Chapal Mehra is a publishing professional with over a decade in the Indian publishing industry. He began is career as a commissioning person at McGraw Hill and later worked at the Oxford University Press and Sage Publications. His last full-time assignment in publishing was as Acquisitions Manager at Penguin India. He has worked on consulting assignments with Harvard Business School Press, United Nations Development Program  and the Global business Coalition Against HIV/ AIDS. He is a graduate of New York University and is currently based in New Delhi and works as a full-time strategy and content consultant. Ask Chapal about the authors he has introduced to the market and the list is impressive. The three he always mentions are (a) We Are Like That Only by ex-McKinsey consultant and Marketing thought leader Rama Bijapurkar was the bestselling book in the non-fiction and business category for over 2 years(2007-9) and still continues to be hugely successful book in its revised avatar.  Chapal had chaperoned that book into the market. (b) Arun Maira’s Remaking India was considered a path breaking book in the application of consensus building and conflict resolution in business to national politics and development. (c) The Romance of Tata Steel by RM Lala has been critically hailed as a definitive biography of this great Indian organization.

I thought it would be great to have his perspective that first time authors could benefit from.

Abhijit: What were you looking for when you commissioned those authors?

Chapal Mehra: I think some of the better known writers that I have commissioned at various times include Arum Maira, Rama Bijapurkar, Kaushik Basu, Santosh Desai and  Jerry Rao. Not all these books came to fruition but those that did were quite successful.

I think the fundamental qualities  that one looks for in an author is a deep understanding and passion for the ideas that they want to write on, an innovative perspective on the subject and a reasonably good writing style along with a fair bit of flexibility. New ideas are very, very important  as is context which makes it relevant to the immediate market that you are addressing. A book as you know is a collaborative process. A writer entirely left on their own is often insular. Unless of course, s/he is an absolute genius. But how many of those exist?

Abhijit: As a writer how does one know which publishing house is the right one for me?

It works differently for different genres but a few simple rules apply.

A natural point is that the publisher should a considerable presence in the market you wish to address. Every brand, however big, has specializations or sub brands. Make sure you are with the right brand which has the infrastructure to bring you to your reader.  A big brand which is not player in the area you are writing on is useless for you . For eg. An academic book is well-regarded when it comes from a university press instead of say Penguin.  The next, of course, is that the publisher should have substantial content or similar books like yours, for eg. you cannot do an engineering book with a social science publisher . It would be lost. So having a companion list is important. Having a companion list ensures that the subject area gets enough attention by marketing and promotion and also your book rides along with other books. You also need to look at what the publishers strongest points are – editorial, marketing or sales? You have to understand your partners strengths and weaknesses and what they can provide you best.

Finally, your publishing house and editor have to believe in the idea that you wish to write on. It has to be a combined passion of sorts. You cannot start your first book with someone who doesn’t share your excitement. The sad thing is that in India this paddling pool is tiny.

Abhijit: Should the first time writers have agents?

Chapal Mehra: Sure. If you can find one you like and who delivers for you. Its tricky especially in India. You need to know the following : What is the role of the agent? What do you want them to do ? What do you see them providing are all things that need to be discussed before you embark on the agent relationship. It also depends on the agent you get.

Whenever I have acted as an agent I draft a strategy with the writer before we sign anything and make it clear to them what it is that I can deliver. And there is usually a follow up plan . As an agent the fun for me is to over deliver. I am also brutally frank with authors whose work I don’t think has international audience. Its better of they hate you now rather than later. We start with clear goals and work towards them instead of having some hazy idea of making you rich and famous.

Writers often overestimate the service that agents can provide. Every agent is not going to take you international with a  big fat advance. And really do you deserve that? Also you must learn from other examples worldwide. How many authors travel internationally across the world to you? Does everyone have that potential? Clearly not

Before you get an agent, you need to be sure and clear about what you want the agent to do for you. There are a lot of editorial inputs that agents can give. They can also open the right doors for you in the publishing companies and advise you on the appropriate marketing and publicity strategy. But there are agents and agents so please be sure what you want from them .

Abhijit: How should a writer choose an agent?

