Let's just hope that sanity prevails!

No matter what kind of a reader you are - disclaimers like Please don't read this or my intention is not to hurt others definitely has an effect on your psyche.The same way I started reading Kavi's post with a smile. @Kavi- I am sure your message is conveyed loud and clear, to whomsoever intended.

I have always had very strong views on the vanity publishing avenues. But I chose not to write it out because knew that might end up hurting someone or kill the spirit of writing in them and it is too early to judge a market which is just evolving. I tried anonymously subscribing to these platforms as an aspiring writer to understand the dynamics....but Kavi! you seem to have seen it in and out....most of what you have written is news to me and am sure it pretty much sums up the vanity publishing industry. But the post seems to sum up everything. I thought a little insight on how the traditional publishing industry works will interest the audience. I’ll take the same cowshed analogy and explain the regional publishing scenario and later point out how it differs from the functioning of English publishing houses.

My earliest remembrance of being a part of publishing household is when my grandpa used to conduct his Sunday drills of godown inspection. Any new member, guest will become a part of the ritual if they happened to be there on a Sunday. The atmosphere would be nothing short of a urine scented cowshed. You have to periodically check for infestations by rodents and pests. For a traditional publisher like him, there is no concept of treating a bestseller differently from a non-grosser. Every copy of a printed book deserves the same attention as long as it is in the warehouse. I have never seen him use terms like dead stock or return on investment. He never let the sales dictate his conviction about his chosen genre or the ability of the author. I remember him saying how Jayakanthan used to bring his write ups for a review or feedback. Writing a book that sells well is no one night wonder. If a person’s words could change the way people think, he was worth publishing. It takes the time to challenge the archetype and draw enough eyeballs. But he kept publishing one book after the other of fledgling writers driven by his gut feel that they will make it big one day. The selection process was simple. Even today if you give him anything to read, be it a handwritten stuff or a printed book it's almost reflex action that he picks his pencil and starts proofreading. If it engages him, he’ll put the pencil down for a while which means he has started to trust you with the letters and has started to read as words. Suddenly he starts reading it out fast and again slowly. He picks his pencil again and underlines a sentence or a phrase. There can be two reasons- either he is going to check it out later for factual correctness or he is going to highlight it for the reader. If he still continues reading it means you can be rest assured that he will see to that your book goes on print what may come.

When he was just into his teens, he started working in a reputed Srilankan newspaper as a compositor in order to fund his school fee. Post independence he gave up his education and came to India since he felt offended by the rhetoric of his headmaster on Gandhiji's death. He joined Inbanilayam- one of the renowned Tamil publishers in the 50s. Now he could proofread, compose the lead block, run the treadle. The sheer pleasure of getting to read manuscripts of great visionaries firsthand meant more to him than the paltry sum he got as salary. Soon he learnt to take running notes when people like Annadurai or Ma.Po.si in shorthand and later construct sentences out of it without deviating from what was intended. When he got married he wanted a raise in salary. His boss assigned him the responsibility of gathering subscriptions for the lending library he had started and agreed to pay commission based on the volumes of subscription. He doubled up dutifully. At one point the boss handed over the reins of the library to him as a token of appreciation. Easwari lending library had one branch then. As he managed to scale it and when he was sure time was ripe for him to start his own publishing house my grandad sold the lending library and started Poongodi Pathippagam. Eminent authors like Lakshmi and Ma.Po.Si chose to publish their books with him.

As the eldest of all, my father as a 13-year-old started supporting my grandad in publishing. He has done everything from letterpress, screen printing, sales, marketing and distribution, proofreading and editing and went on to start his own publishing company when he was 40. A couple of my uncles replaced my dad and went on to start their own publishing houses as well. Everyone has their own USPs and they are successful in their own ways despite being from the same breeding ground. The second generation was comparatively more adept at technology and carved a niche for themselves as far as the genres are concerned.

When I expressed interest in taking up publishing as a full-time profession quitting IT my dad offered me a mock project. I had to write a book and do all that it takes to get it self- published. I funded it completely and burnt my fingers enough that I don't dare to publish my own work again. Though never aspired to become a writer I enjoyed the process.I know I m not frequent enough to call myself a blogger or consistent enough to call myself an author. To me, writing is just an occupational hazard. As a third generation publisher, my role now is to diversify and explore newer avenues, analyse upcoming trends and earn my own identity. I’ll be a cut above the rest as long as I don't repeat the mistakes my grandpa or dad did. And if I intend to have a global presence I have to showcase our best of regional language to the international audience in their preferred language and I have started orienting myself in that direction and believe I will make it in the long run.

English publishing scenario is like cooperative farming or dairying. People with a shared vision come together as a board of directors, editors and copywriters and churn out books on a large scale. It can afford to bombard you with information in all mediums possible and bear the brunt of being early adopters of technology and take the first whip of the proliferated online sales and digitisation. But slowly it will have its repercussions in the regional publishing scenario as well. In order to survive we have to understand the unit economy well and work out a business model that leverages our chances of moving up the value chain. For that, a book like milk as the raw material I have to scale up producing different products like how a dairy industry makes yoghurt, cheese, curd, ice creams, milkshakes, butter etc out of milk. E-books, apps, videos, audio, graphic-aided content all must happen parallel to the production of physical books.

