If you’re thinking of writing a book, take it from someone who has written four without knowing what she’s doing, make a plan.

Yes, make that plan because sometimes it helps. I have written four books without having any sort of plan in my head and I can’t tell you how grateful I am that things worked out and fell in place beautifully completely on their own. But that can’t keep happening all the time. Also, it’s always better to have a plan. I used to think that a plan would constrict my creativity but it doesn’t have to because you don’t really have to stick to the plan. That’s the beauty of it.

At my book launch, Shinie asked me an interesting question about my style of writing and I told her that I would compare myself to the young wizards in Harry Potter who couldn’t control their magic until they reached Hogwarts. For four books, I was unable to control the magic, letting it control me instead. Mind you, I don’t regret it. But it’s not always fun not knowing what’s going to happen in a book. Also, I think I’m growing old. And I think I’ve finally entered the literary version of Hogwarts because I find myself planning my book.

So, what does planning a book entail?

I don’t really know because I didn’t learn it formally. But here’s what I’ve been doing with MTJB. I took a notebook and pen and started writing down everything that had been fermenting in my head about the book. Of course, before this you have to have an idea. But that’s fodder for another post. Let’s focus on the plan for now.

So you have your idea and you start writing down everything that you can think of it in your notebook. Just keep the words coming even if they don’t make any sense. And then sit down and think about the central conflict in the novel. Because there has to be conflict and resolution in a book.  Once this is clear in your head, you can start planning everything, right from character names, their jobs, their lives and their stories.

Sometimes, you can even write down briefly what’s going to happen in each chapter. Just the gist so you know where the story’s heading. But the best part is that you don’t have to stick to this plan. Give yourself the freedom to change things around wherever you want but try and maintain the original structure you had in mind.

God, I hope I haven’t come off sounding like an obnoxious know-it-all type. I haven’t? Good. Oh, I have? Well, I do have four books behind me, so that’s bound to rub off somewhere, right?

But the second time was relatively easier. With Blinkers Off, I found a publisher in around 5 months as opposed to the 4 years I spent fruitlessly waiting to get published with Kite Strings. Things moved quickly and soon we started editing and proofing and voila, Blinkers Off is out there in the market (not all the bookstores as yet, unfortunately).

However, plenty of people have already picked it up online and have messaged me on FB or Twitter telling me that they have bought my book which makes me feel so happy. I was nervous before the first feedback started pouring in, but now I’m okay. I mean, Blinkers Off is not the best book I’ve written and I know I’m really capable of much better, but still, it’s an entertaining book and whoever has read it has really, really liked it so far! Has to mean something, right?

So, public feedback is pretty much out of the way now. It’s the launch that has started to worry me. A lot.

See, I’ve attended plenty of book launches. I’ve seen nervous authors read out passages from their books, interact shakily with the chief guests and sometimes royally bore the audience. I’d like to think the launch of my first book was not like that. It was pretty formal with Wendy M’am giving her awesome critique of my book – she was my English lecturer back in college, and believe me, getting praised by her still ranks among my topmost favourite moments of my life. Then I got on the podium (I dislike this whole podium business by the way because it reminds me of assembly in school) and spoke a lot of emotional drivel which moved my mom and some others to tears but we quickly wrapped up and it was an enjoyable evening for me and hopefully some of the others.

Now, with Blinkers Off, I don’t want to repeat the same thing. I mean, there’s only so much I can say about accomplishing my dream and telling others to go live their dream right? So, what am I going to talk about? Inside my head, I’m like…help!!! This is so going to become one of those launches where the audience cannot wait to escape (without buying copies of my book) home and the chief guests and I will stare at each other red faced.

See, from what I know, there’s not much that we can actually discuss about the book without giving away too much. There are plot twists and turns in it that I would like the readers to discover on their own. Also, I don’t get it when the author and others on the dais talk about the book (which many have not had the chance to read as yet) endlessly and the audience has no idea what’s going on.

So that leaves me with the question, what can I do at my book launch? You know, to entertain the audience while keeping my book in the frame, without boring them and making them hate my book before they even take a look at it?

Any ideas peeps? (My book launch is scheduled for early September and my book is a young adult novel about a young girl who dreams of becoming a screenplay writer. Err…as if you didn’t know the last part already, I’ve said it that many times to anyone who’s bothered to listen!)

