corvus-the-crow

[corvus-the-crow]

On Indian writing in English - Pure Gossip turned 1 today!

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Post #29

I found the Amaryllis trailer of The Emperor's Riddles very interesting. First, because Amaryllis is publishing something like a Dan Brown clone. Second, because it's by a new writer called Satyarth Nayak. Third, because the trailer is also presented by Best Ink Literary Agency. Having bagged Amaryllis, the agency is something to look out for. And yes, the trailer is good. It's good. 

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Post #28

Met a middle-aged, ample-sized woman author with bags under her eyes and an amused I've-measured-you-up look. I've started on her book, which seems to have propelled off by a good start. But talk of the woman, she is really something. What's your age, I ask. Forty-six, says she. And her bio gives her year of birth as 1962. Five years shaved off because she probably thinks journalists don't do any research. Ha! Good writer and nice person ain't expected to coincide, but this one was indeed a bit of a shock. 

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Post #27

Sorry, I've been away. Well, I can't be too profound in my postings, but I sure can dish out glib one-liners. For starters, I just came across this book called Aghori series by Vivek Goel. I gather that it's a 4-volume comic series in the fantasy genre and has great artwork. I also notice that Volume 1 has good ratings on Goodreads. Bravo then, Messrs Holy Cow Entertainment. 

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Post #26

Stumbled upon something very interesting today - a book called The Dead Don't Confess by Monabi Mitra. All right - first things first, it's a detective novel set in Kolkata (or is it Calcutta? not sure what Monabi has used). Two, it has a Bengali detective, Inspector Bikram, as protagonist. Three, she is writing a whole new Inspector Bikram series set in Kolkata, and has been published by Penguin Metro Reads and priced at Rs 199 each. Her other title in the series is F.I.R., a preview of which is available on Google Books. I tried it out and it seems interesting :)

Now, who's Monabi Mitra? Her name sounds a bit strange, even by Bengali standards - a familiar-sounding Manobi would have been more like it, I thought, but no - Monabi's the correct spelling. She has a Loreto-Presidency-JU background (wow!), and is professor of English at Scottish Church College, Calcutta, lecturing on 19th century literature. More interesting to note that she's married to a senior IPS officer and is keenly interested and well-learned in authentic police procedurals. Wow, I love that part. We don't have a decent CSI or NCIS anywhere on the Indian literary horizon, and we have to start somewhere, no? Am dying to try her out!    

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Post #25

Rajesh Talwar's Courting Injustice - a blow-by-blow account of the Nirbhaya case and its aftermath. Blink, blink - what was that? Am I seeing things? I thought Rajesh Talwar was the late Aarushi's dad talking about the Aarushi murder case. Naw, naw - I am mistaken. It's his namesake, indeed, writing about the Nirbhaya case. Duly published by Penguin India. 

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Post #24

Just noticed how Jaico Books has just joined the Indian English pop fiction bandwagon. Saw a very interesting title called "Aisle be Damned", which is supposed to be a humourous take on Indian air travel. Interesting looking cover with blurbs from the likes of Cyrus Broacha. I'd call it a book to look out for.  They're also bringing out a title called "The Cosmic Clues" which is touted to be India's first "astro-detective story", whatever that means. Well, actually, I can guess what that means. They're launching it in Mumbai with Ashok Banker as chief guest. Check it out. 

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Post #23

The FB page of Faraaz Kazi's new horror story anthology, The Other Side, boasts of 20k+ likes and the video trailer has received 60k+ hits. Whether these numbers metamorphose into sales figures is a different question altogether, waiting to be answered. Conversion rates are yet to be seen. Wait and watch. 

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Post #22

Beat adult attention deficit disorder with Grapevine! Beat it, beat it! No, Grapevine hasn't hired me to publicise them. It's just that they're moving quickly into the short fiction genre in keeping with market trends worldwide. I'm referring to 25 Strokes of Kindness compiled by Nikita Singh & Orvana Ghai that's due for release on Oct 23. The compilation contains stories mostly from writers of the Grapevine stable - Shomprakash, Sachin Garg etc. And one from Preeti Shenoy too. Carry on Grapevine, you who go by proven market adages only. 