Chapal Mehra: Like I said earlier, before you choose anyone be objective and determine for yourself what you want for your book. If you are not Murkami, Ishiguro or Rushdie you need to be a little bit realistic in the goals you set for your work.

So for starters, your vision of the book and the agent’s vision of YOUR book have to match. You have to agree on who the primary audience is, where it should be published and how it should be marketed. Again its like a long-term relationship. You need to be sure you want the same things and agree on a  common set of goals and these can include things such as specific deliverables such as advances and marketing  .

And in case you don’t know what you want, then you have to be guided by your agent but also do your little bit of research. Agents are like all other consultants, some deliver exactly what you want, some deliver more, some just don’t deliver. Remember the list of deliverables that you draw up helps the agent and you. Michelangelo didn’t paint the Sistine Chapel by accident –he planned it.

Abhijit: What are the most common mistakes first time authors make? How should one avoid doing those?

Chapal Mehra: Oh they are endless:

1. Wrong agent
2. Wrong publisher
3. No idea of what they wanted for their book except that it  should get published
4. No idea of the terms of the agreement they signed
5. No idea of their intellectual property subclauses
6. Not enough discussion on how the book will be marketed and promoted

Most assume that the publisher is doing them a favor by publishing their book. Hence they refuse to ask any questions and later complain about how they were tricked. This is at heart a business transaction. So you need to be sure what you are getting into. No one is doing you a favor.  It is also an intellectual transaction so you need to be doubly sure that your ideas are cared for and promoted.

That having been said, first time authors can also be real nut cases. Some of them think that the Nobel Prize for literature is theirs and drive their agents and editors nuts with questions queries and endless heckling. There is a limit to everything . I always tell such authors if you think you are such a genius. Go elsewhere. And truthfully, when such a genius arrives every editor or publisher puts up with their tantrums. So if I am not putting up with yours. You should take the hint.

Abhijit: What are some of the watchouts for first time writers when they sign a contract with a publishing firm?

Chapal: Most professional publishing firms have standard contracts which they are not open to amending. It is the way they do business and these cannot be altered to every author’s requirement. In fact they are mostly standardized across organizations with a few changes here and there. As a first time author you need to know what you get into a contract with the publishing firm for :

Copyright: Understand the difference between copyright and  the right to publish.

What territory are you signing the book deal for? Do you want to keep US and UK or Europe rights for yourself?

Please check the royalty clause. Are you happy with what the standard royalty is ? Usually it’s the same across publishing firms

Please check the subsidiary rights.  Do you want to give up or keep –translation rights, film rights, tv series rights etc. In most cases I would advise its best to let the publishing company keep these unless you want to do something with them or you think it will have enormous potential which you have a strategy to exploit.

If its an advance contract what are your dates of delivery? What are the conditions associated with non- or late delivery?

Its always good to discuss the contract with your editor to also understand why the organization is offering the contract that it is . Most large professional publishing firms are not out to rob you. But its important for you to understand their thinking.

Abhijit: What are the typical amounts payable as advance to writers. How does one get these million dollar advances that one hears of?

Chapal: Before we discuss an advance lets understand the nature of it. An advance is a monetary commitment to a writers work. This work is a product that the publisher hopes to sell. The advance is built on the foundation that the book will sell in certain numbers. Some authors labour under the impression that large advances are always doled out . Its only a fraction of writers that get such advances. It depends on what genre, the potential and the ability of a publisher to pay. Some advances from international publishers seem big because you multiplied them by 50 really! Its not too high in India unless you are a well-established writer or the book has huge potential. It can range from Rs40,000 to a few lakhs . In any case, these huge advances are only possible if the mathematics are done properly.  Most standard advances in fact are adjustable against future royaltyThere isn’t a standard strategy to getting that multimillion dollar advance. It depends on the potential of your work and the capacity of your agent. I know of people who have written to a big publishing firm directly and been offered reasonable advances because their work is good. others usually get it through agents.  So there isnt a single strategy. And what are multi-million dollar advances? I million dollars is the equal of 5 crores in India .Which Indian writer has received these recently? Only a handful …

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My favorite website in this respect would be http://www.advicetowriters.com/ They have loads of stuff you will read and learn from. Must read.

