The facts about Self-Publishing a novel

      Hoax of Self Publishing

An author is born of suffering. How someone can become an author unless society has grilled him in all possible ways, sucked off all the marrow and threw wastage to be chewed by dogs. If something less than this has happened be bold, invite troubles and then wait patiently. There is no room for timid and cowards, who looks around twice before calling a spade a spade.

 If destiny has put a mouse in his hand and fingers have enjoyed playing on the keyboard to jot down words in the sequence in which they have never been written before, an author should be  prepared for next most hateful, torturous part of journey of accepting rejections from famous publishers till one fine morning he would decide to self publish his work.

Almost all self publishing houses use the same format of the agreement which traditional publishing houses use. Most of them have never heard about "Berne Convention'. They don't know the procedures of sending a copy of the published book to national libraries which is mandatory by law. All they know is they can hire a printer, a friend to copy edit, cover design and typeset for paltry amount and rob the author for all this heavily.

Moreover, they would boast to get you an ISBN...wtf. I mean, how mean someone could be.

When an author is paying money to publish a book, how could publisher give credits to cover design, copy editors who are paid for doing it. The publisher is charging authors for paying them and still author does not hold copyright on these works. Can a printer put his own ad and other important cards that he has printed on your marriage card. It is ridiculous to that extent, if you give it a serious thought. Every published document should bear the name of the printer, is required by law, but just a name or one phone number at the most and that too at some inconspicuous place, where the customer desire.

Self published books are seldom picked up by good distributors. At the most they are made available through online stores to the friends and relatives of the author. Even the so called big and traditional publishing house puts a condition that you would have to buy 300 copies at the rate of 150/- Rs per copy suppose, they have indirectly robbed the author.

Most of them print on demand. Initially they print hardly one hundred copies to give to authors and keep reserves in the online store, which cost publisher few thousand bucks and a major chunk of author's money goes to the pocket of the publisher.

As if that is not enough, if the published author (?), wants a ceremony to launch of his book, that gives another opportunity to the publisher to extract more money from the pocket of the author.

So what is the remedy?

The remedy is
1.Kindle Direct Publishing,

https://kdp.amazon.com/dashboard?prefLanguage=true

2.Createspace

https://www.createspace.com/pub/member.dashboard.do

3.Smashwords

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/vipingoyal

The beauty of these publishers is:

1. Transparency in all dealings

2. No expenditure at all

3. Very helpful and cooperative

4. Understand international laws on copyright and publishing

All you have to do is understand certain technicalities in submission of your book, for which they provide you a user friendly guide.

Encourage eBook reading in youngsters and readers of all age groups.

Believe me, this is definitely going to work.

Take my advice and begin now.....Contact me if you still have any doubt.

Also read "An author, Salesman and artisanal publisher"

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Alia Bhatt- Brainless Beauty is youth icon

                                                          Hamari Pyyari Alia

It can be hailed as the most elegant and cherished love story of Indian History. It is believed that the Mughal prince Khurram fell in love with a simple girl who flew one of the two prized fantail pigeons and on being asked how she could have done such a crime she flew the second one too and said:'like this'! This naive girl went on to become his most treasured and loved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. She was the daughter of Asif Khan and granddaughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg, both of whom held positions in the Mughal court. (tajmahaltour).

Now look at the jokes about Alia Bhatt on social media sites

1. Alia Bhatt is so dumb that she thought Pani Puri, Sev Puri are all relatives of Amrish Puri.

2. Arnab: What's the first name of Modi?
Alia: Abki Baar

3. Einstein says: Be friends with Alia Bhatt and feel like a genius all the time!

4. When Mary Kom won a Gold Medal in Asian Games Alia Bhatt congratulated Priyanka Chopra

5. Alia went to buy a national flag on Independence Day and asked to show it in some other colors, or that she insisted to a shopkeeper to give her free cholesterol when she bought Sunflower Oil.

When the whole world is rejoicing the youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yusufjai for her overwhelming achievement of  human rights advocacy for education for women, our most pure, innocent Alia Bhatt has received unparalleled applaud in the history of Bollywood for being labeled as dumb.

Four lunatics were standing near fence of an asylum when a car stopped outside on the road and the owner who was driving, got down from the car to change the tyre since it had gone flat. While in the process he had taken out flat tyre he accidently strikes the plate  where he kept all the four nuts and the nuts rolled in the nearby drainage. Now the owner was perplexed as how he would manage to reach to a mechanic, when one of the lunatic suggested that he take out one nut from each wheel and put stepney with three nuts. He can then go up to a mechanic. The owner was surprised he asked "Hey, you have solved my problem. How is that you are in a lunatic asylum."

The man answered " Well, I may be a cranky, but I am not dumb."

That was the time when being stupid  was considered as the worst kind of stigma society can attach to anyone. Now Alia has surpassed Santa Banta and Blondes in stupidity.

Is Alia dumb or stupid? Or both?

