The China Twist- Book Review

This is perhaps the first business related book that came to me for review and obviously I was excited about it. And needless to say, The China Twist did not dissapoint.

The China Twist is the story of how two very young and enterprising Wharton MBA graduates took the bold decision of opening Auntie Anne’s Pretzels chain of snack stores in China. This book is not so much about opening stores in China as their story of keeping it operating in hostile conditions which included local labor laws, health certifications, company registrations and the culture itself.

Asia is now one of the fastest growing markets for American fast food chains and all the brands who are trying to find a place there are racking their brains to come up with new dishes to please local tastes. Wen-Szu Lin and his partner faced the same dilemma as McDonald’s faced when they came to India. With a population over 1 billion no international brand can ignore the fact that India is a lucrative market for them.  In the era of global villages, even hardcore international firms strive to bring their own cultural flavor to a country.

The fact that McDonald’s failed in its first stint as they forgot to take out the ham in the hamburger when they came to India is a case study in itself. They ignored India's cultural aversion to beef and pork and later had to tweak their offering and now has some of the most local menu listings like McAloo Ticki (a burger with patty made out of potatoes, peas, and spices) and Maharaja Mac. Global fast-food businesses now come up with hybrid foods that folks back home don't hear about. This is just an example of how big brands can fail if they do not adapt to local settings and that’s what The China Twist is all about. Cultural issues were just one of the problems Wen-Szu Lin faced when he won his bid for exclusive China Master Franchise rights of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels.

The China Twist outlines the challenges that Wen-Szu Lin and his partner faced in China and the lessons learnt throughout their journey which ended with folding up of the chain. The story is interesting but exposes the hard reality of the hardships an alien product faces in a local setting. The book is entertaining in the true sense of the word as the authors take us through a labyrinth of cultural and bureaucratic obstacles. Marketing strategies, cultural sensitivity, bureaucratic stonewalling, labor laws; everything gets a new definition in the process of setting up the chains. I would term this book not as "how not to do business in China" but "how to do business in China".

There are so many case studies in this area where evidence suggests that utilizing both localization and globalization marketing strategies can make these fast food chains treat the world as one market but at the same time marketers should take up a sensitive approach towards local culture, labor laws, social and religious slant. The China Twist so correctly preaches that being sensitive and informed inevitably impacts the business performance positively. The China Twist is a case study with a personal touch and a heart. Go read it!


 Disclosure: I was provided the e-book version of the book by the Author.

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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Eviction Notice: Book Review

This book review has taken me ages as I was swamped with other books and some peripheral indulgences. So without much ado, here it is!

An absolute roller-coaster ride is what I would describe Eviction Notice as. Author Robyn Wyrick has taken an alien adventure story and turned it upside down punctuating the storyline with surprises, humor and incredible phantasm. A sci-fi that makes jokes at technology and aliens is a refreshing departure from the usual fare that we have been served in recent times.

Part futuristic, part adventure, Eviction Notice starts with a high school prank that sets into motion a series of events that threatens to break the very fabric of human existence. A high school tradition of creating alien crop circles becomes an open invitation to aliens to swamp Earth and serve an 'eviction notice'. 

Let’s start with the basics first; there is a Glen Fairy, who is a fairy (what else?), who possess the ability to heal the world of its abuses. In a bid to end a war, Glen Fairy was sold to Zorgon and Aloon Zigilbraxis was given the responsibility of delivering the cargo (read Glen Fairy). No issues till now. The problem was when the crop circle matched that of a similarly shaped beacon that would have helped the delivery pod to bring Glen so that Aloon could take her to Zorgon. Now the problem starts and it’s a hilarious problem. Gren Fairy gets delivered to Iowa where the pranksters had created the crop circle. Having lost Glen and told that only one thing could replace the lost Fairy; his death, Aloon takes over Earth and serves an 'eviction notice' to its rightful or unrightful inhabitants.

Since we can't have an all-aliens star cast, a depressed human is brought into picture. Alice Able is about to commit suicide when she is presumed to be the leader of human race because of a hilarious mistake. She is thrown into a race to save the Earth and make it the rightful place for humans as it always has been. The characters are well etched and the story is fast paced and never slacks even one bit and that’s what makes Eviction Notice a must read. Somewhere down the storyline, you would think that it is so unbelievable but if the child in you is still alive, you would take all of it with an incredulous smile and a glint in your eyes. I wish I was imaginative enough to conjure up such a fantastic piece of fiction.

The writing is so descriptive and nuanced that I could see it playing in my head as if it were a movie and I won't be too surprised if it were actually made into one. Humor is the one thing that stands out like a not-so-sore-thumb and is amazingly handled as this is one genre that is not easy to grip without going overboard. Robyn Wyrick has delivered a power packed tongue-in-cheek book that brings a smile to the face and puts forth a mirror to see the child in us. Bravo Mr Wyrick!


Disclosure: I was provided the e-book version of the book by the PR agency

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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The Bookie's Son- Book Review

This is one book that has made me wait for the longest time to read and review. I was supposed to get the hard copy of The Bookie's Son by Andrew Goldstein months ago but by some quirk of fate and the amazing efficiency of the Postal Department, I was denied the joy of holding the physical copy of the book. It was my loss entirely since The Bookie's Son is such an amazing story of bonding of a dysfunctional family.

Light but poignant, funny but touching, real but surreal is how I would describe Bookie's Son. It has all the ingredients that make a book unputdownable till the very end. Set in the 1960’s, the book throws us into the Davis’ family drama. And boy what an unconventional family it is. Amazingly depicted, The Bookie’s Son is set in the Bronx and takes us on a ride with Ricky Davis’ and his family’s fight for survival.