Should you have an agent and such vexing questions answered here http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article611600.ece

I found this article useful Ten rules for writing fiction

We have all grown up in a world that clearly values rationality and rational behavior. Being emotional was frowned upon. Whenever someone displays emotions in public view it makes news (Think of Maradona’s expressions as the team played and lost) and the world turns its cameras to look at the person who just “lost it”. When I studied Science in school, I was told by my teacher that if there was something that cannot be explained by Science it was not worth knowing and that it was obviously irrational. Such was the vehemence with which I was nudged towards being rational. As I grew to develop my own view of the world, I got fascinated by the limitations of rationality. Rational stuff had a logical sequence and clearly activated that part of my brain that I had difficulty accessing. You try this one and you got to do this real quick: A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
Write down your answer. If you said that the ball costs 10c, then you are part of the majority. That is the good news. The bad news is that the correct answer is 5c. Shane Frederick, Prof at MIT Sloan posed this question to more than 3,000 students at eight different universities. Fewer than half gave the correct answer. The trick is to not go by your instinct which gives the wrong answer, but to take a second more and reflect on it. Shane has developed a 3 question test – that question is one of the three – that can be almost as accurate in predicting characteristics that other tests like the SAT, ACT, or the Wonderlic Personnel Test. He also found that those who do well on the cognitive reflection test tend to be more patient in decisions between smaller sooner rewards and larger later rewards.  Before you pat yourself on the back (your own or anybody else’s for that matter) remember, they are also more willing to gamble in financial domains.

Now let us check the other half of your ability. Try saying the words in the visual. The top line would read red, blue, orange purple. That is easy. . The task is to quickly name not the word itself, but the color of the word. As an example, for the word “green” printed in red ink, the correct verbal answer is “red.” Because of a phenomenon called directed attention, this is hilariously difficult to do. You must actively inhibit the automatic response—reading the word—in order to do something else. This is not the only way in which we can understand the power of the irrational. There are many examples that have been done to show how we all do dumb and irrational things despite taking pride in our rational selves.

Take for instance Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment. How far would you go giving what you thought were electrical shocks to another human being simply for a study about memory? What would you think when the learner went quiet after you apparently administered a shock labeled on the board “Danger: Severe Shock”? How far would you go? The majority, at least 63% of the participants continued right until the end – they administered all the shocks even with the learner screaming in agony, begging to stop and eventually falling silent. These weren’t specially selected sadists, these were ordinary people like you and me who had volunteered for a psychology study.

Magic tricks work in the same way. Rationally speaking you would of course agree that there is no such thing as a color changing card. If you picked one card from a deck of cards, how could a magician change the color of the card while you are watching the trick on camera. The camera never lies, right? Wrong.

My hypothesis is that you need to learn to develop the irrational – also known as the “creative” aspects of you. Writing a story is a good way to develop your irrational self. Stories are boring when they are straightforward and predictable. For instance try this for a rational (aka BORING as hell) opening lines of a short story.

A boy and a girl sat on the same bench in the Physics class. The Professor was teaching (what else) Physics. The boy and the girl were trying to think of what the possible question paper would be like…

Now try this one on

A boy and a girl sat on the same bench in the Physics class.While the Professor was teaching Physics, the girl’s mind wandered. She was thinking of options. What protection should she use when the boy would meet her that evening. Would it be better to carry a small revolver or should she just use the sharp kitchen knife, she wondered. The boy was telling himself, “If only I had known that she was vegetarian, I would not have poisoned the fish…

The best storytellers are magicians who use the same principles of psychology to lead the reader to a path that is perfectly rational and logical, but wrong. The purpose of every story is to coax the reader into suspending their disbelief. Good cinema does the same. See how much more interesting a life you would lead if you stopped resisting the irrational aspects of human beings. For instance, if you knew that groups fail to share information with each other that is known only to themselves and simply repeated what others already knew, you would put less faith in decisions made by the group. People are seen as more capable when they talk about shared rather than unshared information. To be on the safe side people prefer to stick to repeating things that everyone knows and, bizarrely, others like them better for it. Heck!! I am not suggesting that you drop all opportunities to be rational. Merely suggesting that the next time you do something irrational, maybe there is an opportunity for you to learn about stuff most people have learnt to ignore. For instance, by knowing about the 7 Psychological Principles of Scams you can protect yourself from scams that makes 3.2 million people each year in the UK into handing over £3.5 billion to scamsters.

