My Bookish Confessions!

25th Aug 2023

Being a writer for 5 years and publishing 6 books, I think I am now eligible to throw some truth bombs and reveal my bookish confessions! So here I go!
In February 2021, I released my debut book "Object+If=I". For the promotions and marketing of the same, I reached out to social media platforms and Facebook communities. In my very first Live interview, I was asked to name my favorite Author and Book! And Booooom...!! I did not know what to say, because I had not read a single non-curricular book back then! But I had to answer something, how rude it would sound to say publicly that I have not read any book! So I pressurized my brain, and then I remembered I had read a book that I bought at the railway station to kill time as the train was late. I had my answer, "I too had a Love Story" by Ravinder Singh!
That was kind of an eye-opener; It had been two months post the release of my book, and I was cribbing only 12 copies sold. Entering into the literary world, it is my responsibility to learn from the veterans and support my fellow authors. If not for anything else, these two had to be the reasons to start reading.

As I started reading, my son was 5 years old back then. He is a total attention seeker and a chatterbox. It was simply impossible to read when he used to be around. I am someone who needs 0 disturbance and full continuity when I am reading. Once there was a break, it required a too-convincing book and a giant will for me to get back to the book. Recently, I have learned the skill of reading after a break.



If there is a race that I set between writing and reading, I am sure I will complete writing before the time and I will need extra time to read! I am a snail reader. (Read: slower than a snail!) My domestic responsibilities, looking after my son and my writing commitments are to be blamed primarily. Juggling between all of it, I take months to complete reading a book as small as less than 200 pages count. But one thing I am particular about is, sharing my experience of reading that book. It may not be termed as a typical book review.
The other pre-requisite for me when it comes to reading is, I am a clean reader. I would make my set of notes in my notepad, but I do not like to see it being highlighted, scribbled all over, dog-eared at corners; That I feel is disrespecting an author's art piece.
After all those weird-yet-my reading confessions, will share my confessions in an author's hat!
The ideas/inspirations for all of my books came to me at the most unexpected times. Most of the time I have been successful in converting my problem statements into opportunities (to write a book!) After conceiving the idea, and getting clarity of the plot, it hardly took a month to execute and publish the book.

For my debut book, I chose vanity publishing. Being naive in this field, I thought that would be a better and safer mode for me. However, I had a very bad experience. There was no transparency in communication despite a big team being in place. There was no discussion on when to release the book and one day suddenly I got a call that my book was published and listed on Amazon. Painful enough to say, but this one experience taught me so many things. I canceled my contract with the publisher and later self-published it.
So, as I am about to pen down the last line now, I hope you understand they are termed confessions for a reason; You learn from them, get over them and one fine day gather the courage to talk about them!

This post is a part of Blogchartter Half Marathon 2023.