So, any ideas? Please don’t tell me to sing or dance since I asked about entertaining the audience. That is not what I had in mind. Really.

Right, so you might have surmised by now that I read quite a few books that ideally I shouldn’t have because I was not the right age or they were not the right genre for me. So, in that aspect, telling people I have written a Young Adult book immediately limits my audience. Even those who may have wanted to read it might feel a bit wary and reserved because of the whole issue of being ‘seen’ with a  book of a certain category.

Anyhow, so as I was saying, I would like people of all ages to read my book without having that feeling inside that they’re reading a book that was not meant for them. In fact, one of my favourite readers, Uncle OT (whose gender and age are still unknown to us) defeats this very slotting of books into genres because he likes all my books. Even Blinkers Off. I recently sent him My Brother’s Wedding and I hope he will like that too.

Which brings me to my next book My Brother’s Wedding. It wasn’t until I was well onto finishing it that I realized, three out of my four books have weddings in them. In fact, the weddings play important roles in shaping the stories. Or in the case of my last book, they are the story.

It got me thinking a bit. Why the heck am I so obsessed with weddings? I don’t know. Maybe because there’s not much in way of a social life for us, that weddings are the only place where we dress up and meet relatives and have fun. (yeah right) But there’s so much dynamism around a wedding, especially an Indian one that it would be a shame to not write about it. And so I did.

And that my friends, is how years later I will be credited with having created the Wedding Genre. No really.

I feel a bit like him, waiting and waiting and waiting for what seems like ages to see my book in print. Okay, what is my problem? Blinkers Off is getting published at lightning speed compared to Kite Strings or even to books by my friends which have been accepted elsewhere. Compared to all these, my publishers are super fast indeed. So I should be happy.

Instead I’m getting bored. I’m waiting for things to happen and it feels like I’ve been waiting too long already. Whew. I need lessons in patience. The next best thing to do while waiting is to write something else.

So, I’ve restarted work on my book More than Just Biryani. However, it’s in a completely new avatar now. It’s not a cookbook. It’s a food book which I think means that food plays an important role in shaping the lives of the protagonists in the book. So far I’ve written 9 chapters and I kind of like how its shaping up. But there’s so much to be done! I mean, I’ve just barely scratched the surface of this book, so that kind of overwhelms me sometimes. But with four books behind me, if there’s one thing I know, it’s that old and overused cliche and nothing is impossible. Really.

Last year, my sister got married and I was very busy with my mother, inviting people, shopping for clothes and other things and one such weekend in November, we were traveling to Chennai and Vellore to invite relatives and family members who lived there.

Close friends and family members know that last year we were in an accident that could have changed our lives horribly forever, but Allah spared us and we escaped with barely a few scratches. Ever since then, I’m not too comfortable traveling on the highway. Also, last year around the time we went for the invitations, we had heard of another family who had met with a horrific accident and everyone in the car had died. So you can imagine how I felt when I had to sit in the front with Mansoor. Every truck that went by looked as though it would topple on us.

To stop all these ghastly images and thoughts from playing havoc with my sanity, I tried to think of something else, and with the wedding on my head, my mind started playing out the scenario of a new story (revolving around a wedding). I was excited but a little dubious. At that time, I was already writing another book (more on that later) and I didn’t know if I could pull this one off. But the idea was so cool and seemed like such fun that I quickly jotted it down in case I forgot about it.

Usually, I prefer to write blind. As in, I often don’t know what’s happening with the story until just before I start typing. Even then, I let my mind take me through all sorts of tangents and twists. But this story was so amazing that I had everything, right till the very last scene in my head.

(If Mansoor had taken his eyes off the road, he might have wondered why I looked like some maniac, scrabbling around for pen and paper or a computer so I could write it immediately)

But I’m also this very boring and straight type of person. I couldn’t leave that other story midway right? So I came back to Bangalore, wrote two chapters of the new book, just to make it real in my head so I wouldn’t forget it, and then went back to the other book.

And finished it. In January this year. And then I gave myself a gap of barely a month before I started writing this new book. And finished it in less than two months. And just yesterday, I heard from my publishers. My Brother’s Wedding has been accepted at Rupa. Yay me!

