Anita Saran is an author with several award winning publications to her credit.
Her published works include ‘Aditya, the Underwater Boy’ (Nehru Children’s Book Trust, 1991), ‘Dolphin Girl and other Stories’ (Har Anand, Delhi), ‘Circe’ (the American Mojocastle Press). Her essays and stories have been published in the well known online literary journals and publications.
In the following interview with Pallavi Rao, she discusses her experience with Chillibreeze and epublishing.
PR: Anita, you are a published author. Why did you choose to epublish this work?
AS: E-publishing is often the easier option today for authors especially when it comes to the question of manuscript length. A story of eighteen thousand words is considered rather difficult to place. It is not a novella or a novelette. Ever since best-selling horror writer Stephen King chose to e-publish his horror novella ‘Riding the Bullet’ in 2000 (in 24 hours, about 400,000 copies of the book were downloaded) writers have been going the e-publishing way. Actually even before that.
PR: How useful was the manuscript review? Does feedback matter?
AS: Any and all reviews are helpful. City of Victory was hammered into shape with help from other writers in the Internet Writing Workshop (IWW). Feedback is essential for a writer.
PR: What kind of support does an author need to get his or her e-book published?
AS: The support of a good publisher who knows e-publishing inside out — from formatting the book to marketing.
PR: Tell us a bit about your latest book – City of Victory. What’s it about?
AS: It is about the lives of three women in the harem of King Krishna Deva Raya of 16th century Vijayanager (Hampi) and how they cope with their difficult lives.
PR: How much do you feel the publishing scene has really changed for Indian authors, in the context of India based publishers?
AS: No idea. I don’t approach Indian publishers any more. Penguin and Rupa, for instance, are more bothered about “commercially viable” books than books written from the heart. They have no place for literary fiction.
PR: Do you recommend e publishing to authors?
AS: Sure I do. Particularly for hard to place novels and literary fiction. E-publishers are more willing to take chances on good writers who are not writing commercial fiction. There have been some instances of e-books making it into print because of their success. The promise of print is always alluring for a writer. My novel ‘Circe’ will first appear as e-book and then as paperback.
PR: Thanks Anita. We hope to see you publish many more books in the years to come. Here’s wishing you plenty of success and lots of readers!
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