Truth is stranger than fiction and this comes forth very clearly in this book. Apparently The Bookie’s Son is based on the author’s life and that’s why it is all the more believable. Ricky Davis is a 12 year old lad with a bookie for a dad, a mother with failed aspirations and myriad aunts, each with idiosyncrasies of their own. One aunt is a kleptomaniac, the other one likes to be operated on and then there are a couple others who are either attention seeker or are experts in getting on people’s nerves. And to top it all, there is a nephew who is a child molester. It doesn’t take more than a few pages of this book to know that we are not in the midst of a normal family but it is so much better and fun to be in this family with its own heartaches and heartbreaks.

With Bar Mitzvah looming over his head, Ricky Davis is a worried boy as life has thrown a curve ball at him sucking him into a whirlpool of turmoil. His father, Harry has messed up big time by getting into a blotched up get-rich scheme that blows up in his face. The mobster (Nathan Glucksman) that Harry works as a bookie for is a despicable man with absolutely no ethics; not that we expect anything other than disgusting levels of ethics from him.

The real problem starts when Harry instead of collecting, gives away the mobster’s money to a tailor. All hell breaks loose and the situation assumes special gravity. Glucksman wants his money back and can go to any extent in either recovering it or let it go for some carnal pleasure. At this point both Ricky and his mother Pearl are thrown into the harsh realization that it is a do-or-die situation for them. As Ricky grows from a boy to a figurative man, he has to become the shoulder that his mother can lean on (sometimes uncomfortably) and explores and exploits Mara, the Hungarian refugee.

I will not go into the details of what happens next and how the drama unfolds but it would be safe to say that this gripping family saga takes its reader into a cocoon of crime, love, trust and hope. The Bookie’s Son is a book about relationships and it so truly conveys that come what may, family should always be first.

Andrew Goldstein weaves this story with a deft hand and delivers an emotional and moving tale that takes the reader into a world of uncertainties of life.

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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Poor Little Rich Slum: Book Review

It's always a pleasure reading about the underdogs who have fought against their inherited destiny to survive and that too with dignity. Nothing fascinates us more than seeing people rise up from the abyss of uncertainty to scale heights of success.

Poor Little Rich Slum by Rashmi Bansal and Deepak Gandhi is very different from her previous books. This book is all about the struggles in Dharavi (Asia's largest slum) and their little victories. Rashmi's earlier books too were about successful people but this one is not so much about success than about survival. Much has been written about Dharavi and has even been immortalized in movies but the concept of writing about the entrepreneurs from the slum who used their ingenuity to find opportunities in literal filth or otherwise is pure gold. There is always an element of curiosity when is comes to the narrow lanes of Dharavi but at the same time there is a sense of admiration for the "heart" of the slum that no one cares for.

Divided into four sections called "Dharavi, What Ees?", "The Incubator", "The Cauldron Of Change" and "The Future", each deals with stories about people who have defied odds to show ingenuity and/or marched on the path of selfless passion. The entire book seems to be a guided tour of Dharavi conducted by Tauseef who runs a local tourist business.

Not all stories are about commercial success like that of Jameel Shah or Praveen Sakpal; there are myriad enterprises that look beyond money like SHEHA or the PUKAR Foundations. Poor Little Rich Slum does not give a lopsided view of what Dharavi is all about. It is well balanced by stories about rise in stature (economically) and rising as a human.

In a nutshell it all about what the book rightly mentions, "Dharavi is not just a physical location, it is an emotional entity." I am not one who glorifies slums and I feel that we cannot justify their existence by writing about the success stories emanating from them. The human spirit of survival need not find home in slums; it can be found anywhere. And if the writers meant we need more slums like Dharavi when they said, "Dharavi should be celebrated and replicated", then I beg to differ. Slum is not the answer; it is the question that needs to be answered in the first place.

The writing is simple yet lucid and would have been totally drab if not for the brilliant photographs by Dee Gandhi. This book is for anyone who complains that life is unfair and that it’s their destiny to be downtrodden. Dharavi teaches the spirit of the unbeatable mind and unquenchable thirst for rising from filth and reaching for the sky. 

I am sure that there are a million other stories with a "human" touch to them but for that you will have to visit Dharavi and find out. This book is a start so we need to do our bit and get to the bottom of it. Go ahead! Get Inspired!


 

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at  BlogAdda. Participate now to get free books!

 

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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A Calendar Too Crowded : Book Review

Not all books (fiction or non-fiction) necessarily come with a moral. It's up to the readers to decipher what lies beneath. I read A Calendar Too Crowded by Sagarika Chakraborty a couple of weeks back and I feel that I am still carrying the stories in my heart.  And mind you, this is no mean feat for a fastidious reviewer like me.

The tone of A Calendar Too Crowded is not feminist at all; it has to do with being treated as human (irrespective of gender). The stories do not cry out hoarse to treat women equally; it rather puts forth the reality and leaves the rest to the reader. In the course of the stories being told, the reader is posed basic questions like, "Why is it such a curse being born a girl?" or "When will we stop treating women as mere objects?”

The names in the book don't really matter but the voice is so persistent and pertinent, that one can't ignore the seriousness of the issue that most of us brush under the carpet and choose to ignore.

Whether it is the girl child, flesh trade, harassment at work, or inhuman treatment meted out to women, the book covers the entire gamut of the decay that our society is suffering from when it comes to women.

The book I'm sure was written after in depth research and analysis as the content is far cry from being pedestrian. It depicts the various shades of being a woman through various phases in her life. The statistics don't help much as the stories without any numbers are poignant enough to move any stoic heart. The attention to detail is clinical which is sometimes unnerving. It is so easy for books like these to become preachy.

I like the way the book has been laid out; 12 chapters for the 12 months in a year. The chronological events from the birth of a girl leading up to the grave (or beyond) make one think deeply, the difference between just existing and living with dignity.

Society is our creation and so is our culture. How else do we explain the deviation from what was written in the Vedas (where women enjoyed equal rights) to where we are now? I feel that books like these may at least bring back those times but that is something that I don't feel will happen during my lifetime.

