Sunday, March 28, 2010

Publishing Dreams

Like all good bloggers, I too dream of one day being able to write a book and getting it published. In fact blogging is actually a means to that end.

I started off trying to see what I was good at( I still don't have a clue. Creating a bit of controversy- maybe! :P). I thought blogging would help clear a lot of things in my mind. That hasn't happened the way I foresaw it. But still having over 50 followers has given me some sort of confidence.

No, but seriously, what genre of writing do you think would suit me? I've tried a few things here. Please don't say autobiography. I have a long way to go before writing that. And don't ask me to write your life story. Even a writer of formidable talent such as mine is going to find that task a little too difficult to accomplish.

Look at the scenario like this. You are given a writer(me- bad luck eh? :P) and you can ask me to write a novel/book on any topic under the sun. Remember I'm the author(I won't let you forget!). So what kind of book would it be?

Right... so you think about that and leave your answers in the comments section of this post. Now we come to the second part. Once my book is published I'll need people to buy the books so I can earn royalties. Now I come from a fairly large family(when extended). So I could easily sell about 50 books in the family itself. That's a start. Now all readers of this blog( yes, that includes you) will buy 2 copies each. Why 2? Well, check both copies for spelling mistakes. ; )

So that means around a 100 books will be sold. You, thought you would get yours for free? Ha! Don't you remember that story of the wise man who said there's no such thing as 'free-lunch'. Well, there are no free books either- at least there won't be from this wise author!

Well, let's get back to being serious. I'm sure most of you there would have thought of getting published some day. And I'm sure quite a few of you have already got stuff published. I'd be happy to learn from your experiences. What is it like? What are the procedures? Who are the big guys and small guys of the publishing world and which guys are open to new concepts and ideas? I'm sure these questions pass through most aspiring writer's minds.( not to forget the never-ending task of trying to come up with a decent enough story!)

I'd written somewhere that I wanted to get my book published by the end of this year. I have no clue if I'm going to be able to keep my target. I hope I can. I have an idea in my head and I've had it in there for sometime. I've discussed the idea(story) with a few people and the response has been generally favorable. No, I'm not going to share tid-bits here. You'll have to buy the book to find out more. Have To! : )

So hopefully someday in the not too distant future you will have a book in your shelf with Ajai Ravi Kesavan written on the cover.  Cheers to that.  : )

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Ahem Ahem!

I've been there... done that. 
Been where and done what? Disappeared, and come back promising my readers that I'd be more regular with my posts and catching up with my blog-dost's posts. But... there is only one AJai Ravi Kesavan. Thank God for that will you please. : )

Blogging sort of went in to the background. After the initial high(which lasted a year) I sort of let it run through. Sort of became complacent. I'm known for this. Most of my friends reading this post will be nodding their heads reading this and saying to themselves.."yes.. that's our AJai".

Well... I am like that. I don't like it. To be fair I have been kinda busy. Been sort of running around a lot. Doing a lot of traveling. So getting time to write was one thing.

And the biggest mistake I made was waiting for something to write. That's not good. You've just got to go with the flow sometimes. Write whatever comes to you at the moment. Like I am doing now. 

Blogging is not a high stakes game. It's an outlet. If people like your stuff... good for you. If they don't... doesn't matter. You've got to go with your flow. It's the place to experiment. To fine-tune your talent. To practice, to learn and to grow.

I thought I'd keep a day in the week for blogging... or something like that. But I don't want it to be that way. It should be more instinctive. That's better na?

So Dear Reader, if you've made it till here you're obviously someone who cares a lot. Do come back here. I hope to have something exciting for you each time. Take Care.

AJai