THE AUTHOR, HE’S COOL
If the reader has changed, so has the author and the idea of authorial aloofness. Many of the new writers are members of the corporate world. Ravi Subramaniam is a banker as is Karan Bajaj; Kala was a busy hotelier till she chucked it for writing (she now works for Time), Chauhan is the ad whiz who gave you lines like Yeh Dil Maange More and Jain was an investment banker before she strayed into the mean world of television scripts. They are aware of the market and how it works—and have a business plan to crack it. Renuka Chatterjee, senior vice president of Osian’s, The Literary Agency, one of a handful of literary agents who find themselves in business with the publishing boom, recalls how driven Bajaj was while marketing his book. “As an IIM alumnus, he had a huge mailing list and he activated it to send out word of his book. He also had a clear idea of how the book should be pitched. And it did work.” Browse Bajaj’s website and you will find a step-by-step plan of how to be published in India.
Over an e-mail interview, the author said he was clear he wanted “to write a rocking, entertaining novel hoping it would become ‘popular’. Commercial success is very important for me since it is a validation that readers think my book is entertaining versus just me thinking so.”
One thing remains the same. It still doesn’t pay enough to make a living. Bagchi, a bestseller writer, got no signing amount from his publisher and has made Rs 2 lakh in a year from sales. That’s a piddling Rs 8,000 a month.

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