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If you like to try more tests that check for cognitive skills, try a logic and reasoning skill test here

Or this interesting piece on Ten Social Psychology Studies

“Let us imagine that you had bought, in secret, the world’s most precious jewel, the Eye of Empire, a massive ruby known to have left a trail of lives—violently lost—behind it as it journeyed across harsh lands in the care of desperate men.” So begins Samit Basu’s new book Terror on the Titanic – his first Young Adult novel.

Meet Samit, India’s first fantasy novelist and the first well-known Indian author to cross over into comics. He is the author of an extremely popular trilogy of fantasy novels, the GameWorld Trilogy, comprising The Simoqin Prophecies (2004) The Manticore’s Secret (2005) and The Unwaba Revelations (2007). He has written comics for Marvel Comics in India. Outlook featured him as one of the Indians under 25 to watch for along with Shreya Ghoshal – India’s top playback singer and Konkona Sen Sharma the brilliant actress. He got inspired to start a career as an author during a dull class at IIM (Ahmedabad) while pursuing his MBA. Read on what this talented writer is all about.

With a degree in Eco from Presidency College, Kolkata and having got admission to IIM Ahmedabad, you dropped out because you had figured out the ending of your first novel Simoquin Prophecies. Then went on to write a trilogy. How did your friends and family react to your decision? Did they always suspect you would do something like this – if the past is any indication?
SAMIT BASU: They were all surprised. It happened in circles I think – immediate family and close friends were immensely supportive, which surprised me in turn – I remember that my mother, all those years ago when I told her I was serious about dropping out, said ‘Good.’ It was also a great source of relief, and I don’t know if I could have gone through with it without that support. Outside that inner circle, there were plenty of people who had lots of opinions to share that I wasn’t particularly interested in – how my life was ruined, how it was such a shame because I had seemed intelligent, and was I taking drugs? It was funny when it wasn’t irritating. But it was easy to deal with because the people who knew me believed in me.
It sounds strange to say it, but it really wasn’t such a big deal. I could have finished my course and gone on to write – just like so many successful B-school writers. It was a wave that started then. Maybe there was something in the water. The reason I chose not to finish the course but to drop out was that I really didn’t want to wait two years, and even more, to start now that I had finally worked myself up to a point where I was ready to start writing. It was really all I wanted to do. Also, the people I met at IIM, my fellow students – they really wanted to be there. They were really interested. I wasn’t.

You did a course in broadcasting and documentary film making from University of Westminster, London. What prompted your interest in documentaries?

SAMIT BASU: It was more journalism and broadcasting in general than documentaries in particular. I did work as a journalist when I came back to India – I really enjoyed that, it’s such a great line of work. I had to quit when I just couldn’t find time to write, because journalism, especially the early years, really sucks up your life. I found out Simoqin was getting published before I returned to India, so I didn’t even try working in TV. Those people never have any time.

Your profession is listed as novelist. You have written three fantasy novels, graphic novels, childrens stories etc. How easy is it for a novelist to switch genres?

SAMIT BASU: It’s easy enough to write something if you’re genuinely interested in the medium. I wasn’t a literature student, so no one told me which were good and bad media to consume – I just read and saw everything I got my hands/eyes on. Which is why, at this point, its easier to work across media. I’ve written screenplays as well – they are sitting with producers who were kind enough to ask me to write them, and will hopefully be produced some day. I’m also now actually on the verge of writing a video game. Since I don’t do anything other than write, it’s very rewarding to work across media because each kind of writing is very different from the others. I loved learning how to write comics; writing screenplays is much easier once you’ve picked that up. In terms of sheer writing pleasure, though, there’s nothing like writing a book. You’re free to do what you want there.