Maybe, we will figure out a way to tackle the menace which our self-created society is comfortably ensconced in. Till then give a pat on your back Sagarika! A job well done!

Disclosure: I was approached by a PR firm to review this book.

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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Having a Not So Pleasant Journey

OK, take a deep breath and think about this.

• If a book is about nature, is the author a tree?
• If the book is about health, is the author obese?
• If the book is about fantasy, is the author a goblin?

If you have answered "Yes" to any of the above, then your mental faculties are at their imaginative zenith and you need to go someplace else and stop trespassing on this publicly available real estate.

But, in case by some quirk of nature you have answered "No" to all of the above, then why the fuck would someone categorize an author as a pervert or a sex maniac is he/she has written a book about child abuse and the like?

Yes, it kind of baffles me as well. I pity Vadimir Nobakov who wrote Lolita and wonder if he had to go through the same character profiling. So what is the context here?

Well, not so long ago (2010 actually), I had written my first book "Have a Pleasant Journey", the subject of which was child abuse and the subsequent repercussions. It was supposed to be a sensitive story with the abuse serving as the backdrop. Agreed there were some references to copulation (for all the conservative types) and voyeurism. But does that make me a characterless asshole?

How can anyone relate and judge the character of an author by the subject of his/her book? The answer to this question is not as simple as it seems. The correct answer might be , "It depends". Depends on what, you'll ask. Well, it depends on whether you pretend to personally know the author or not. When I mean "know", I mean, you "think" that you know the author because you work with him/her in the same office for example.

I've noticed that if we don't know the author personally, then all is well. The author can write about someone's mother and get away with it. In my case, the reaction has been the same. People who don't know me but have read the book either liked it or did not like it. Plain and simple. But never have I got any feedback from any one of them questioning my character.

But its not the same for some people who "believe" that they know me "personally" just because I've talked to them in office or during some event. These kind of people are the most dangerous ones. They have nothing else to do; just out of curiosity, they read the book and then issue me a hard copy (in triplicate) of my character certificate. MY character certificate! Thank you but NO, Thanks!

I know what kind of character I have and the people around me who matter know that as well. So you, the random stranger with a spare rubber stamp need not worry about the extend of pervertness I am capable of.

All I can say to these obnoxiously challenged folks that please stay faithful to Chetan Bhagat and remain confined to your perfect world. Literarily, that's the highest you can go, so be happy!

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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This Mobius Strip of Ifs: Book Review

This has been long overdue. My apologies to Mathias B. Freese for taking such a long time in reviewing his book, This Mobius Strip of Ifs. But better late than never so here it is!

According to Wikipedia, a "Möbius strip or Möbius band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. The Möbius strip has the mathematical property of being non-orient-able. It can be realized as a ruled surface." Confused? Well, don't be! It is simply a metaphor for randomness that life is and that’s what this book is all about.

Given the fact that Mathias B. Freese is a former psychotherapist and teacher, I would have expected a writing which was laborious with full of teachings. I couldn't have been more wrong. This collection of stories/essays is an unapologetic insight into a man's quest to find method in madness.

The essays touch upon myriad things in life that any normal soul would crave for; dreams, family, relationships, love etc. I love the fact that the author shows his human side with humility when he discusses his regrets and relationship issues.  Mathais discusses various famous people to make us realize what we lost out on in due course of not pursuing what the soul really wanted.

In the course of discussing many things, the book asks many pertinent questions that have haunted all of us one time or another. This fabulous book can be equated with The Fall by Albert Camus and has sparks of brilliance written all over it. This Mobius Strip of Ifs is not only about a single person (the author) but about all of us. We can connect with the essays at various levels and understand the chaos through which the soul fumbles through to find a strong footing.

This is a book that has the potential of becoming our mirror and a cornerstone for finding hope in regret. Amazingly laid out, This Mobius Strip of Ifs is book worthy of a special place in my bookshelf.

 Disclosure: The author provided me with a review copy.

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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Shine in Kashmir: Book Review

It's always a pleasure reading about India and its cultural diversity. One book or one author is not enough to capture the various shades of culture that is India. So when I came across Shine in Kashmir, I was obviously thrilled to review it. More so, because it has been written by D. Chris Castanga, who has traveled the world tasting various cultures.

Shine in Kashmir follows Justin Conrad, a 24 year old American through his journey in search of meaningful company, spirituality and the meaning of life. The book is one of the most amazing account of India that I have read in a long while. If you want to know the esoteric aspect of India, its people and culture seen through the eyes of a foreigner, this book is just for you.

All that Chris Castanga has done through Justin Conrad is soak-in the various cultures (and idiosyncrasies) of India and present them in the most vivid manner. In fact the descriptions are so visual, they made me cringe at some sections. Chris has portrayed India in such a realistic manner that it would make most Indians take offense...but that's the beauty of the narrative. It's so real that it's difficult to believe that it has been written by a non-Indian.

Justin Conrad's character is amiable but reserved, gentleman but flirtatious and is entirely believable. He is someone who travels the world absorbing the essence of cultures while appreciating the conflicts that exist within.

When it comes to narration, the flow of the book is smooth and never falters. The descriptions of lovemaking and Tantra are so beautifully captured that they are nothing but amazingly sensual. The characters get etched on to the mind of the readers long after they have finished the story and placed it on the shelf. This book will satisfy ones' curiosity for eastern culture and religious philosophies.

It’s a nice read but there are a few places where Chris infers that Hinduism is all about spirituality and yoga. It's not the case Mr. Castanga but you surely have redeemed yourself by describing India in its full glory. Bless you for that!

Disclosure: The author provided me with a review copy.

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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The Spirit Whisperer: Harbart (Book Review)

Literary translations are always tricky as it is more of a creative act than just converting one language to another. More than just translation, it is the cultural knowledge that matters. A case in point would be to see "The Mask" with Hindi subtitles. Jim Carrey in one of the scenes says "Smoke Head" and you can't but laugh at what appears in the subtitles..."Dhumrapaan". The translator clearly did not understand the word and it's cultural meaning. And this is where many translators falter and display their weaknesses.