I looked at the PDF and for maybe half a second I wished I was not accessible by email. But that half second passed, I rolled up my sleeves and sat down and worked. Yes, worked, on my vacation. Because that’s the kind of workaholic (read idiot) I am. If I have work sitting before me, I cannot do anything else, least of all have fun. And a vacation for someone like me (with two brats) does not imply that I’m sitting on a lounger somewhere sipping on chilled mocktails. It’s work of a different kind altogether.

But you’re not reading this post to hear how I fared during my vacation, whether I finished editing my third set of proofs, whether we went to Disneyland or not or how much I prayed that our plane wouldn’t crash on the way back with lightning bolts played hide n seek with it for nearly fifteen minutes. You’re reading this to find out how you can get readers for your book especially if you’re an unknown author. Right?

In my last post, I mentioned that it was the name that attracted a random reader towards your book. But it’s just one part of the whole package. The next thing that you might want to take care of if you’re getting your book ready is the cover of your book.

Yes, that old adage – Do not judge a book by its cover – is a bit obsolete now because people do judge a book by its cover. Once again, this rule doesn’t really apply if you’re J K Rowling, Martha Grimes or Jodi Piccoult. They can get away with any disgusting cover because their name is more than enough.

So, for ordinary writers like you and me, the cover is quite important. If you’ve signed a contract with a publishing house, you may or may not get to provide your input for the cover. Or even if you do provide input, it may not be accepted finally. Which is pretty sad because the cover is literally the face of your book. It’s your baby. But imagine someone else painting a face on it? Makes you upset right?

So far I’ve been lucky to have a dear friend design my book covers for me. And his covers have been liked by the publishers as well. However, this may not work out for everyone and you may have to rely on the in house designers to come up with a face for your baby. It’s good to be prepared for that eventuality nevertheless and here’s what you can do to make sure you have all your inputs ready before the designers start working.

• Clarity is important. What is the book about? Do you want to represent it literally (a common enough choice) or do you want to make some sort of symbolic statement?
• What are the main elements of the book? Could those be represented on the cover? Would that whet the appetite of would be readers and make them wonder what the book is about?
• Sometimes an extremely abstract idea might work but be ready to explain it to an interested reader if they get hold of you.
• Do you want the cover to have an illustration or a photo or sketch? Your inputs may not be accepted but it’s good to show the publishers that you have given plenty of thought to it.

Most people don’t give too much importance to covers. While others give a little too much importance. I like to maintain a certain balance. While the cover might attract the reader to my book, once they’ve opened it, the content should keep them hooked. At least that’s what I like to think.

Let me go back and explain it again. I’m right now in Hong Kong on vacation with my family. And coming back to Hong Kong brings back vivid memories of my childhood when I used to come here with my parents during summer vacations.

I came here last in 1997 when I got married and I felt the instant disconnect at being in the same place as my parents, especially my father, had been and not having them around. I felt so overwhelmed and saddened for some reason that I cried for almost a whole day, pissing off my husband in the process and making everyone else uncomfortable.

Then slowly things started getting better and I enjoyed my stay there although I couldn’t help comparing how things had been a few years before when I had been there and how they were then.

Now, it’s been 14 years since I came to Hong Kong last and I thankfully didn’t have that embarrassing episode of crying or nostalgia. Hong Kong is again a new place to me, new territory to explore and learn.

It could be because we are no longer staying at the same apartment as we were the last time. It could also be because I have kids of my own and I’m watching them take in Hong Kong for the first time. Anyhow, it’s different and I’m glad of it. Nostalgia can be an uncomfortable feeling at times as it can bog you down and not let you enjoy the present.

So, here I am. Sitting in Hong Kong with kids all around, looking out of the balcony at all the high rises and feeling amazed at this wonderful city. Will be writing more about it later, hopefully in my next book, but until then, here’s a little tidbit.

My bro, Jun, lives here in Hong Kong and he had come over here yesterday (we’re staying in another place) and we had all gone to the beach. On the way, I was sitting next to him on the bus and we were discussing Hong Kong and he was telling me about James Clavell’s Noble House (a big fat book he has and I can’t bring myself to read yet) that this woman tells the hero in it that there’s a peculiar smell in Hong Kong (it hits her when she enters Hong Kong first). And he tells her wryly that ”it’s the smell of money”. I was like, err…I wrote it down in my notebook too…that Hong Kong indeed has a peculiar smell (could be all the odd cooking smells, the fishy smells..or whatever.,…there’s something unique about the smell of Hong Kong) and I was dang it! Someone else always gets the best lines before me.