That said, there’s also much joy to be found in collaboration, especially for those rare projects when the finished work is so much better than something you could have done on your own. Switching genres is also much fun because it’s like acting – you find a different voice for a different story, you see the world through the eyes of a completely different type of person, and that is another of the really rewarding things about getting deep into writing. I have two new novels this year – one is a Yung Adult historical/fantasy/crime book, Mowgli’s son solving a mystery on the Titanic, another is a more mainstream novel, not fantasy, but a superhero story for adults, set in India, Pakistan and England. Both of these are completely different from the trilogy, and both have been great fun to write

You write comics for Marvel comics or was it Virgin? Tell us about the process of writing the plotline for a comic. How does it differ from writing a novel or a short story or a children’s book? How do you break up a story into frames? Do you write it like the script of a play? What does that look like?

SAMIT BASU: I wish I wrote comics for Marvel. Alas, they’re unlikely to ever ask, because they already have an overflowing list of supremely talented writers. Writing comics is a multi-step process. You give your editor the idea. She likes it. You write an outline, a list of characters and descriptions. The artist starts work on character design. You start work on a detailed outline, a beat sheet. It’s much more structured and rigorous than any other kind of writing. Then you break it down into even smaller sections, including sub-plots and so on, and then fight with your editor over that issue’s standalone story and its place in a wider story arc. Then you write the script. Then you rewrite it until it’s shiny. Then the artist does his thing. In several stages. Then lettering, colouring, cover, and voila, comic. It was much fun. I hope I get to do it again soon. I”m focussing on books at present though, because really, that’s what I’m best at.

What does it look like? Here’s a sample set of two panels.

Page 1 Panel 1

Wide shot. The CRITIC, a Buscemi-esque young man in a crumpled shirt and jeans, unshaven, stands at his desk, looking in horror at Abhijit. We’re in the Critic’s office. Desk, computer, lots of books lying around, maybe a Filmfare or two. A potted plant, unwatered and dead. A picture of Kafka on the wall, framed and garlanded. We don’t see Abhijit in this shot; we can see him from behind in the lower right, or as silhouette, or have Critic looking at the reader

CRITIC: What is the meaning of this?

ABHIJIT: I know authors aren’t supposed to respond to reviews…

Page 1 Panel 2

Abhijit, full length. His shirt is torn, his muscles rippling, his face calm, maybe a slight smile. In his hands is a chainsaw.

ABHIJIT: …but hey.

What is the comic that you co-authored with Mike Carey of X-Men and Lucofer fame. How was that experience different from writing a comic by yourself?

SAMIT BASU: If you were a guitarist and you suddenly got to play with someone like Santana? It was like that. I’ve been a huge fan of Mike’s since I started reading comics, so the prospect of working with him was both a dream come true and extremely intimidating. I would have been happy to just let him do the whole thing and have my name on it; I would also have been happy to do all the work just to have his name on it. As it turned out, we both wrote different halves, then rewrote each other’s halves to make it all fit in better. For someone that successful, he was incredibly nice and patient. It was a really fascinating experience, and I learned a great deal.

If someone wants your advise on choosing between doing an MBA. making documentaries, writing sci-fi, blogging, doing comics, writing columns and becoming a novelist, what would you suggest they choose?

SAMIT BASU: Whatever they feel like at the time. I do get asked this sometimes, but there’s no way I’m going to take responsibility for anyone else’s choices. I don’t know if my own were perfect. I’m muddling along myself, and am in no position to give advice.

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Check out Samit’s website  samitbasu.com,  You can follow him @samitbasu on twitter.

Pricing does matter. Especially when it comes to books. It is probably a sign of the times that Harper Collins (Full disclosure: They publish my novel Married But Available) has decided to price Karan Bajaj’s upcoming second book at Rs 99/- almost $2 for a paperback version. That I think is the sweet spot for pricing as Chetan Bhagat has showed us with his novels. The yet-to-be released thriller ‘Johnny Gone Down’ by Karan Bajaj is set to make publishing history with a first print run of 50,000 books, billed as one of the biggest ever in India for a work of fiction.

The book narrates the racy tale of 40-year-old Ivy League scholar, Nikhil Arya, who is broke, homeless and minutes away from blowing his brains. An innocent vacation turns into an intercontinental journey that sees Nikhil first become a genocide survivor, then a Buddhist monk, a drug lord, a homeless accountant, a software mogul and a game fighter.

