her enthusiasm has had its rub-off effect on me.

Now, what do I do in the next few months, pl? How to aggresively promote myself? I have already got permission from the Guide To Literary Agents and Authortrek to write a column post on my situation; how a rejected writer now has a problem of plenty and why I finally am about to pick Patty over the rest.

But being where I am, India, thousands of kilometres away from the place of action, tell me more, please.

And no, do not ask me to get cracking on my novel. Not me, no.

My day job is killing. I need to sit back and promote the novel so that it catches a biggie’s eye even before Patty reaches him/her.

Do not forget I am in the business of publicity; I know what it means and how it can make or mar success. Have done it to others in my time ( not mar, but make, thank you).

And pl keep the US situation in mind though Patty works with agent Teresa Chris in the UK.

Help, please, and write in with any suggestion at

Regards
Abhijit Dasgupta
Executive Editor
India Today magazine

Cell: +919830046661

My Blog in India Today:

http://blogs.intoday.in/index.php?op…emid=1&blogs=1

Thank you for the informative posts, though. It’s given me a lot to think about, and a lot of ideas.

I just finished rereading the book and the hard parts to convey are:

1. The paper copy doesn’t have you doing the voices. (Although, I heard them myself.)

2. The regular person doesn’t have a clue to the culture that has been created around this story. Part of my enjoyment of this story was the community that goes along with it.

I have this image in my mind of a person looking at this book in the store and in the background behind their shoulder is a group the size of the Verizon support team saying “Can you buy me now?”

I hear you on this stuff. To me, it seems like being shelved with science fiction is a big mistake. It should be with the other thrillers. I never go into the science fiction section of a bookstore myself because I read mostly thrillers, humor and some non-fiction. I would never have seen it.

Obviously you can only focus on the things you have control over, so I won’t say any more on that subject. You’ve written something great that has appeal way beyond one genre. It’s hard for me to imagine most fans of Clancy or Crichton not enjoying it. While it’s not true that every great book will be a big success, it is true that an author who can write great books will be successful if he persists. No one could fault you for deciding at some point that it isn’t worth the effort, but from what I know of you, there is zero chance of that happening.

Keep up the fight!

@Lydia — You’re absolutely right; even the best online outreach campaigns can’t reach everyone. Thanks for your interest in my work; I hope you enjoy the story! :)
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All the best,
Lydia
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