[corvus-the-crow]

Post #21

Anuja Chauhan's Those Pricey Thakur Girls goes for a fifth imprint, leaving HC happy. Well, as a legendary advertising honcho, she sure knows the mind of the readers and can touch them to ignite. Or maybe she knows what women want. Her third success after The Zoya Factor and The Battle for Bittora. Another romance, of course. 

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Post #20

All right, now am back after a hiatus. Was roosting in my nest - well, crows roost too, didn't you know?

All right, Grapevine is back with the third volume of the Backbencher series - The Backbenchers : 3 Days of Summer - "ghostwritten" by Shomprakash Sinha Roy - he's part of the syndication of course. And you know what I mean - refer to the syndication model I've explained in my earlier posts.  Talking about Shomprakash, I did notice a few months ago the release of his volume called The Pink Smoke - it had a unique title, a remarkable cover design and some good promo stuff on its FB page. But despite Grapevine's immense - I repeat, immense - capabilities for distribution it tanked. I believe it did. Didn't hear anyone speak about it anywhere. Pink tanked :) 

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Hi C, You haven't updated your blog since May. Hope all well. TC. Vibha

Vibha, I am fine, thanks for being such a loyal follower of a black, cawing crow. Life has kept me busy, and besides, ain’t getting any gossipy mean stuff to write about, lately. Thanks :)

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Hi Corvus,

Hope you are doing great. Just wanted to share that my second novel Seventeen and Done, (sequel to Sweet Sixteen, Yeah Right!) is now out. If you happen to chance upon it, would love to hear what you think. Crossing my fingers, holding my breath. 

Vibha 

Corvus responds to Vibha Batra:

Hey Vibha,  Will pick it up if I come across the same. I guess this is the Inked imprint from Penguin, isn't it? Good luck Vibha :)

Happy caws,

Corvus

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Post #19

I am happy-sad, happy-sad, happy-happy-sad. Happy to notice that a niche business newspaper like Mint recognises boomtime in the publication of Indian English fiction and chooses to float a short story section. Here it is   http://www.livemint.com/Search/Link/Keyword/Short%20Stories   But it's weird to note that a single person, Ms Kuzhali Manickavel is manning the whole section - I mean running the section by publishing stories all written by herself. She calls it "A monthly column of new, original short fictions" (sic). And there's a line at the end of each story that urges the crowds to send ideas. So what does Ms K do with the ideas? Does she do to the ideas what Shakespeare did to Marlowe? God only knows!

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Came across this while trawling the net at focut.blogspot.in. Ritu Lalit is a somewhat successful writer in the fantasy genre in India - at least people know about her and her work. A relatively new entrant to the field is Clark Prasad, who released his e-book on Amazon around July last year, much before Ritu Lalit's Chakra hit the markets sometime in March 2013. I do understand that the author can't be blamed for this straight lift of the cover design, but then this raises the more practical question of the perils of social media marketing of books before their actual release. Clark Prasad did market his book aggressively before the release, touting his book cover widely. While this pre-emptive marketing exercise is a sine qua non for the commercial success of a book, it also entails plagiarism of concepts, in text and image formats. What to do? What to do? 

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Post #18

Guess who burnt his hands trying to write a movie script? C-Bag, who else. (To those uninitiated to Corvus-speak, I mean Chetan Bhagat). Instead of the old book-into-movie formula that has always worked for him, great man C-Bag tried his hand at the movie script for Salman Khan's Kick, and the stuff gets summarily spiked thereof. See here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Salman-Khan-rejects-Chetan-Bhagats-script/articleshow/18965076.cms  Be that as it may, I would still wait for C-Bag's next. I'll never lose my immense regard for the master-marketmind. 

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Post #17

Baby you can drive my car, yes I'm gonna be a star, says James Patterson while making a soft landing in India. No, Corvus hasn't got The Beatles all messed up. It's just that an upbeat books market has turned James Patterson's Alex Cross, Run into a moving poster painted on Meru Cabs. Oh yeah, is it that popular, I mean - books? The ultimate commoditisation, and I say "Yay!"