Hitting below the belt

Rajiv Bakshi

I HAD been told innumerable times by my better half not to indulge in something foolish, like spending my hard-earned provident fund on publishing a book after retirement. But I ignored her advice. Three years after I retired from a bank, I published my first book of short stories. 

I paid a considerable amount of money to a blogger who helped me with editing. Since it was my first book, no publisher was keen to publish it, and I had to dish out nearly two months of my pension to get it published. I spent another four months of my pension for getting good reviews, conducting book tours, launching it in book clubs, senior citizens clubs  and some kitty parties. 

Ample people attended the functions, sipped hot coffee and tea, ate samosas and rasgullas, but what eluded me were buyers!

I was cut to the quick. I approached an ad agency in Gurgaon for promoting my book. They asked for my budget as if I was a millionaire. I said I was no Chetan Bhagat, even though my book was also on two states — Assam and Punjab — and was priced higher than his! My friends and relatives mocked me about it. The budget to promote my book was quoted at  Rs 50 lakh by one promoter. 

There was no end of my turmoils. My bank account was getting depleted fast. At last, I tried to promote the book on social sites like Facebook and Twitter. I approached a software guy who took a few thousand rupees from me to create my book page and also a Twitter account. 

I put my book’s cover on Facebook and Twitter handle for almost a month. I could hardly find any ‘likes’ or even any retweets. My friends and relatives who were my ardent supporters were asking me for a complementary copy of my prized possession. I could not say no to them and earn their displeasure. 

One day out of desperation, I uploaded a picture of my book on Twitter. God knows why a person named Isha Bhardwaj liked it. I checked her profile and learnt that she was an architect in Mumbai. She belonged to Ludhiana, where I resided. She had a follower list of 15,000 on Twitter. I tweeted # Its easier to sell a dress of 8000 to a #modern woman (that 2 an Architect) than sell  a book of 200 by a first time #Author @ 63 to ppl like u # . I knew I had hit below the belt. But she liked the tweet so much that hundreds of her followers retweeted it. I got the shock of my life when one day I received a notification from my publisher: Congratulations! You have sold 100 copies on a particular day. This was my highest sale of book online in a day. The #journey continues. Looking for one more pungent tweets! Any one willing to suggest?