Having said that, it's never easy to translate a book without losing any of its original meaning. Some books can merely be translated but others like Harbart need something more like transliteration. When I started reading Harbart, I didn’t know what to review; the story or the translation (I haven't read the original Bengali version of the book). Maybe, I'll do both.

First about the story. At the heart of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Harbart is Herbert Sarkar or Harbart; an orphan who made a living by pretending to be a spirit whisperer. Little did anyone know that it was the ghosts of his own memories that haunted him.

The story opens with Harbart's death or rather suicide. The description of his death is sprinkled with grotesque details and serves as a diving board for the mystery ahead. The rest of the book gives us the back-story leading up to the suicide and the rather "explosive" climax.

The original book was first published in 1993 and using Harbart's character, Nabarun Bhattacharya throws the readers into an environment where almost everything was wrong with Kolkata at that time. In spite of the stench, decay and general apathy of Kolkata, Harbart rises with subtle aspiration of becoming an entity who is far cry from the city that he was a part of.

It was Harbart's first hand experiences with naxalism, death and humiliation that cajoles him to choose a profession that makes him famous. How the nonchalance of his surroundings finally brings about his downfall is something that I'd rather leave the readers of the book to find out. Nabarun Bhattacharya’s style of writing brought a whiff of freshness. The various nuances of imagery, sarcasm and dark humor makes Harbart a delight to read.

Now a word on the translation. Arunava Sinha does an amazing work in bringing forth the dark humor that Harbart is all about. However, he could have done a little more justice. Arunava, I'm sure culturally understood the story but unfortunately, he didn't belong to Harbart's era. The word to word translations of the poems absolutely did not convey their significance.

It's imperative that a translator should reproduce the original author's style but this is not possible all the time. It wouldn’t and cannot be an absolute translation but the approximate should be aimed for. I am a Bengali who cannot read or write his mother tongue and this embarrassed soul says a Big Thank You to Arunava. I need to hand it to Arunava for making non-Bengali readers get access to an amazingly textured story like Harbart.  Readers should not miss this unusual piece of Bengali Literature.



This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at  BlogAdda. Participate now to get free books!

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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The Blogging Affair- Book Review

I spent the last few days reading The Blogging Affair by Amitabh Manu and I don't really think that it was a total waste of time.

According to the author, "It's not really a murder mystery". He was right as I could guess the murderer very early in the book.

So what is the plot? A lady has been found murdered and the paramour is the prime suspect. The suspect is a weird character who is married and thinks from between his legs (now most men do that, don’t they). And then there is the anonymous blogger who confesses to having murdered the lady.

The story moves forward using 3 points of view; the anonymous blogger, the man who is the suspect and the detectives/cops investigating the murder.

I will not dwell deep into the plot as it’s mostly an open and shut case and doesn't try to rise above the obvious. Barring grammatical mistakes and factual errors (since when did the Road Transport Office start having "Marital Status" on driving licenses?), the plot is pretty average.

The characterizations leave a lot to be desired. Apart from the suspect's one-track mind, nothing comes across that would register on one's mind. The anonymous blogger's digressions into religion, homeopathy, and spiritual enlightenment among others were totally lost on me. They did nothing to add or move the story forward or backward (given that the blogs are in reverse chronological order). All I recall are the persistent headaches that the blogger suffered from.

I would say that the only gripping narrative in the entire book is the one based on the cops. There are some unintentional moments of humor but the author at some places went completely overboard with the "word play".

The editing is a classic example of the importance of a good pair of eyes that would pick out the very obvious flaws. I don’t know if Amitabh engaged an editor or not but it is given that all authors need a second opinion, someone to see the obvious and at the extreme, someone to tell them that things need to be fixed. They need to have an editor with credentials and not just their best friend or wife/husband (unless the best friend or wife/husband is an editor).

All said and done, The Blogging Affair was written in right earnest and with all its flaws, the book makes a good read. It could have been a great read.

Disclosure: The author provided me with a review copy.

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2012. Images copyright respective holders.

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Book Review of "Zor: Philosophy, Spirituality and Science"

There are three kinds of books one might have come across: One that you can connect with, one that you cannot connect with and then there is the third kind that is confusingly in between. Zor falls in the third category; Simple, lucid and thought provoking, it travels between familiarity and bizarre.

The story starts on a familiar note of an Investment Fund Manager who has seen it all, only to fall into the black hole of complacency and monotony. Then one day, John Brewster, the Fund Manger, chances upon a Haitian dwarf, Zor who changes everything. The equations that John had in his life go haywire when he starts listening and analyzing what Zor had to say..

The two almost always meet at a bar and discuss things ranging from being happy to being self. Strange explanations provided by Zor makes John change the way he has been thinking and forces him to find happiness and contentment and then almost lose all of it (I won’t let the suspense out).

Conversations with Zor lead John to take stock of his life, marriage and everything in between. The most well developed and also the most underdeveloped character in this book is that of Zor. We don’t really understand what or who is he. Mysterious at times but quite profound and crystal clear, Zor swings from Ch’i, mind, body, spirit to quantum physics, neurons and theory of relativity. It’s like moving very fast between fire and ice; suspicion and belief.

One can understand by reading the book that Zor is just a physical allegory to our perception.  Needless to say, it helps questioning our perceptions to break some myths. Simple, interesting and relatable, Zor is a book that questions our basic belief system.

There is not much of a story there in Zor but it has a message that rings loud and clear. Indians who are generally into spirituality would love to relate themselves with what’s in the book. Go read the book: it might not change your life but it will definitely change your outlook.

• Buy: Zor: Philosophy, Spirituality, and Science
• Author: J.B.
• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace 
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1452895406
• ISBN-13: 978-1452895406

Disclosure: The author provided me with a review copy.