Karan is also the author of ‘Keep off the Grass’. You can read his interview done just before he launched his first book by clicking here

According to Yahoo News, ‘Books such as ‘Almost Single’, ‘The Zoya Factor’, ‘Bombay Rains’ and ‘Keep off the Grass’, ‘Married But Available’, ‘Secrets and Lies’, and very recently ‘Keep the Change Year After Year‘ have been a series of titles from Indian authors for the Indian audience that end up doing big numbers,’ Lipika Bhushan of Harper Collins said.

So what is the inspiration behind the novel?  Karan says, “‘I was influenced as much by the dark, gritty mood of films like ‘Oldboy’, ‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Amores Perros’ as by the incredible journey of ‘Forrest Gump’ (which is one of my favourite novels and a mighty decent film as well) and the surreal adventures of Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the Buddhist detective-protagonist of John Burdett’s Bangkok novels, ‘Bangkok 8′, ‘Bangkok Tattoo’ and ‘Bangkok Haunts’.

I asked Karan what he thought of the Rs99/- pricing for this novel. He said, “Pricing is the publisher’s decision with the author having little to no input in it. But I’m pleasantly surprised. Paradoxically, as the quality of my writing improves, the price keeps going down. At this rate, my next novel may just be available for free!”

How do companies identify high potential employees? Different organizations use different approaches. There are a host of assessments that can provide data on various competencies that makes leaders successful. There are competencies that leaders need to translate their vision of the future into a strategy. They need to have the competencies to communicate and inspire the stakeholders to buy into that vision. They also need to be able to cobble together a team that will execute that plan. To continue to be successful repeatedly requires leaders to be agile learners. To learn from heir own experience of success and failure. they also need to learn from others success and failure. They are risk takers. Leadership success goes to those who are learning agile. I had attended a workshop by Bob Eichinger where he had outlined the four factors that make up Learning Agility.

MENTALLY AGILE:
These are people who can see patterns in data and enjoy solving complex problems. They are comfortable playing with complex ideas and can explain complex thoughts to others in a simple manner that helps others to understand the vision in clear terms.
Describes people who think quickly, can link diverse ideas and thoughts.

AGILITY WITH PEOPLE:

The temple of Apollo at Delphi has the words Know Thyself inscribed. In the recent times management thinkers from Peter Drucker to Daniel Goleman (author of the bestselling book  Emotional Intelligence) have written about the importance of self awareness. Why does that matter? Because once you know yourself, you are better able to understand others and can manage better in situations that cause interpersonal stress or conflicts.

AGILITY IN DEALING WITH CHANGE

If you are curious and enjoying following new ideas, new technology and are not daunted by it, then this very well describes you as a person with change agility. When a new method is suggested, you roll up your sleeves and test out the idea instead of moaning and groaning about how tough it is to deal with constant change. In fact many of these people actively embrace an opportunity to change te status quo. Combined with mental agility and people agility it is possible for such leaders to also smoothen the way for their teams to embrace change without hiccups.

AGILITY WITH RESULTS

If you can get results regardless of the team you are given or the task and know just what trade-offs you have to balance then you have results agility. Agility with results comes when the leader can deliver a successful outcome regardless of the circumstances. they are able to navigate their way successfully in good times and bad. Their teams lean on them because they know success is assured. Such leaders build teams that help them deliver results even in situations they have never experienced before.

How Do You Spot Learning Agile People?

Learning Agile people excel at leading teams even when they do not have direct line authority over them. Look for people who are eager to go beyond their zone of comfort and try out assignments that most others would shudder to take on. They embrace change and will try their hand at cross functional moves and opportunities to explore new markets, new technology and new geographies – anything that takes them out of their comfort zone.  Very often in an interview when asked if they have done such an assignment before, they would answer, “I haven’t but I will learn it quickly.” and proceed to give examples from their career. How do they adjust their course while steering through unknown territory? They are gluttons for feedback. They are constantly looking for feedback that helps the make course corrections constantly.

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Read some more on Learning Agility

Businessweek article by John Ryan

Learning agility as an indicator of high potential