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It pays to be a realist

As you browse the shelves of a book store, just a few sections broadly sum things up— romance, self-help, thrillers, may be not in the same order; then of course there is the children’s section, meant just as much for adults and a very noticeable section to do with biographies.

It pays to be a realist

Karanbir Singh



Manpriya Singh 

As you browse the shelves of a book store, just a few sections broadly sum things up— romance, self-help, thrillers, may be not in the same order; then of course there is the children’s section, meant just as much for adults and a very noticeable section to do with biographies. 

Non-fiction meant self-help books or cook books or biographies, and for all one needed to have significant years of experience or expertise or fan following to qualify. Both the writer and the subject. 

That was back then, a while ago. Until Chetan Bhagat hadn’t primarily rung in an altogether different genre of Indian writers narrating stories of young urban India in English language. 

Sure they all came in, chick-lit, lad-lit and kid lit, popular genres but derogatory terms, and then came heartfelt issues that youngsters wanted to narrate or share and the publishing world seems to have done the needful. 

Romance is easy to sell

“It is definitely easy as a debutant if you are dealing with romance, or history or some such popular genre as there is always a ready market,” opines Karanbir Singh of the publishing world in general. But having said that he didn’t really have to labour with getting his debut work My Little Infinity —A Journey of a Father and Son published. A book that he wrote as a token of love for his father who died of liver cancer. 

“I came across this file wherein he was writing his story, his journey and his emotions. I took it to myself to complete his project,” he shares of the process of writing the book that took him a total of two-and-a-half to three years. 

Picking up the Rudaalis 

“It definitely takes a lot of reading and experience and maturity to explore some subjects in depth,” shares journalist-author Nidhi Dugar Kundalia, who feels why just non-fiction, even deftly and maturely handled fiction, can evoke reactions of surprise from the literary world and critics alike. Fortunately that again wasn’t the case with her book The Lost Generation: Chronicling India’s Dying Professions. Twenty seven at the time when the book was published in 2016 and an MA from City University London, she chose to write about 11 of India’s dying professions, like Rudaalis from Rajasthan, backed solely by research. “It’s a piece of travel writing or cultural history and at first I was quite hesitant to turn it into a book,” adds the author. 

A reality check

Everything comes with a fair share of cons, venturing into non-fiction as a young writer is nothing different. “Had it been that easy then all of us would have been writers,” says Gurjot S Kaler, DSP, Organised Crime, Mohali, who never thought about the publishing world when he first decided to put challenges faced by today’s India and Indian youth into perspective in his book, New India—The Reality Reloaded. Be it the war against VIP culture or protecting the daughters of India, these were just some of the issues he was asked to comment on as a guest at many of the colleges of Punjab. 

Handling a sensitive subject 

Nazia Erum sent her draft to only one publisher, through the regular commissioning editor email route and one month later, she got a revert. In affirmative. Her critically acclaimed book explores what it means to be a middle class Muslim kid in India today. Talking to over a hundred children and their parents across 12 cities, the author uncovers stories of religious segregation in classrooms and rampant bullying of Muslim children in many of the country’s top schools. 

She adds laughingly, “Clichéd as it may sound, but the idea to first write this critically acclaimed book, Mothering a Muslim, came when I first became a mother 4 years back.” 

May be she chose the right publisher. “The publishing houses these days are also invested in ideas that are novel and meaningful and that’ll connect with young readers. My publishing house does 80 per cent of non-fiction and a significant number of them are young authors.” Now that’s promising. Literally.  

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