I recently got a self-publishing proposal from an 80-year-old. Actually, his son wanted to compile his short stories as a book and present it to the guests on his 80th birth anniversary. He said his father started writing when he was in his teens and stopped writing when he was in his 60 s. Each of his short stories was published in literary magazines like Kanaiyazhi, Manikkodi, Gnanaradham, Sudesimithran, Sadhangai, Theebam and Virutcham at various points of time and he treasured the paper cuttings all these years. His son thought it’ll be a fitting tribute to his father if he compiles them into a book and offered to self-publish. I read a few stories and was taken aback by the girth of the plots and his unique writing flow. This man was way ahead of his times and can give any contemporary writer a tough fight I thought. I went to his place and expressed interest in publishing it myself since I was sure if I pitched it properly the book will do fairly well and we offered to give a signing royalty advance as a small gift for his birthday. The son took us to his dad and broke the news. I’ll never forget till my last breath the humility with which the oldest young man I have ever seen accepted the offer. The conversation went like this

" Sir I am really honoured by your proposal. Thanks for publishing my short stories. In fact, this is my first income out of writing"

"The pleasure is all mine! Sir, I m just the age of your grandson. I am glad that I got a chance to read your stories and am sure the audience of my generation will definitely benefit from the wealth of your experience"

"It's not your age young man, it's the role you are playing that commands respect. My articles got published along with Kalki, Chandilyan, Jayakanthan and Sujatha in several magazines infrequently. In my late forties, I took my stories to a renowned publisher. He turned it down diplomatically - 'if I have to publish 1000 copies of your books (print on demand was not in vogue then) 16 trees are cut to get them printed. If your conscience says it’s worth doing it then plant 16 trees and come to me' he said. It irked me. That is when I started reading voraciously and my best short stories were the ones I wrote in my late 50s. But I never sent them to magazines or approached a publisher thereafter. I just kept writing till 60 for the joy of writing. I still have a couple of plots in mind and I will write them if you intend to add them. My conscience is clear now. The publisher who gave me that friendly advice is no more. But we have planted close to 100 trees across the city. My children and grandchildren will continue to plant more trees. I think it's my karma that brought you here. So once again I thank you Sir"

A silent tear trickled down his son’s cheeks ash he was standing beside.

In the traditional publishing model, the publisher assumes the risk of publication and production costs, selects the works to be published, edits the author's text, and provides for marketing and distribution, provides the ISBN, and satisfies whatever legal deposit and copyright registration formalities are required. Such a publisher normally pays the author a fee, called an advance, for the right to publish the author's work; and further payments called royalties, based on the sales of the work. This led to James D. Macdonald's famous dictum; "Money should always flow toward the author"[5] (sometimes called Yog's Law).



Self-publishers undertake the functions of a publisher for their own books. Some "self-publishers" write, edit, design, layout, market, and promote their books themselves, relying on a printer only for actual printing and binding. Others write the manuscript themselves but hire freelance professionals to provide editing and production services.


More recently, companies have offered their services to act as a sort of agent between the writer and a small printing operation.

In a variant of Yog's law for self-publishing, author John Scalzi has proposed this alternate, to distinguish self-publishing from vanity publishing, "While in the process of self-publishing, money and rights are controlled by the writer."[6] Self-publish is distinguished from vanity publishing by the writer maintaining control of copyright as well as the editorial and publishing process, including marketing and distribution. (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

I am closely following self-publishing or crowdfunded endeavours like Harper Collins Authonomy, Westland’s Bloody Good Book, Amazon’s Kindle scout where book lovers are circulated free copies of the eBook and they get published as physical books once they reach a certain number of clicks or page views and reviews. We have all seen how Rowling or any successful author for that matter made best sellers out of their second or third book and the previous books started picking up sales after that. We saw how E.L James 50 shades of Grey entered the traditional publishing taking the exact reverse of the conventional route. When people who have done so much and harboured all the pains of getting a book published chose to stay low-key it really amuses me when people get their first copies printed with a best seller tag with the help of vanity publishing. And going by the same cowshed analogy, the way vanity publishing works seems to be like the milk powder fed vending machines dispensing coffees and claim that the taste is better than filter coffee. Whenever I come across such gimmick online I just can't help but exclaim 'Holy Cow!'

P.S: I would say that Indian English non- fiction is much better than regional publishing. As far as fiction is concerned it's quite the opposite.There are so many writers in regional languages whose works of fiction if properly translated in foreign languages will create enough noise worldwide. It is still an unknown territory and we are studying it.

My sincere request to those who want to get your book published the traditional way. Please make sure you pitch the right publisher whose USP matches with the genre in which you are going to publish.


A successful book will encourage a publisher to groom a few more writers in that genre. But one flop eats up all the profit that 5 successful books make. So, most of the traditional publishers tend to be stingy because the cash flow gets stifled with delays in payment from retailers. All the creditors don’t entertain a credit period over a week. Unless you are funded by the Tatas and Birlas it will never get that corporate outlook. Many publishers chose not to take funding from sources that would have a say in what is supposed to be printed and calculate the revenue\per square metre of a bookshelf.

A book sometimes is a costly visiting card that you can afford to get printed at a vanity publishing house. But please bear in mind the quality of the content is directly related to the identity of a traditional or self-publishing house and the monetary aspect is the only motivating factor for a publisher to spot more new talents.

As long as sanity prevails Vanity can peacefully coexist with Traditional and Self-Publishing platforms!