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2010. Images copyright respective holders.

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My Publishing Journey (Part-II)

Part-I of this article is HERE!

My POD Journey

I have a flaw. I don’t have patience. If you want to get your book published by a traditional publisher, learn to have patience. Since I had already waited 7 months for the book to be accepted, I was not too keen to wait anymore. After researching on the subject, I zeroed in on Print on Demand or POD.

Print on demand (POD) as the name suggests is a service wherein a book is not printed until an order has been received and paid for. So, if there is a specific demand, the book would be printed. This ensures that there is no inventory or unsold stock. This also means a fixed cost per copy which is higher than offset printing. In offset printing, the setup cost (i.e. making the print plates) is higher but as the print runs are high, the overall cost comes cheaper than POD. 

POD is not without its share of risks, the main being content quality. Anyone with a manuscript, irrespective of its content quality can go for POD and get a book published. If you will, POD is a form of self-publishing minus all the hassles.

In India ISBN (unique book identification number) is given out free. In my case, I could either have got myself an ISBN for my book and published it under my own name or taken help of POD experts. I opted for the latter as it was easier and simpler.

The following are the 2 most reliable POD service providers in India:

• Pothi (www.pothi.com)
• CinnamonTeal (http://cinnamonteal.dogearsetc.com)

For authors who are outside India or who want to market their book outside India, here are a few options:

• Lulu (www.Lulu.com)
• TheBookPatch (www.thebookpatch.com)
• Xlibris (www.xlibris.com)
•  Amazon's CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com)

After talking to Leonard Fernandes of CinnamonTeal, I decided that this Goa based POD service provider was the one I would tie up with. This was in June 2010. My journey of becoming a published author had just started.

The entire process comprised of the following phases:

1. Signing a standard author contract with the publisher
2. Getting an ISBN allotted to the book
3. Getting the cover page designed
4. Laying out the manuscript for it to be print ready
5. Printing

Just like traditional publishing, POD service providers ask you to submit your manuscript. You can either edit and proofread your manuscript yourself or engage the POD’s services to do the same. The book cover design comes next and finally the listing. Most POD service providers have their own online bookstore. The listing is free but it comes for a price (more on that later). Once the book gets listed, all one has to do is shop for it online. After the payment is confirmed, the publisher would go ahead and print a copy and ship it.

In my case, the above 5 took less than a month as I had already formatted my manuscript for a 5”x8” book. Priyanka Pereira from CinnamonTeal took real pains to get everything in place.

Show me the money:

The basic services of a POD provider are free. These include, ISBN allotment (in India at least it is) and book submission. Most of the POD service providers do not screen submissions but some do for language and the content. If you want to go beyond the basics (ISBN, printing, binding etc), and add proofreading, editing, formatting, cover design, marketing services, and the like, you will have to purchase these services separately. Now comes the second most trickiest and complicated part of getting a book published (I’ll talk about the No. 1 trickiest part later): Pricing the book.

Let’s discuss the cost price of the book first. I’ll discuss this with an example. Let’s suppose that the book is of 195 pages. At a rate of 60paise per page, the printing cost would come to Rs 117. Now you add the printing cost of the colored cover page and perfect binding, which is Rs 60. He is the lowdown, point wise:

• Cost of printing the book: Rs 117
• Cost of printing the cover page and binding: Rs 60
• Total cost price: Rs 177

So Rs 177 is the cost of 1 copy. Now comes the “author’s cut” or royalty. As an author who thinks that you have delivered your magnum opus, you would obviously want some of the book sales proceeds to come into your pocket. Fair enough! Now here’s the deal. It’s a tradeoff between low royalty (and higher volumes in terms of sale) or high royalty (which might result in low sales volume). I’ll leave it to you to decide how much is too much.

Now comes the price for listing and the commission. Yes you heard me correctly. The online book retailer takes his/her own commission for listing and selling the book. There are 3 options when it comes to retailing your book: the POD service provider’s online bookstore, 3^rd party retailers (e.g. Indiaplaza, Flipkart etc.) and brick and mortar bookstores. Here’s how the pricing would work for the 3 options:

1.         If you get your book listed on the POD service provider’s online bookstore, you will have to pay a commission of 20%. After the 20% is deducted you will have to pay for the printing cost of your book. After the printing cost is met, whatever remains will be your (authors) revenue.

• Suppose you price the book at Rs. 250, then after deducting the 20% commission the price will be Rs. 200. From this you will have to pay for the printing cost of your book which will be Rs. 200-177. So the author’s cut would be Rs 23.

1. If you get your book listed on Indiaplaza and Flipkart, you will have to pay a commission of 45% and 40% respectively.
2. If you want distributors to market your book to brick and mortar bookstores, they will distribute a minimum of 100 copies. These 100 books will have to be printed at the cost of the author. The author will have to offer a discount of 50% on the MRP of each book. Books will be on returnable basis. You can receive a count of your books at any time on request from the POD service provider.

Marketing the Book:

Now let me come to the trickiest (discussing this as promised earlier) part of self-publishing or going the POD way. It's marketing. The downside of self-publishing or using the services of a POD service provider is the absence of marketing backbone. When I mean "absence", I mean it is not free or at the cost of the publisher. In traditional publishing, the publisher pays for the marketing which includes press releases, book launches and author signing. In self-publishing or POD, it comes for a price and this comes out of the author's pocket.

If you have the money, you can go a long way in getting publicity for your book and selling it (provided it's worth reading). If you want free marketing, then you need to be smart. Not that I have sold billion copies and am a pro in this but I’m learning and trying. So here are my two paisa on generating that buzz for you book that will get it sold and fly off the virtual online bookshelf.

