Thus, here is my first published book

Books 2 Minutes

My first published book was supposed to be a book of poetry to celebrate the labours of love of an unsung poet who has been writing poetry off and on for the last three decades. Being a professional procrastinator I had also set a deadline for the completion and the publication of the book.

My first task was to trace out all the poems that I remembered to have written. Beginning from my blog to a number of long forgotten anthologies and magazines. Some poems really surprised me and I gave myself a pat in the back wondering at the same time as to whether I was really the one who wrote those poems, while for some others I wondered why I wrote those poems at all. In majority of the cases the poet and critic in me ‘now’ did not agree with the poet in me ‘then’. Finally the number of poems that passed my quality test fell far short of the numbers required.

There was another consideration though.   When I confided my plan to publish a book of poems to a few trusted ones, their reaction was:  it is OK. But, now a days who buys and reads a book of poetry. There may be a tingling of truth in what they said. Every time I visit famous book stores in the city I struggle to locate the poetry section. After I locate it The few books in the section are either translation of Hindi film songs or anthology of well Known poems that are available in free domain. The works of poets (other than the filmy variety) who are alive and kicking somehow never make it to the standard book stores.

Then I remembered once I had sent a manuscript to a couple of publishing houses. One reputed publishing company had shown interest in the book. Even they wanted me to make certain changes in the manuscript. I carried out those changes and resent the manuscript. They did not reply for a long time. After being reminded their reply as I interpret was something like this:

“Your book is Ok. But as you are a first time author and not widely well known we are a bit worried about its commercial potential.”

It also means that in India, if you are an already well known person or some kind of a celebrity whatever trash you may write will be take up for publication. Hence, in spite of finding some merit in my writing the publishers were worried about its sell potential.

Another alternate was to again approach some new traditional publishers. But, as I have already said in the first paragraph I had set myself a deadline for publication of my first book. Hence, I decided to publish it as an e-book on kindle using the Kindle Direct Publishing Platform.

The book is a work of non-fiction and meant for leisurely read to provide entertainment as well as insight into many personal and social issues. It also includes a few articles (after a lot of re-work) that appeared first on this blog, while some are written exclusively for this book. While some articles are thoroughly humorous, others too have a shade or two. Even though meant for leisurely read, the discerning reader will find glimpses into the nature of reality.

The book is available on Amazon.   Kindle unlimited subscribers can download for free. Please provide your valuable feedback on Amazon and Goodreads.

Published by Durga Prasad Dash

Published

37 thoughts on “Thus, here is my first published book”

  1. Congratulations ! And great going to take the initiate and publish it through your own means. In India, I really have no idea how such random people get published while some jewels get missed out.

    Wish you every success!

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  4. “It also means . . . sell potential.” I just agree with every word written in this paragraph. And this holds true in every field, not just literature.

    I would like a big party when your book becomes a bestseller 🙂 Hope that day comes soon, very soon 🙂

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  6. I am glad you decided to be more than a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the blog, And then is heard no more.* Here is wishing you shiploads of readers!

    *With apologies to William Shakespeare.

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  17. it is good that you chose to share your memories and experiences in the maiden book as this is your forte and there is a naturally flow to it. Congratulations and best wishes for the book DP!

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  20. Pingback: teach me to dream – an anthology of my poems – One Life is not Enough

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