So getting back to the topic, I’ve come to a conclusion that there are around three things that attract a potential reader to your book. This is while the book and the reader are in the bookstore and they haven’t really heard of you before. In today’s day and age with social networking at your fingertips, if you’re getting a book published, you have to do the virtual equivalent of shouting out from the rooftops. Even then, there are probably hundreds of people who have never heard of you. And if they have heard of you, why would they want to buy your book? Especially since every other person these days has penned a book, so what is it that sets your book apart from all those others?

Three things.

The first thing that catches the attention is the name. Are you the kind of person who has a name in mind before writing a book? Well, good for you then. Usually for me, I finish writing the book, let it ferment in my head a little bit before thinking of a suitable name.  At the end of it, I’m still no closer to finding the perfect name and I usually start harassing my friends who have read my book to help me choose a name. And even then I’m usually not satisfied with the options they come up with. If you haven’t named your book yet, then here are a few pointers that you could use. They’ve come in handy for me too.

-        Choose a name that is not very long. Long names are hard to remember and given the short attention span of someone browsing in a bookstore, they’re most likely to skip your title if they don’t get it in less than ten seconds. Of course, this is not always true. Case in point – The curious incident of the dog in the night time and many other bestselling titles. (Uh, I also realised that the title of this post is absurdly long. He he!)

-        Go for catchy names, not tacky. You know what I mean. You’ve seen those already in the bookstores and you know how much you want to run away in the opposite direction, right?

-        Drive home a connection. If you’re naming the book after writing the novel, then chances are that you’ll be able to do this better. Otherwise, when you’re writing a book with a name in mind, you’re going to have to turn the book around to suit the name. Not a problem, but I feel it’s better to name a book after it’s written.  Especially if you want to drive that connection.

Choose the title of your book with care and be prepared to explain the connection to the book if you’re asked. This really is the tricky part and I suck at it. So once you’ve got the name ready, keep a one line synopsis also in mind, so that you can reel it out at the appropriate moment. Instead of doing what I usually did whenever someone asked me about Kite Strings. I usually said that it was the story of a girl.

If you were browsing at a bookstore and came across many titles that each looked like the other, no doubt your eyes will stray to the one that really stands out. Sometimes, you might pick it up, turn it over, read the blurb and if it further pulls you in, you might even buy it. But if the cover hadn’t attracted your attention, chances are that you might have moved on to another book.

Some years back I had bought a book just because the cover stood out and it was one of those lucky chances that the book turned out to be simply amazing. It was a book called Madras on Rainy Days by Samina Ali and I enjoyed reading it, although it saddened me immensely too. It was that kind of a book.

The cover judgment doesn’t hold true for well known and established writers because their books get picked up anyway – I mean, who even bothers with seeing the cover, right? Think Harry Potter, and I don’t quite care for the illustrations on the cover with Harry and Ron and Hermione tackling a dragon. That’s so not what the book was about, right?

Right?

Yeah. Unless it’s James Hadley Chase or Ian Fleming, whose covers you might want to cover up with newspaper before reading, (because of all the semi-naked girls on it), I’ve actually never really given much thought to a cover.

But for us newbies, we need to get as many readers as we can and the only way we can do that is by having a kickass cover that really stands out on the bookshelf. When Kite Strings was getting ready, I came across a few covers from the publisher’s end that didn’t please me too much. They were taking the concept of the kite too literally and had splashed the cover with pictures of kids flying kites or a kite shop which were not very exciting. Thankfully for me, my friend Nusrat stepped in and designed an amazing cover which encapsulated what the book was about. The story of a young girl growing up.

For Blinkers Off, we tried doing something similar and I really like what he’s done with it. However, we’re still waiting for approval from the publishers and I hope they come through. I’d been deliberating about writing this post ever since the whole cover design thing started for Blinkers Off but I kept putting it off because I wanted the cover to be finalized before I wrote this. As of now, the cover is still not yet final but I might hear word today. So I’ll keep you guys posted.