1. Get someone of importance to review your book. Good or bad, at least people will know about your book.
2. Check and convince a bookstore to stock your book and offer free book reading sessions.
3. Offer a monthly newsletter that has information about your books in particular and the publishing world in general.
4. Offer sample chapters of your book for free. You can the first chapter of my book here.
5. Print personalized business card with your book's details and offer them to anyone interested.
6. Network socially. This could be offline and online. Use the power of Internet to exploit the marketing buzz creating potential of Facebook, Orkut, Linkedin, Twitter etc. Believe me, doing this will result in creating and increasing the buzz at an exponential rate.
7. Generate original content on the publishing industry and issues surrounding your book and publish them on your website, blog or ezine sites. You can even write on the aspects of being a published writer similar to this one.
8. If everything fails and you have the money, hire a PR/marketing firm to publicize your book.

At the end of the day, publicity or no publicity, marketing or no marketing, traditional or self-publishing, it is the quality of your book that will take it far or fall flat on its face. If your book is good, it will find a place in the reader’s bookshelf.

The tools:

We all have only one lifetime to achieve our dreams. If you want to see your book getting published during this lifetime, then you need to manage your time well. With all plot and sub-plot ideas, characters and settings, it is very easy to lose focus on your timelines.

As a first time writer, it is very important to deliberately and systematically measure and keep track of your progress. 

There are a number of ways to track your progress. Some may use free tools available online to keep track of your daily word count and some may use spreadsheets. For keeping track of the progress on my first book, I had come up with a spreadsheet which automatically showed whether I was “On Track” or is the project “Delayed”. This spreadsheet might come in handy for any writer and can be downloaded from here (The spreadsheet will open in Google Docs. You need to go to File-> Download as-> Excel). The cells have comments which would make user-input fairly easy.

At the end of the day, I'd say, it’s the journey which matters, not the destination. I suggest you never lose touch with the pleasure of writing. Write what you would like to read. Getting published is just a perk but the satisfaction you'd get by writing a book is something that can only be experienced to believe it.

All the best and wish me luck!

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2010. Images copyright respective holders.

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My Publishing Journey (Part-I)

I have been putting pen to paper since the age of thirteen with various levels of success. Apart from my regular job, I took to freelance writing in 2005. This entailed various odd content related stuff like website content, marketing collateral, brochures etc. In 2005 I decided to seriously write a book. In fact, I have had always wanted to write a novel but it never materialized. Some got abandoned after the title selection and some after a few pages.  It took me close to 4 years to write Have a Pleasant Journey, my first book. I started writing Have a Pleasant Journey in 2005 and had to fight distractions like affairs, jobs and marriage (not in that order) to complete it in the latter half of 2009.

Publishing experience:

Now that I look back, the easiest part of the entire exercise was writing the book. Getting it published was a different ballgame altogether.

I had completed the first draft in Oct 2009. I was so tired of getting it finished that I wanted to get it out of my system. I wanted to get this done and move on. But before I could send the manuscript to the publishers, I wanted to check whether this story was worth reading. The easiest way was to give a printed copy each to my wife and a friend for reading it. I told them not to pay attention to grammar and/or typos. I wish I had not given them that brief. After I got their feedback, I started off with the editing. There was a problem with this though. I was so acclimatized with what I had written over the years that I was overlooking all the mistakes.

I should have edited, re-written, re-edited and re-written some more before I submitted the manuscript to publishers and literary agencies. Not that my chances of getting published were affected by the substandard language (I had read bad books in terms of language and grammar making their presence felt in bookstores), I just wanted to deliver a book which was in proper English. How difficult could that be, you ask?

Well, quite difficult if you ask me.

I found out that it is very difficult to write a book without making any mistakes and even more difficult to find those out alone. The typos that creep in during the writing process are always very difficult to find by the author. My suggestion would be to take help from people who know their English. In the 8 rounds of editing that my book went through, I managed to find hundreds of mistakes. This continued till the time it finally went into print.

I was so excited at having completed the manuscript that I sent it out to all publishing houses after a couple of rounds of cursory editing. I later realized that the manuscript had huge holes in the plot interspersed with in-your-face grammatical and typographical errors. It was no surprise that the manuscript was rejected by many. If I read the book again after a year or so, I am sure to find a few hundred more mistakes. That’s the power of editing and re-editing. 

After giving up on finding mistakes, I chose to go for professional help. Just as I was about to send out the manuscript to a professional copy-editor, a publishing house showed interest and I dropped the editing idea. Bad choice, I’d say.

The publishing contract never materialized and I was left with my mistake-ridden manuscript. I went back to the MS Word document and read it word by word till I was convinced that I had pulled up every single word, sentence and punctuation mark that was guilty of making the book a badly-written one. I was happy with the result but alas it was too late. I had already sent out the “badly-written” book to the publishers. 

Pursuing traditional publishers and literary agencies was quite interesting though. I started off by creating 4 documents:

1. A proposal or covering letter
2. A sample chapter document (1/3/5 chapter/s sample, based on specific publisher’s requirements)
3. A synopsis of the story
4. Author bio

After the book proposal along with the sample chapters and synopsis are sent, you wait. Yes, wait till you lose patience. It normally takes around 4-6 weeks for the publishers to get back with a response: positive or negative. If it is a direct rejection, you move on but if they show interest, don’t be too excited. You are not there yet.

If the publisher likes your synopsis and sample chapters, they might ask for the entire manuscript. The manuscript evaluation might take between 6 weeks to 6 months since a publishing house receives hundreds of proposals every day.

I started sending out the above documents to publishing houses and literary agencies. All this happened a month after I had completed the manuscript and 2 rounds of editing. I waited with bated breath for a response from any one of them.

The very first response came from a renowned Indian literary agency. The lady mentioned in her email that they had a first reading and appraisal fee depending on the word count of my manuscript which would give me a detailed feedback by the team of within eight weeks. She further mentioned that paying didn’t ensure the team accepting my work for representation. The reading fee came to 10K.

Nice start, I said to myself.