Dumb, simply put, is when you don't know any better. This could be on an intellectual, mental, or educational level. It could also be due to a lack of exposure to certain behaviors and subsequent reactions, relative to any kind of 'life' situation. The rate at which you react and whether or not you think first before the action or reaction is somewhat relative. Definitively though, nothing is more evident after the fact, or nearly as important as the simple fact that you didn't know any better at the time.

Stupid, simply put, is when you know better, but you do it anyway. The first time you do your own laundry and toss bleach into a load of colored clothing, destroying everything... This is a dumb mistake. The next time you do laundry, and toss the bleach into the load of colors again? That is just stupid. You knew better from the first/past experience, but you did it anyways. (English language and usage).

Alia is neither dumb nor stupid.

She is pretty, innocent, charming, unworldly girl who has chosen to appear what she is not? Why anyone would do that. On the one hand when Kangana Ranaut in North and Kajal Agarwal in South has established themselves as the most intelligent heroines in Indian film industry, why an upcoming actress when labeled as dumb would rather approve of it. Look at her statements-

"I always say that I rather be stupid than pretend to be intelligent."

"I think that is very funny. Basically there are these twitter and Facebook jokes on me, because I am apparently stupid. They are very hilarious," she said.

"I don't feel bad at all. I find it very funny. It's a joke and you have to take it in a funny way. At least, I am crossing somebody's mind at some point of the day."

And it all started from Karan Johar's talk show Koffee with Karan when she said that the Indian President is Prithviraj Chavan during the rapid fire round.

How many actresses do you think know the name of the President of India. They could be counted on finger tips.

Then why so much hue and cry to culminate it into a meme. It is an invention of some brilliant mind (a marketing strategist) to encash a mistake and project an image of a person with whom adolescent youth can identify and can make fun as well. The statements given by Alia are very intelligent. A stupid person would never admit that he is stupid.

This is the ultimate glamorization of stupidity.

Bollywood had been doing it in the past. They have glamorized criminals, vagabonds, tapories, rowdies and Mafioso. They are expert in tilting negative shades in such a way that audience starts identifying themselves by a rationality of displacement in their subconscious mind.

But credit goes to Alia Bhatt for doing it off the screen.

So when you are laughing at Alia in all probability she too is laughing hard at you, for having successfully befooled you. Only time would show who has the last laugh, but by that time the purpose would have been served.      

 ©Vipin Behari Goyal

Cover Page of Novels By Vipin Behari Goyal

                                                What is in the Cover Page

The art of cover design of a book has become very important these days. Authors and publishers spend a lot of time and money on that. The buyers who are sincere readers have started taking the decision to buy a book on the basis of cover design. Though they also might read the blurb of the book to decide if the contents of the book suits to their taste. They also cast a cursory glance at the bio of the author, if they have not already heard about him. Does bio help them to decide whether to go for the book or not in any way? Or the cover design is the most important thing when a book is in hand. What makes the first impression on the mind of the reader title of the book or blurb, name of the author or his bio? If a reader has already heard about a book or author and he has already made up his mind to go for it, then of course there is no stopping for him.

Many publishers put the title of the book and the name of the author on cover page without any artwork. Still, those books are sold in volumes. But those authors belong to classical series for whom one can say "even name is enough". Those books are like jewels in the bookshelves which the owner proudly displays. Nothing distracts your mind from the contents of the book.

What could enhance the beauty of a good book? Amrita Pritam's books use to have paintings of Imroz as cover design. It was a unique combination to show how two different artists perceive a phenomenon with same intensity, except that a writer depends more on the imagination of reader while painting the picture of a scene with a keyboard on the screen.  

Sometimes an author would be puzzled if the cover page is more important than the content he has written. Many times publishers ask the author if he has any cover design in his mind. If he is suggesting one, the publisher would distort it with so called artistic improvisations that the author would even feel ashamed to condemn it.

Who is to be blamed if the cover page is totally irrelevant to the crux of the story? It is made on the basis of the title of the book and has nothing to do about the contents of the story. The cover designer is not a reader mostly. He is someone who more or less is, technically adept to tackle a cover design software. Cover designing a book is not lucrative profession, or rather it should not be. There is ample scope in other commercial fields for them like advertising. Publishers are commercial people, they are in the trade to make money. They are not a philanthropist or social activist. They are only happy when they earn profit by selling books. So they adopt gimmicks of attractive, sensational cover design. The reader might be misguided but the purpose of publisher has been served.

Author at a point of time is made to think that he has done some mistake by writing a book and having desired to see it published. So he suffers the punishment of harassment and pecuniary losses with determination to succeed.

Because he has faith in genuine readers.

Howsoever complicated this business of publishing and nexus of publisher, copy editor, cover designer, distributor, typesetter, professional reviewers, advertisers may become obnoxious, but the whole trade is merely a link between author and reader.

In India the youth has become mature as readers and his craving for serious reading is apparent. The days of Indian M&B and that type of cover designs are counted. May be they would target preteens instead of Young Adults in the future.

Kudos to generation x...y....z...

©Vipin Behari Goyal