Then a call came from a publishing house. He said that they were willing to publish my book at a flat fee of 35K which included 20 free copies. I asked him whether those 20 copies would be the only ones in circulation. He said something profound that involved dreams, 20 copies and 35K in a single sentence. I still haven’t understood what he said. I never heard from him again.

Next came the rejections. They were short, sweet and invariably ended with wishes for my book finding another home. I was okay with rejections as they gave me a feeling of closure unlike some publishers who just wanted me to hang onto the edge. These were the ones who made me wait a week at a time till I lost all hope and patience. This is the status of my proposal accepted/rejected/awaiting status as it stands now:

Proposals Sent	Status
Hachette Books	Rejected
Rupa Publishers	Rejected
Atlantic Books	Rejected
Leadstart Publishers	Awaited
Roli Books	Awaited
Gyaana Books	Rejected
Indialog Publishers	Awaited
Vision Books	Awaited
Srishti Publishers	Awaited
Prakash Books	Awaited
Random House	Rejected
Niyogi Books	Awaited
Tranquebar Books	Awaited
Expression Publishers	Rejected
Dronequill Books	Awaited

The Part-II of this articles is HERE!  

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2010. Images copyright respective holders.

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An Evening Well Spent

What does one do on a lazy Saturday evening? Take a nap? Go window shopping? Sleep? No! I did all three but was still bored. So I decided to do the next best thing. Visit a bookstore.

I always wanted to check out a bookstore (and lending library) called EveningHour, founded and run by Priyanka Gontla. A little research tells me that Priyanka was a a software engineer with UBS, USA. She left IT to get into something that I always wanted to...but couldn't.

Ok, getting back to the bookstore visit. Incidentally yesterday was also when Anand Vishwanadha, the author of Moving On (a collection of poems), was having a reading session at EveningHour. The event was called Saundhi-- An Evening of Poetry. I already had bought Anand's book from EveningHour's online bookstore. Unfortunately, a friend borrowed it from me and left Hyderabad (along with the book). I had to buy another copy from Walden. The sole intention of my trip was to check out the brick and mortar bookstore and meet Anand.

So off I went, in search of the store in Kukatpally. I don't know the area so well but had Google Map on my side and was soon able to find ICICI Bank after a few mis-turns. The store is in a building next to ICICI Bank. Finding the store was the easiest part. The hardest part was finding a parking space for my car. It took me close to 20 minutes to find a space that had the lowest chance of being prone to tow trucks.

It was almost 7:10 PM by the time I entered the store on the 4th floor. I inquired for Anand and was shown a well built man standing next to me. I introduced myself but have serious doubts if Anand caught my name (we have never met before). I browsed through the book collection while the others waited for Dr. Giridhar Rao. By the time, Dr. Rao arrived, I already had picked up a couple of books.

EveningStore is a cute little place put together with love and care. If only the readers of the books felt the same way. I found many books have been opened so forcefully that some pages were almost on the verge of falling off the spine. If the books are categorized properly and the range (of books) broadened, this store has potential to become a haven for bookworms.

The poetry reading session started with the poems taking a new form and persona when it was being read by Dr. Rao. No wonder he is an expert linguist. After reading around 8-9 poems, started the "open-mic" session. The questions to the poet ranged from the juvenile (like, "Does Samiah know that you have written a poem on him?") to even more juvenile but thought provoking (like, "When did you think that you had what it takes to be a poet").  I too asked a couple of questions on why poets equate nostalgia with sadness and sense of longing than with fond memories and suchlike. Anand answered with patience of a mother and sincerity of a potter.

I wanted to wait till it got over but I couldn't; I had a prior commitment. I left with a smile on my face and the  contentment of experiencing and sharing (with the poet) the closure of many feelings in the form of a book on poetry.

I will go back to the store as it was an evening well spent.

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2010. Images copyright respective holders.

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My Claim to Fame

It all started with me watching 3 Idiots today. And BTW, this has nothing to do with the CB – VC/RH/AK clash on credits, though I wonder if CB would be happy just by seeing his name on the opening credits or wants something more (read money). Back to the point. As the movie was coming to a close Farhan and Raju reached a village in Manali Ladakh, which was brimming with rural innovations: scooter operated flour mill, bicycle operated sheep shaver etc. I couldn’t help but beam at my own little connection with the movie (I too plan to demand my name in the rolling credits. I’ll do that at the end of the post maybe).

So what’s my connection? Well…I was the one who ‘discovered’ the inventor of the Bicycle Operated Horse Shaver (it can work on camels and sheep as well). You can read about all the rural innovations featured in the movie here. Let me begin with how it all began.

It was 2004 and I was in the 2nd year of my MBA at Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. National Innovation Foundation (NIF) had chosen me to do my summers with them. I was to work out of their Jaipur office. And in case you don’t know, NIF was set up by Department of Science and Technology in February 2000 at Ahmedabad to achieve its goals essentially through a non-government spirit and by drawing upon the HoneyBee network and its collaborating partners (text taken from the NIF website).

My job involved market survey of some rural innovations and one of them included the Bicycle Operated Horse Shaver. I had to find the business viability of the innovation and see if it had a market. For that I had to travel to Delhi, UP and Uttaranchal among other places.

On 26th April 2004, I visited some of the tonga drivers at Old Delhi Railway Station in the evening. The drivers (Dilip, Dilshad, Shyam and Raj) said that they had come across various models of the Horse Shaver. These included the ones run by hand (wherein one of the shavers turns a handle by hand), motor operated and hand shearers. They mentioned that they had not come across the Bicycle Operated Horse Shaver in Delhi. I inquired about the addresses of the horse shavers and they mentioned areas like Turkman Gate, Sadar Bazaar, ISBT, Old Delhi Railway Stations and New Delhi Railway Stations. They also mentioned that horse driven carriages could be found at Silampur, Shahadra and Loni. I carried out market survey for the other products around the Old Delhi-Jama Masjid area before calling it a day.

The next morning (27th April, 2004), I met some tonga drivers. They directed me to Sadar Bazaar where the horse shavers visit regularly. After some inquiry at the stable in Sadar Bazaar, I found a couple of horse shavers (Nandkishore & Chand). Nandkishore mentioned that it’s been 6 years since he first started using the Handle Operated Horse Shaver (driven by turning a handle).

They mentioned that apart from horses, they used their shearers on camels, sheep and dogs. The army regularly took them to their establishments for horse shaving. According to them, the same head could be used for shaving all kinds of animals.

Then I visited Turkman Gate and after talking to some tonga drivers, I met a couple of horse shavers (Jumme & Prakash). Both said the same thing as Nandkishore and Chand. All the 4 horse shavers said that they had never seen a Bicycle Operated Horse Shaver. I conducted a market survey for the other products at the places I visited.

On 28th April, 2004, I left Delhi for Pilibhit via Bareilly. After reaching Pilibhit, I called up Mr. Madendrapal Gangwar (the local collaborator) who came to meet me and told me that he would be taking me to the nearby village of Khamaria Pul to meet the innovator of the Bicycle Operated Horse Shaver, Mr. Kabir Admed.

The next day, I and Mr. Madendrapal Gangwar left for Khamaria Pul at around 9 am. After reaching the village and Mr. Kabir Ahmed’s house, we came to know that he had left for Pilibhit town in the morning and would be back by 1pm. Then we visited the nearby town of Nawabganj and inquired from the local tonga drivers regarding the horse shavers. They directed us to a couple of horse shavers (Salim & Riyasat) at the Bypass Road. They both had the bicycle operated horse shavers. Salim was a resident of village Richola (Nahari Makan) and said that he had bought the unit 5 months back. The unit according to him was made at Meerut. Riyasat had bought his unit 6 months back and he too was a resident of village Richola (Nahari Puliya). One interesting thing that came forth was this that the horse shaver does not take another person along with him for shaving horses. The bicycle is pedaled by the horse owner while the horse shaver shears the hair. And incidentally, both had never heard of Kabir Ahmed.

Then we came back to Khamaria Pul from Nawabganj and found Mr. Kabir Ahmed fixing a horse shoe. Mr. Kabir Ahmed is a 4th standard dropout and earlier used to run a grocery shop before turning to the profession of horse shaving. He had been doing it for the past 10 years. He has a son (5 years) and 3 daughters. His mother stayed with him. According to him, he hit upon the idea of Bicycle Operated Horse Shaver by hit and trial. Mr Kamalludin (a cement dealer in Khamaria Pul) was with Mr. Kabir Ahmed when we met him. Mr Ahmed charged Rs 30 for each horse and it took him around 45 minutes to shave a horse using the bicycle operated unit (though in the NIF video he said it took him around 15-20 minutes). He said that some of the parts were bought from Meerut. Mr. Kabir Ahmed said that he made the bicycle operated horse shaver 10 years back (though in the NIF video he said that he made it around 4 years back). Mr Kabir Ahmed signed a declaration stating that he was the first one to make the Bicycle Operated Horse Shaver 10 year ago. I conducted a market survey for all the other products in Pilibhit town after returning from Khamaria Pul.

I had serious doubts about Kabir Ahmed’s claim of being the innovator of the shaver as he was contradicting himself during our conversation. NIF had found him during their Shodhyatra (or innovation scouting) some time back and he was even awarded by the foundation. NIF’s acknowledged that Kabir Ahmed was indeed the innovator. So I went out to dig a little deeper.

I left for Meerut the next morning (via Bareilly-Moradabad) and reached there at 6:30 pm. After inquiring about horse shavers from the hotel people, I was directed to a nearby shop specializing in making horse shoes. The shopkeeper directed me to Mr Idris in Tarapuri. I visited Tarapuri in the evening but Mr Idris was in Delhi and was to return to Meerut at night. I told Mr. Idris’ brother, Shahid that I would return the next day.

The next day (i.e. 1st May, 04) I went to meet Mr Idris and found him. He along with his brother ran a Tea and a Pan shop. Mr Md. Idris also made horse shavers. He has been making the shearers (handle operated, bicycle operated, motor operated etc.) for the past 3-4 years. He has 20 years experience of horse shaving. He supplied the shearers to the army (Hissar. Saharanpur, Hempur & Baboogarh stud farms). He also visited the army’s stud farms and shaved the horses.

According to Mr. Idris, the bottom shaft of the head is procured from the market while he moulds the cast iron cover and made the cutters himself. I bought a shearer head from Mr Idris at a cost of Rs.550.

My search ended by finding Md Idris which I reported to NIF. NIF was quick to declare Kabir Ahmed a fraud and went on to update their database mentioning Idris as the innovator of the Bicycle Operated Horse Shaver. Kabir Ahmed’s name was struck off from the list and in came Md. Idris. In fact Kabir Ahmed's name still figures here as the innovator of the horse shaver (do a ctrl+F and search for Kabir Ahmed).

Now what am I trying to say here? No! I am not saying that Kabir Ahmed was a fraud or Md. Idris was the real Mc Coy. What I am trying to say is the basic system and framework of finding the real innovator of rural inventions is flawed. Among other methods that NIF uses to scout for innovations is through regional collaborators. NIF takes help of all the regional collaborators and other network members for identifying such local geniuses from all over the country. The more innovators that these collaborators scout, the more money they make and there lies the flaw. Bogus innovators are created to get awards and money.

In my case, I stopped at Md. Idris, but I do not guarantee that he really is the innovator. If I had more time, I might have dug up another individual and NIF would have once again updated their database. My suggestion to NIF would be take money out of the system and all would be well, but how many collaborators can you find in this country who would be so selfless.

And now that I have written such a long post, I demand my name in the rolling credits of 3 Idiots.

Copyright (c) Pigtale 2005-2010. Images copyright respective holders.

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